Separating Male and Female Platys

[Sweetflups]

I have had a male and female platy for a few months, and in that time, they've produced a good chunk of fry. I'm considering separating my male and giving him to a friend along side some of the male fry once they are bigger and keeping my female with some female fry. My concern here is quality of life. I've noticed when my male isn't wall surfing (a behavior I'm not quite sure why he does, as he has ten gallons of room, but he does it enough that this is a reoccurring issue), he's closely following my female, more than occasionally making a quick, jabbing motion at her, and chasing her when she swims away. This usually only ends when she hides in the cave, which he usually does not enter. I know this behavior slightly aggressive, but I also worry if separating them will hurt them emotionally, They've been paired by themselves for about four and a half months, and I don't want to separate them if it causes extreme emotional destress. I suppose I'm looking for advice: What's the best way to separate my two adults, if I should at all, and if moving them to house with fry once they are big enough is a reasonable plan. If anyone has a good age to do this at, I would greatly appreciate that as well. Thank you for your time!

 

[Colin_T]

Livebearers do best in single sex tanks (all males or all females). The male chasing the female is trying to breed with her and she is getting upset and hiding.

Glass surfing (where the fish swims back and forth across the glass) is caused by boredom. Fish don't naturally occur in 10 gallon tanks. They come from rivers that are kilometers long, not 18 inches long.

I would get rid of all of the males and just keep a group of 6-10 females.

If you want to breed them, borrow a male and put him with the females for a week, then get rid of him.

 

[carligraceee]

I have had a male and female platy for a few months, and in that time, they've produced a good chunk of fry. I'm considering separating my male and giving him to a friend along side some of the male fry once they are bigger and keeping my female with some female fry. My concern here is quality of life. I've noticed when my male isn't wall surfing (a behavior I'm not quite sure why he does, as he has ten gallons of room, but he does it enough that this is a reoccurring issue), he's closely following my female, more than occasionally making a quick, jabbing motion at her, and chasing her when she swims away. This usually only ends when she hides in the cave, which he usually does not enter. I know this behavior slightly aggressive, but I also worry if separating them will hurt them emotionally, They've been paired by themselves for about four and a half months, and I don't want to separate them if it causes extreme emotional destress. I suppose I'm looking for advice: What's the best way to separate my two adults, if I should at all, and if moving them to house with fry once they are big enough is a reasonable plan. If anyone has a good age to do this at, I would greatly appreciate that as well. Thank you for your time!

I actually had a similar issue. I made the hard decision to get rid of the male. My girly is thriving and I even got her several female friends.

My tank ratio isn't correct to the tee but it works well as of now and my fish are very bonded with each other.

I have two female mollies and one female platy.
I also have two male mollies (one of the mollies used to be a male platy).

I got rid of the male platy because he had the same behavior as your male platy, I bought another male but got a male molly instead.
My female platy is now able to rest and she even swims alongside one of my larger female mollies.

My rec: Get rid of the aggressive male, grab maybe two more females and if you want, you can replace the male. That would be a correct female to male ratio. Three to one. But you don't have to! Like the person above me said, livebearers tend to do better in single-sex tanks. But that is up to you since my males and girls are doing fine now that I removed the aggressive man.

I also have two baby fry from the platys awhile back!

 

[emeraldking]

Wether you have a sex mixed tank or a single sex tank, it's always a question how some specimens will behave. What "can" happen in a single sex tank is that submissive males or females will be chased by those that will develop as being alpha specimens. I've written explicite "can" between brackets, for it doesn't happens in each single sex tank. For dominance "can" occur from time to time.
This dominance thing can also happen in a mixed sex tank, of course.

 

[Sweetflups]

Wether you have a sex mixed tank or a single sex tank, it's always a question how some specimens will behave. What "can" happen in a single sex tank is that submissive males or females will be chased by those that will develop as being alpha specimens. I've written explicite "can" between brackets, for it doesn't happens in each single sex tank. For dominance "can" occur from time to time.
This dominance thing can also happen in a mixed sex tank, of course.

Sorry for such a late reply! I have a bad habit of reading advice and then never replying. (So sorry) Yeah, I've had platy's before, but my male especially had me scratching my head a lot. He's chilled out more since I moved him to a separate tank with some of the fry, but I've never had a livebearer never eat any of their young... I'm on the hunt know to figure out what to do with all these frys I thought he would pick off a little bit, but instead I have about 40-some fish in my house right now. oofta, you know? ?

 

[Sweetflups]

I actually had a similar issue. I made the hard decision to get rid of the male. My girly is thriving and I even got her several female friends.

My tank ratio isn't correct to the tee but it works well as of now and my fish are very bonded with each other.

I have two female mollies and one female platy.
I also have two male mollies (one of the mollies used to be a male platy).

I got rid of the male platy because he had the same behavior as your male platy, I bought another male but got a male molly instead.
My female platy is now able to rest and she even swims alongside one of my larger female mollies.

My rec: Get rid of the aggressive male, grab maybe two more females and if you want, you can replace the male. That would be a correct female to male ratio. Three to one. But you don't have to! Like the person above me said, livebearers tend to do better in single-sex tanks. But that is up to you since my males and girls are doing fine now that I removed the aggressive man.

I also have two baby fry from the platys awhile back!

That's what I'm thinking I'm going to do here- I separated the two in December and know I'm attempting to track down some folks in town her to take him and the babies off my hands. I'm thinking I'll keep a few female fry, but I have to wait another month before they're old enough to sex. I'm still pretty surprised I didn't have any major deaths or eaten fry, so I have my work cut out for me.

Thank you so much for the help!

 

[Sweetflups]

Livebearers do best in single sex tanks (all males or all females). The male chasing the female is trying to breed with her and she is getting upset and hiding.

Glass surfing (where the fish swims back and forth across the glass) is caused by boredom. Fish don't naturally occur in 10 gallon tanks. They come from rivers that are kilometers long, not 18 inches long.

I would get rid of all of the males and just keep a group of 6-10 females.

If you want to breed them, borrow a male and put him with the females for a week, then get rid of him.

Sorry for the late reply!

In December I separated the two, putting my male in a spare 5 gallon I had and leaving the female in my 20 gallon. I haven't had any major deaths/eaten frys, so I'm hoping to keep and few females whence they are old enough to sex and get rid of the rest.

Thank you so much for the advice!

 

[FishGuest5123]

I took all my females to the lfs and kept the males.

 

[emeraldking]

I'm on the hunt know to figure out what to do with all these frys I thought he would pick off a little bit, but instead I have about 40-some fish in my house right now. oofta, you know? ?

Oh, you don't wanna know how many are swimming overhere... ?

 

[ClownLurch]

Cmon EK you must have a rough idea of how many you have in total. Or how many you had after the harvest was brought in?