Will male guppies try to mate with male platys?

I have four male guppies who often try to mate with each other. I added two platys this week -- a male and female (I asked for two female but I think the LFS gave me a male). The male guppies are harassing them all day long, sniffing their analfins. The male guppies have stopped harassing each other, and are now annoying the platys full time.

I'm thinking of replacing the one female platy and getting three more males, thus making the tank:

• 4 male guppies
• 4 male platys

In your experience, do male guppies indiscriminately try to mate with both male AND female platys? Or is there some kind of scent that the female platys give off that makes them attract the male guppies?

If the answer is that male guppies will harass male platys, is my proposed mix ok? I figure with 4 male platys the harassment will be more spread out and thus the annoyance won't turn into injury or stress-induced illness.

The tank is 60 gallon with some (but not a lot) of hiding spaces.

 

I would stick with all males. of both types. I think the guppies can mate with the female platy but in any case all those males will stress her to death if she is the only female in the tank...Alison

 

Thanks Aliray! I will go with all males.

 

Your welcome.....Alison

 

Guppies will try to mate with anything they see, almost as if they have no type haha. But Guppies actually can't breed with Platy so you wouldnt have to worry there. As stated above, you would have to worry about the female platy being stressed out by the constant breeding attempts from the guppies

 

Guppies will try to mate with anything they see, almost as if they have no type haha. But Guppies actually can't breed with Platy so you wouldnt have to worry there. As stated above, you would have to worry about the female platy being stressed out by the constant breeding attempts from the guppies

My tank has a really weird dynamic going on. All the male guppies are chasing the one male platy. And the one male platy is chasing the one female platy. Either guppies are super loose with their mate selection or maybe I just haven't mastered the ability to tell the platy's sex correctly ha ha.

 

If those male guppies are chasing the male platy means that that male platy is at most a betta male or less and those male guppies betta or alpha males in that specific tank. They'll just show their dominance.

Btw, the sex ratio in a tank is much more easier with wildguppies and endlers. The males of these two kinds of livebearers won't haress the females that much as most other livebearers will do. So, with those a ratio of 1:1 is realistic in general.
Wildguppies have a similar behaviour as endlers have. Fancy guppies are a different story.

 

That's a great tip about Endler's. Thank you!