Platties Hiding

Tank is fully cycled
Ph-7.2
Temp -78

I have a 55 gallon, I currently have 7 red eyed tetras, and 9 harlequin rasboras. I just got 2 sunburst platties on Tuesday April 10th.They have been very Reclusive. I have noticed that my red eyes will occasionally school up on them. They don’t nip or anything but they definitely make the platties nervous. I figure maybe I need a few more? Or are platties and red eyes not compatible. Anyone have any advice of possible solution?

 

Platies always do well in schools of 4 or so from my experiences.

However I will mention that they still new and do need a little more time to settle it.

 

Platies always do well in schools of 4 or so from my experiences.

However I will mention that they still new and do need a little more time to settle it.

I’ll give them time and def get some more. What about my red eyes? I know they can be nippy but they aren’t nipping, they just seem to be overly curious, hence they schooled up on my one platty. So it was spooked and hides under a piece of driftwood

 

I’ll give them time and def get some more. What about my red eyes? I know they can be nippy but they aren’t nipping, they just seem to be overly curious, hence they schooled up on my one platty. So it was spooked and hides under a piece of driftwood

From having them way in the past, their nippiness seems to be overrated. In large schools they rather peaceful aquarium fish and keep mostly to themselves. The only times I run into problems is when they were in small schools.

 

From having them way in the past, their nippiness seems to be overrated. In large schools they rather peaceful aquarium fish and keep mostly to themselves. The only times I run into problems is when they were in small schools.

Would you say 7 is a large enough school for them? I know they like to be in a school of about 6. They school fine. They don’t bother my rasboras. Ever since I got the platties have they been more of a concern. Maybe it’s the platties that are the problem? Or I might be overthinking it. I’ll probably add some
More platties and maybe then they will come out. When I first added the red eyes. I had originally only had 4, they shredded my rasboras fins. I added more and then they were fine. My rasboras regrew his fins. So since that incident I’m very alert to how they behave.

 

My platies were doing this too! The only difference was that I had them in with a school of gold barbs (massive mistake) and they were tearing them apart. It could be they just need some time to settle, it can take a month or so for things to calm down and as long they haven't hurt your platies yet I'd give them some more time. Adding one or two more platies might do the trick in helping them feel more confident and drawing the schooling attention away from just the two you currently have. Make sure you have a lot of hiding places for now, just for the safety of the platies and if they start getting picked on to the point of torn fins, keep in mind you might have a problem on your hands. I removed my school of gold barbs and one of my platies still hides even with no danger around, I'm hoping this behaviour isn't permanent .

 

Would you say 7 is a large enough school for them? I know they like to be in a school of about 6. They school fine. They don’t bother my rasboras. Ever since I got the platties have they been more of a concern. Maybe it’s the platties that are the problem? Or I might be overthinking it. I’ll probably add some
More platties and maybe then they will come out. When I first added the red eyes. I had originally only had 4, they shredded my rasboras fins. I added more and then they were fine. My rasboras regrew his fins. So since that incident I’m very alert to how they behave.

6 is considered a standard safe zone for amounts of schooling fish but having 7 is even better. Are the platies male or female? If they are female, female platies are basically the least aggressive fish you can get, so getting picked on is fairly common when kept around schooling fish.

 

FishGeek117 for me the safe number was around 9 or more.... but tbh, I think 7 shouldn't be too much of a concern, as long as its not below 5 then its mostly smooth sailing.

 

I got two female platties, they will ether hide under a piece of driftwood or in a cave. I’m definitely gonna get some more platties and I’ll monitor the red eyes as well. So far no ones been hurt. My only concern is they won’t come out to eat. The red eyes and rasboras go piranha style during feeding time so that’s definitely not encouraging the platties to come out.

 

aussieJJDude I wanna give an update on my platy situation. They have been out and about for a week or so now. My other fish keep to themselves. I have not got anymore platties yet. Since my plattys have come out I have realized that I got one male and one female. Not two females. The male is constantly chasing and trying to nip the female. I’m guessing to solve this I get some more females to disperse aggression and maybe another male? What’s you’re thoughts?

 

I would rehome one of the fish and just stick with having a single sex shoal. Males and females tend to cause a population outburst and result in 'overstocking' the tank.

 

I would rehome one of the fish and just stick with having a single sex shoal. Males and females tend to cause a population outburst and result in 'overstocking' the tank.

That’s unfortunately not an option, I don’t think I can take it back to petsmart. I am not worried about overpopulation but rather aggression. If they have babies, my other fish will eat them easily. My biggest concern is getting rid of the aggression among the male. So ether adding more females or males. This is in a 55 gallon

 

That’s unfortunately not an option, I don’t think I can take it back to petsmart. I am not worried about overpopulation but rather aggression. If they have babies, my other fish will eat them easily. My biggest concern is getting rid of the aggression among the male. So ether adding more females or males. This is in a 55 gallon

If you find rehoming the male is truly not an option and you choose to add more to your platy population aI'm for at least a 2 to 1 Female to Male ratio. The males tend to chase the females for mating purposes, so adding more females splits the amount of time each individual female will be chased by the male. In situations where I have incidentally had more males than females, the males will compete with each other, stressing themselves out and then both chase the female when they get the opportunity stressing her out.

 

If you find rehoming the male is truly not an option and you choose to add more to your platy population aI'm for at least a 2 to 1 Female to Male ratio. The males tend to chase the females for mating purposes, so adding more females splits the amount of time each individual female will be chased by the male. In situations where I have incidentally had more males than females, the males will compete with each other, stressing themselves out and then both chase the female when they get the opportunity stressing her out.

I got a few more platies
I got 3 females and 1 male. Everything seems to be fine with exception that my platies poop a lot and I got white sand