Platy In Party!

HI all,

I have a pair of females which are taking turn to delivery and it seems with smaller broods of around 10s the fry escaped being eaten.

The more immediate problem is that the two females appeared to be aggressive towards each other but it takes turns, would it be due to the hormone as they don't drop at the same time? No fixed patterns who is chasing who though but each time I put them in the same tank one would appear dominant.

Currently, Both ladies are kept in isolation, one for the latest punishment as it would attack the pregnant mom and I suspect it caused the death of the other female, as water didn't seem to be an issue. She also hunts the fry by ambushing at the hiding sites.

The pregnant lady is approaching 4 weeks since her last fry and these would be her second batch with me. She was in the main tank with other fry when she laboured, there were not a single lost either she was not aggressive to eat them or the fry were fast enough, but she does tries to chase them all the time which is very tiring (maybe it's me) and it poses issue for overfeeding herself while the fry not getting enough.

The fry are in the main tank because they were from three broods (7weeks;3weeks;1week) Having any adult with them would likely cause some of them not able to feed and I have already seen some fry are more dominant than others.

Questions:
1) I'm more of hoping the pair drop all babies in the coming months and separate the sex in due course to avoid further delivery. I'm aware this is not straight ABC as the sexes could mix up afterall either due to late development or maybe the sex changed.
As a beginner, I do want to keep and raise some fry and it's hard to chew the fact that the young should be eaten.

Are there any other suggestions?

2) Are there any reasons why Platy are so aggressive, I noticed even the new borns exhibit this trait, could it be due to the breeding trail as I doubt they are pure in the trade these days.

Do you have similar issues and how you manage them? Since schooling and aggressive combination is problematic.
Would anyone believe artificial interbreed has led to this behavior...

3) Some of the fry were born prominently black, am I lucky that their fathers were black or that these could still change?

MyTank

I have a 20 gallon tall tank with top filter and using another 50L storage container with basic pump as nursery as I'm worried the water current in the main tank is too much for the fry.

This is my first post and I would also like to thank you guys who contribute to the forum, it helps so much really.

S

 

HI and welcome! I have just the opposite issue. The males chase each other. I did only find 6 fry the first time and know some were eaten. This time I moved about 20 to a nursery tank because I told my LFS that I would bring them some fry. The males are very aggressive though. One poor guy has to hide all the time.

 

HI and welcome! I have just the opposite issue. The males chase each other. I did only find 6 fry the first time and know some were eaten. This time I moved about 20 to a nursery tank because I told my LFS that I would bring them some fry. The males are very aggressive though. One poor guy has to hide all the time.

Hello Goldiemom,

As I read everywhere, Platy suuposed to be peaceful even with other community mates, other than that aggression among males establishing mating rights or when a female close to drop fry. But as I dived further, it seems that in contrary to the general description that Platys are fun and peaceful fish to have, they're plenty of questions raised as regards to Platy aggression, the aggression that I observed was quite prominent, as if these were Betta picking on the weaker ones.

But I'm very new to the hobby so I must have missing out something.

As of now I just try to raise the fry to adulthood and see if companion could ease the problem, otherwise I'm quite reluctant to have singular aggressive fish in the tank to stress everyone out.

S

 

I agree! I’m not quite thrilled with my platy’s either. Not what I was told they would be. Oh well, another live and learn situation. Good luck with your fry! They are cute.

 

If you found a solution to the aggressiveness do let me know, I'm hoping once the fry grown up and I could put more within the same tank this situation will improve, but currently I have not come up with a better solution..

 

If you found a solution to the aggressiveness do let me know, I'm hoping once the fry grown up and I could put more within the same tank this situation will improve, but currently I have not come up with a better solution..

That’s my plan too. Fingers crossed that it works.

 

Maybe she'll relax once she's had her last brood, if you're good about kicking out any male platy as soon as they reach sexual maturity.
In the mean time, I would think your best bets are having tall plants to divide up the tank well, having hiding places, and keeping your tank lightly stocked will help.

I've kept two platy females in quarantine together in a 10gal. They were pretty peaceful. Only chased eachother away a bit whenever one was about to have her brood.
Good luck!

 

Maybe she'll relax once she's had her last brood, if you're good about kicking out any male platy as soon as they reach sexual maturity.
In the mean time, I would think your best bets are having tall plants to divide up the tank well, having hiding places, and keeping your tank lightly stocked will help.

I've kept two platy females in quarantine together in a 10gal. They were pretty peaceful. Only chased eachother away a bit whenever one was about to have her brood.
Good luck!

HI there,

currently I'm holding them seperately so maybe I will try to rearrange one of the two tanks after the one dropping her brood.

while waiting for the rest of the fry growing up further, would this be the best arrangement?

I think when they're in school they get distracted but they might need to he of similar size.

I noticed the fry would start picking on others as young as within few days.

 

Sorry for the delayed response.
It is unfortunately true that even the fry will pick on smaller fry, but it sounds like even with a few casualties you'll have plenty of babies to raise.

Just a thought- have you actually seen both fish drop fry? Are you sure you have two females?

As far as your question above, I'm not sure what your arrangement is exactly. You have one of them in a 20 gal with the fry and one in something else?

 

Sorry for the delayed response.
It is unfortunately true that even the fry Will pick on smaller fry, but it sounds like even with a few casualties you'll have plenty of babies to raise.

Just a thought- have you actually seen both fish drop fry? Are you sure you have two females?

As far as your question above, I'm not sure what your arrangement is exactly. You have one of them in a 20 gal with the fry and one in something else?

HI GettinTanked,

Thanks for your reply and sorry for the confusion.

Currently both the females are in respective isolation tank, the fry in another for nursery.

The complication was that one was about to give birth and she is being picked all the time.

I have a 20G as my main tank, and I have introduced some 7-8 weeks old fry in there,

After the pregnant dropped her fry, she will join in. I will introduce the other one after that. hopefully with more distractions the stress will be lowered.

Oh, I have seen one of them deliver, and the other one just dropped her fry in the isolation tank.

 

Okay, so definitely both females haha

Hmmm maybe you should introduce both adult platy to the 20 gal at the same time. My thought is if one is in there alone first, it might be more territorial when the other fish is introduced.
Of course, as you said, their behavior is unpredictable :/
Let us know how it goes!