Unsocial Platy

[aussiefish]

G'day

I have 2 female and 3 male Sunset Platys.

I bought the 1st 2 males together. They appeared to be pretty happy together, then i bought another one a week later. I was told it was female but in fact is male. Since I've had the 3rd fish the 2 orignal fish have totally separated and the new fish and one of the old ones are almost bullying the other orignal fish, chasing it around the tank until its out of sight.

It's extremely strange, the bullied fish has been totally unsocialble hiding behind the heater and inside ornaments etc. Even when i feed them he appears to quickly get as much as he can before the others come and get rid of him.

I thought I could solve the problem by getting 2 females. Although this hasn't made the situation intensly worse, I'm finding that all 4 fish are together all the time, and the bullied one hides and has now starting hiding inside the air pump and always stays close to the top of the water.

I dont know what to do and am afraid he'll die from stress.

Apologies for the long drawn out problem but I hope someone can help!

Thanks

 

[babe]

hey, dow do you tell if a sunset platy is a female or male?

 

[5teady_2012]

you need 2-3 females for every male, this will cut down stress and minimze harrasment by the males...

This should solve the problem

hey, dow do you tell if a sunset platy is a female or male?

Males have a gonopodium on livebearers.. (note the pointed anal fin - this rod like fin is what is used to pregnate the female)

On this female, u can see she has a very nice fanned anal fin rather then a gonopodium

 

[aussiefish]

Thanks for the advice I do remember reading about that, my only problem with getting more fish is that my tank isn't that big its only 35 x 21 x 26 deep. Sometimes I feel that 5 fish is even too much, however when I've asked people from the aquarium they say that 5 is fine in my size tank.

I really dont know what to do. Do you think that perhaps 1 more female would be helpful enough or would this just continue to overcrowd the tank?

Thanks for the help.

 

[5teady_2012]

35cm?

you should really only have 3 or 4 max in it, 1 male and 2-3 females, thats it.