LetDiceFly

I just put 3 platies in a 10 gallon cycled tank. I had my water checked at the shop and they said it looked ok. These are young fish 1 1/2 in. I have 1 male and 1 female that seem to be healthy and happy in their new home but a 2nd female is obviously very stressed. She looked ok at the store but when I was floating the bag on the water (20 min) she was sitting on bottom of bag. Ever since then (little over 1 day) she has kept here fins curled close and the other female is pestering her. There is nothing obviously wrong with her and she is swimming around ok. She eats but not a lot, the other fish are much more aggressive eaters. Quarantine tank is not feasible for me. The only other tank I have has a betta in it. Is there anything I can do for her, to help her get unstressed and healthy. Once before I bought a fish like this and it struggled for while but eventually died. I would rather not see this happen again, please any help would be appreciated.

Neville

hi,
i've kept 12 platies with my angels. as yours is a 10 gallon tank u can add 2 more female platies; this way the stressed female will feel relaxed watching other females of her kind. the bully female will not be able to harass the stressed female as well.

aqua man130

hey mate

i reckon the reason is because the bully female is in competition with the other one over the male so i would advise you to get another male for the stressed one and i agree with neville
but if it continues then move the new male and stressed female to a new tank or vice versa

no probs

aqua

Neville

there is a rule in case of livebearers (guppies, mollies, platies); u have to keep 2 females for 1 male.............

aqua man130

good point but i have tried it before with guppies and it was all peaceful 2 males and 2 females

Neville

yeah, but sometimes males harass the females, if there r more females than males, the males will get confused which female to chase
last month one of my friends mom guppy died after giving birth, he kept 6 males and 8 females, fishlore experts said it happened because males harassed the female immediately after giving birth, so the female got stressed and died .a few days back this incident happened again, in this case there was 1 male and 2 females.

LetDiceFly

That fish just isn't happy, still has fins close to body, but there doesn't seem to be anything obviously wrong with her. I've seen this happen with males, but first time I've seen females fight for dominance. The aggressive female even chases the male around although it doesn't seem to bother him. They are less than 1 1/2 inches long, maybe things will change as they get a little older. I put a cory in there from my other tank hoping his antics will be a distraction.

Neville

hi, i strongly recommend this time u add 2 more female platies and 1 more male platy to your 10 gallon tank, this will calm down the bully female. i don't think that cory will help u, their nature is different from platies.

LetDiceFly

She is getting better I think, she is letting fins out a little more. As long as she eats I think she will recover. I don't want to buy anymore fish, because I have 3 very small platie that are growing up, although I'm not sure I will keep them, because I would like to get fry that are the hi-fin variety. There are no more with the hi-fin and color of these 3.

Neville

hi, happy to hear the good news