clare79

I'm still quite new to all this tropical fish lark but I am at my wits end with one of my newly aquired babies!

I have (had) 6 fish - five platys and a siamese fighter.
One platy in particular is behaving in an extremely odd manner - my silver platy. It attacks all the other platys (all females like her) and yesterday ruthlessly murdered my adorable siamese fighter.

From what I can see this is not normal platy behaviour - what on earth could be wrong with her? At the moment I am seriously considering taking her back to the water gardens before she finishes off all the others.

aecw

i had an aggressive platy also - she terrorized all my other fish - thankfully she didn't kill anyone but she was still only half grown. I removed her from this tank and put her in with older larger platys sadly my gourami gave her **** and she didn't survive the stress from the initiation - I felt HORRIBLE!! She was born in the original tank with 3 other males that were also very aggressive but I figured it was because there were too many males and it was a fishy testosterone thing. The boys I had brought to my LFS (not one of the big chains FYI) a month or so earlier and they did really well! I thought the female would calm down but she just picked up where the boys left off.

Maybe sometimes despite general characteristics you just get a fish with attitude

clare79

Thanks for the reply - clearly it's a case of when platys go bad!
I have heard that juviniles can change sex and wondered whether that could be the case? Also I initially only had her and a sunset platy in the tank for the first week - the sunset gave birth on the first day, maybe she was peed off by this?
I don't have another tank so can't seperate them,so I think she may have to be returned to from whence she came! I am still reeling from the savage way she killed the siamese fighter - she literally bit off all its lovely tail and fins. The poor thing only managed 24 hours in the tank!
Sadly the whole experience has put me off buying another one!

aecw

I don't know about the juveniles changing sex - I do know that the male's sex organ (the crazy little fin by their butt) doesn't develop til they are a few months old. I first assumed there were too many males in my tank. In the past I have had a male platy that managed to not only impregnate every female platy in my tank but also terrorized my blue gouramis (they constantly hid in the plants). I eventually just gave him back to the store because he was such a bully. Once he was gone suddenly all the other fish came alive and seemed much happier. Including the 5 babies he had a part in creating who still live happily in this particular tank. I hear you on the disillusionment towards platys - I started out being a big fan and can safely say I love the ones I currently have but I probably won't ever buy another one. Good luck

clare79

Another rather grim development - it has now hounded my lovely black molly to death. As I speak it has driven my sunset platy to cower behind a rock where it has been for nearly four hours. The other fish have hardly had a scrap to eat as if they so much as look at any food it zooms over and nips them.
I have a horrible feeling that by tommorow I will be down to only two other platys and the killer fish!
I guess its going to have to go back to the water gardens but I am very concerned that if I do that they will just kill it.

pinkfloydpuffer

Could you get a breeder net and put the platy in there?

clare79

I thought about that - but I guess that would only be a temporary mesure and wouldn't be that fair on the platy!
I feel dreadful - if I take her back they'll prob kill her but if I leave her in the tank she will bump off every fish I add.
I'm begining to wish I'd never gone down the tropical route and just gone for goldfish which I grew up surrounded by (my dad bred them - I wasn't born in a fish tank!)

pinkfloydpuffer

Well, if she is killing all your other fish, the only option seems to be to take her back to the store or get her her own setup.

aecw

I'm so sorry she's ruining your tank - I would take her back personally - I don't know why they would kill her intentionally - maybe she just needs a new environment

ssfwong

I had this issue a fewmonths ago. I took my agressive platy and put her into the breeder box for a few hours. I would let her out of the breeder box and observe her. Once she started to attack the others I immediately placed her back into the breeder box. After sending her to the penalty box a third time she stopped. I was also told in this forum to move the furniture around in the tank to make them beleive they are in a new environment. I did this during my weekly water change and noticed that the new pecking order took place with the aggressive female not taking the lead anymore.

Good luck

clare79

I took her back on thursday and watched them pop her back into the tank. I felt a bit guilty but she seemed ok. My remaining fish (she killed another on her last day) practically whipped out the maracas and party streamers after she'd gone!!!!
I waited a few days and added a couple more platys and a little tribe of mountain minows and lo and behold peace is restored!!!
I'm currently having a whale of a time watching them!
Thanks for everybodies help - I m sure that when my next disaster strikes I shall be requiring your help again!!!!