Angela_96

I have in my ten gallon tank some guppies and 2 platies... the guppies are beating up on the platies to the point they are hidden in the plant and I am having to put food in the corner where they are or the guppies are nipping at their fins, is this normal? It seems like the platies are so much bigger than the guppies for the them to be beating up on them!
I am going to take the 2 platies to my moms house for her tank where she has no other fish in it yet, she is going to raise some platies...
I just hope I get them to her fast enough before they get the best of them! I am out of empty tanks that I can put them in... and my 55 is far from being set up...

Chief_waterchanger

Guppies seem more aggressive than platies in my opinion. We have dozens and dozens of both, but the only tank they live together in is one male platy that has such long fins he can't breed.. he is huge compaired to the guppies and they don't bother him, but it is definately normal for guppies to be the chihuahua of the fish world... nippers and think they are about 100x their own size.

lyndatu

Yes, guppies can be quite aggressive because they want to keep on breeding(with almost any other fish!) while the other fish doesn't want to. Do you think the platies are pregnant? If likely, it is natural for other fish to attack the pregnant ones so the pregnant ones will abort because of too much stress and the other fish will eat the fry. Or, the guppies want to breed with the platys. Guppies are strong breeding machines. They will try to mate with just about anything: plants, ornaments, other kinds of fish. Some even say they try to mate with fry(!!). I think it's best to separate the platys for now. Transferring them to your mom's tank is a great idea.

Good luck! Hope the platys are ok!

Arizonagrace

I have guppies, platys, mollys and swords in a 29 gallon, and they all pretty much get along fine. I solved the problem of guppy/platy compatability by getting dwarf platys, and they all get along.

Richard

Guppies are a species that use the ' best defence being a lively offence' strategy when housed with bigger fish, so they'll nip and nip and nip some more!

mes5westies

I had a problem with my male platy being mean to my female platy. he was nipping her fins a lot and later she died. I took him out and gave him away. but 5 days later was too late for my poor MM. what I do now is, I have only females in my tank and they are all happy and lovely. I have 5 platies, 1 female and 2 neons.

mrsmuffin

I am just learning the same lesson. I never would have thought that my guppys would try to dominate my platy. I am just hoping that he will hang on until my new tank is cycled; he was the first fish we got and I am pretty partial to him. At least my guppys aren't nipping at him, it is just like they are trying to heard him in the direction that they want him to go all of the time.