punkrockviolet5

My 2 Male Platies are fighting. Badly.

Frank Zappa was my original. It was just he, my betta & a female. Then I added Velvet Teddy Bear & another female. FZ went after VTB immediatly and VTB hid all the time. I felt so sorry for him, so I removed FZ & my Betta from the community tank and put them in a 6 gal hexagon. They got sick so I had to put them back. FZ did ok for a few hours then it was right back to chasing VTB. He was also harrassing the other fish, so I put him in a hanging tank. He & VTB fought through the plastic and VTB taunted FZ (seriously, wagging fins and charging plastic) for about a week. After 2 weeks of 'isolation', I put FZ back in the tank today. He & VTB IMMEDIATELY went after eachother, spinning and nipping, like Betta fish. So, once again, I removed FZ, the aggressive one, and he's back in his hanging tank. What am I going to do? My fry won't be ready for another 6-8 weeks, so I can't add anymore females, until I choose 2 from my batch! I'm so frustrated.

armadillo

I am afraid this is pretty common. If you're keeping several males in the same tank, best keep 3 or 4 at least. But not everybody's got those precious spare inches to devote to making up these numbers.

sirdarksol

Unfortunately, it sounds like a case of too few males, too few females, and too little space. With only the two males, they pick on each other. With only the two females, they have more of a reason to fight (since they don't have what they see as enough breeding material to go around), and with so little space, they're going to continually butt heads.
Sorry I can't be of more help.

Sam Livingston

Only way to fix it is get more females, plain and simple unfortunately.

armadillo

The problem if you start adding females, is that you need to add at the very least 2 females per male, and that is an absolute minimum in my opinion. I"d say your'e better off with just males, but then 4 instead of just the two. Either that, or the males get separated and get a tank each.

punkrockviolet5

Right now the ratio is 2 Males: 4 Females, 1 Betta in my 20 gal tank. Sounds like I'm going to have to sequester Frank Zappa until the fry females are bigger and can be added to the community tank. We'll have a ratio of 2 Males: 6 Females, 1 Betta, after that happens. Will this help 'keep the peace'? I can't stand watching this, nor having to keep FZ seperate. My Betta is the most peaceful fish in the tank! Why are platies so mean to eachother?? Frank Zappa gets along better with Chopstick than any other fish in the tank. Maybe he thinks he's a Betta? Naughty little fish!

Sam Livingston

I've always thought platy's were most peaceful fish going, I have 13 adults and about 15-20 babies and they all get along. It could be an isolated personality (all species occasionally have the mike tyson type). I believe 2 males and 6 females would help, that should fix it.

punkrockviolet5

"Mike Tyson The Fish". Maybe I'll change his name! Good thing fish don't have ears! LOL!

Sam Livingston

Do they both seem to chase around the same female? Or are they just fighting each other and ignoring the females?

sirdarksol

Huh, in that case, I'd have to vote for the "Mike Tyson" personality. Still sorry I can't be any more help.

COBettaCouple

when it was just the 2 of them, they established a pecking order and it must be carrying over in "Frank Zappa".. some time by himself might help with his attitude.