Aggressive male platy with pregnant female

Hi,
I have 3 platys - 2 female and one male. I believe one is pregnant and the male fish is extremely aggressive with her. The non pregnant female is acting like she is protecting the pregnant female.
Should I separate them? The pregnant female looks so exhausted!

 

Hi MontanagaISF
Welcome to fishlore.
I would separate the male as it’s highly likely both females are going to drop fry? At least 3 batches of fry will drop even if you remove the male today.

Are you planing on scooping out fry to a 3rd tank?
Have you floating plants or plastic on the surface. Remove it if you are not wanting fry to grow out.

When you do get a few more juvenile fish from the parents it’s possible the aggression will be spread around more?

 

Thank you so much Tim, I have removed the male from the tank and all is peaceful. Are you saying I should have no floating plants in the female tank? (i.e. pregnant platty tank?) Thanks again for your help!

 

I am saying floating plants are a good place for tiny fry to grow bigger and stronger. When they are bigger and stronger they can swim fast enough to avoid being eaten .

As you seem to have only a few fish you probably want a few more ? A few can quickly become a million. Nobody has enough space in their house for every single fry if all of one females fry survived.

Removing the hiding spots may limit the number of newborns that learn to swim fast when the time comes that you begin to run out of room in the tank.

The picture is of the two pregnant females I have. You can see the floating plants I use to give me time to net out fry . Actually a plastic cup is used to scoop out fry . Currently I have 5 tanks with fry from these females that have not seen a male 3 months. / 3 batches of fry.

 

Thank you so much Tim, I have removed the male from the tank and all is peaceful. Are you saying I should have no floating plants in the female tank? (i.e. pregnant platty tank?) Thanks again for your help!

Actually, the male has only followed his nature. But yes, it's good that you've got the male out. To females (and specifically to more pregnant females), it's better if the stressor is gone if there's a lack of hiding spots for the females to withdraw.