Male platy wont leave Females side

[Baiulus]

hey guys as the title suggests, i have a male platy that will not leave the female platys side. he gets aggressive when another fish comes near them and from what i can tell i dont think she is pregnant.

 

[Ghelfaire]

Yeah male platys can be overly aggressive. The best thing you can do is try adding more hiding spots for the females to get away from him.

 

[Baiulus]

i have live plants and some sponegbob themed houses so plenty of hiding spots. she could be pregnant but i would have to take a pic

 

[Ghelfaire]

Take a pic of the tank. Maybe you can try moving things around.

 

[Baiulus]

Here’s the tank and the female platy

 

[Ghelfaire]

She looks pregnant to me. I would replace the two short plants in the front with taller plants (silk works if you don't want real). It'll help break the line of sight.

 

[Baiulus]

wait shes pregnant? ill spread the plants out a little bit more. thanks for the info

 

[Ghelfaire]

No problem, good luck.

 

[LeafY4life77]

Hi Baiulus, she looks pregnant to me as well! I don’t think this is a problem, as I had a male platy do the exact same thing. She later gave birth with him, in a plant... it was rather cute!
As long as he’s not bothering her it’s fine.

Good luck if she has fry!
Maybe she will give birth in a plant with him!

 

[Baiulus]

so now that we have discovered that shes pregnant, the next question is when will she be due?

Hi Baiulus, she looks pregnant to me as well! I don’t think this is a problem, as I had a male platy do the exact same thing. She later gave birth with him, in a plant... it was rather cute!
As long as he’s not bothering her it’s fine.

Good luck if she has fry!
Maybe she will give birth in a plant with him!

aww how cute. ive been saving all the fry i can so i wanna put her in a net breeder when shes closer

 

[Ghelfaire]

You'll notice that she'll start to "square" off in the belly, that's when she'll be close to giving birth

 

[LeafY4life77]

When will she be due? Well I can tell you she is a lot bigger than my platy was when she delivered! So soon I think!

As for the net/Breeder thing, I wouldn’t do it. I just wouldn’t, it cause lots of stress, And sickness.... it’s also just unnatural, and not good for them. If you have another tank she could deliver in there, that would be a lot better! And if you don’t have another tank, I would let her deliver in your main tank. A lot of people don’t like to here that you shouldn’t put them in a Breeder... I hope you know I am just trying to help

 

[Baiulus]

i have 2 other tanks but they are being used. 1 is for fry and the other one has neon/ember tetra in them
Thanks for the info guys, i really do appreciate it.

 

[GuppyGal7]

hey guys as the title suggests, i have a male platy that will not leave the female platys side. he gets aggressive when another fish comes near them and from what i can tell i dont think she is pregnant.

How many boys and girls do you have?

 

[Baiulus]

2 female platy and 2 male platy

How many boys and girls do you have?

 

[Ghelfaire]

Females have to outnumber the males 2:1

2 female platy and 2 male platy

 

[Baiulus]

yeah i know, i went to the pet shop a while back and totally forget i needed 2 females but ended up getting 1 of each.

 

[GuppyGal7]

That's your problem. You need at least 2 girls per boy, with 3-4 per boy being ideal. The boys are going to stress your females to death, get more boys or return the girls ASAP.

 

[Baiulus]

ill check around to see if the pet stores have any. the other platy isnt aggressive at all. he hesnt mated with any of the females

 

[emeraldking]

You only have to outnumber the males by adding more females when the harassment is taking over. But if that won't happen, the current ratio will be fine. It comes down to observation how they'll react among eachother.
I've got multiple tanks with livebearers in them where the males outnumber the females and hardly till even no signs of males harassing the females. This includes also a number of tanks with a low number of fish in it.
Overhere a tank with 11 males and 5 females and they're doing fine in there. No harassment at all. And as you can see, there are not much hiding possibilities.

 

[JPH1970]

i have live plants and some sponegbob themed houses so plenty of hiding spots. she could be pregnant but i would have to take a pic

My son would love a SpongeBob themed tank!

 

[MyFishAddiction]

If you are worried about separating her, I would divide the tank. It would be much bigger that way. Or you could keep her in the other tank but put the fry in the separated part.

 

[Grixxly]

ill check around to see if the pet stores have any. the other platy isnt aggressive at all. he hesnt mated with any of the females

Could it be that your other male simply won't allow him to mate?

 

[Baiulus]

Could it be that your other male simply won't allow him to mate?

Possibly, but the aggressive male platy even chases my other platy away if she gets to close

UPDATE: She was pregnant and she gave birth to 17 fry around 2 weeks and she's pregnant again