Unforgiving Fish

[PrairieSunflower]

Are platies a bit more unforgiving (personality wise) than others? My guppies are all so easy going, change something and they are right there investigating.

Yesterday, I added two new platies (taking my total to 4). Today, my two new platies are a touch shy when I look in but after about 10-15 seconds come out of hiding again.

Well... my oldest that has been with me over a month.... STILL hides all but a nose and eye behind a plant the entire time I am looking unless I have just given food!

The one I have had the longest and the two new ones are all the same size which is about half the size of the one that is scared all the time (she is full size).

Normal platy behavior or is she just a gem all of her own making? LOL I swear she hates me!

 

[FishLover4+1]

All my variatus platys hide. I guess they think I'm a scary monster coming to eat them.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

My red wag likes me and comes out to see me. LOL I think my new blue coral will be the same way, seems a lot bolder for a new fish. My mickey mouse, I think will be halfway between friendly and scaredy-platy. LOL

 

[snazy]

Mine are extremely friendly, they'd bunch up to the tank glass if I approach, take bites out of the siphon, would even eat my hands if I let them too. I can't take a picture without all of them gathering in front to check out the camera..
Mine are mostly the kids of the parents I bought. But I've noticed that store bought fish are generally way more skittish than the ones you breed yourself, so were my original ones. Probably something to do with the stress they've been through before you got them maybe? Give them time, they'll learn you are not the enemy.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

My guppies are like that... I always fear one will move quickly and get hurt by my siphon as they never get out of the way.

 

[snazy]

My guppies are like that... I always fear one will move quickly and get hurt by my siphon as they never get out of the way.

That's why I use a sock over the siphon after I've siphoned the substrate very carefully. My livebearers and corys get overexcited and keep bunching around the siphon for some reason each time during a water change.

 

[FishLover4+1]

My fry don't hide from the siphon and its so scary when i'm trying to do a water change. it's quite strange in my tank, the adults hide and the fry don't.

 

[snazy]

My fry don't hide from the siphon and its so scary when i'm trying to do a water change. it's quite strange in my tank, the adults hide and the fry don't.

Yep, not strange at all really. Fry that you raise yourself become adults that literally love you for some reason and tend to greet you all the time. I've experienced this several times. It's the lack of stress...
Imagine if you sell these fry, they'll be carried in plastic bags several times, separated from their siblings and the small world they've become to think is their home, thrown into completely different eniroment, new water conditions which could be drastically different than what they were used to, possibly incompatible tank mates,uncycled tanks with ammonia/nitrIte, some gone through the same process a few times, etc...by the time they reach their final tank as adults they'll hide all the time or at least for a long time and they tend to be less sociable even though they come out of that stressed behaviour once they settle well somewhere. That new owners maybe wondering why their new fish hide too

When I first started breeding fish that's the first thing I noticed, how sociable the fish I raised myself were compared to the parents I bought, and they were all in the same tank in most cases.

 

[cpwebsite]

My fish are quite sociable but I agree with you since my fish do hide more than my platies. However I have a self-made mix of 10+ fish foods (frozen treats + pellets + granules + wafers + flakes ect.), and after I fed them that, every time I open the cabinet (where I keep my food), they all swim to the front which is nice.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

My two new fish are quite sociable, one more than the other.

I have given up on Mrs Grumpy platy... she just doesn't seem to belong in my all platy tank and I have moved her into the tank with guppies and neons and she seems a lot happier there.

And, since I moved that platy out of my platy tank, I was able to move all my fry into the platy tank since the 3 other platies are smaller and quite unlikely to eat my babies. Seems to be working out.