CHELSEA BOY

I have two Male Sunburst Platy's, and in the last two day's one of them has started to bully the two male Swords in the tank, the Sword has taken to hiding in the plants. I have quarantined the two Platies and the Swords are returning to normal behaviour. The questions are: Is this normal for Platy's to bully other fish (bearing in mind they are community fish) and will I be able to return the Platies to the tank in the future? Community tank 70L. Various fish.

susitna-flower

Welcome to Fishlore, CHELSEA BOY !

How big is your tank?

What other fish do you have?
Usually the recommendation is to have 2 -3 females of each species for every male.

If your tank is overcrowded, or doesn't have adequate decorations/plants to break up the line of sight, it can stress the fish, and they will fight more.

CHELSEA BOY

20 Gallons, 2 Platy's, 2 Swords, 5 Rummy nose, 2 Cory's, 3 Guppy's, 2 otto's, 5 cherry's. Plenty of plants. Everything has been fine for 2 months plus.

COBettaCouple

The tank is overstocked and that may have something to do with it. How many female platys/swordtails are there?

swords3711

Male fish tend to try and show their dominance. Usually, platys don't harrass swords since swords are bigger, unless u have small swords. It might help keeping the aggressive platys pinned up in the aquarium. This will allow them to get used to the other fish in the tank. They will see the other fish without being able to attack them. I tried it with my aggressive mollie and he quit his bullying after being pinned up for a few days.