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I have a 10 gallon planted tank with a platy with 2 guppies, 2 bristle nsoe catfish and 2 platy fry in a net sort of thing. The platy kept goign next to one of the guppies, clamping its fins, and reversing into it. It is a female, and the guppies are male. I added another female platy and as soon as it went in the tank, my old platy went to swim with it, after about 20 seconds the platy did the same thing to the other platy as it had done to the guppy! It this a sign of aggression, or is it trying to spawn with a platy of the same gender??? Please help me wiht this problem!!!!!!!!

Thankyou!!!!!!!!

Labrakitty

It sounds like the Platy wants to stay the top fish in the tank. You could pull it out temporarily, rearrange the tank and add some plants or other hiding spots, and then add it back in. Hopefully that will help to tone it down. BTW, when the BNs get larger, I'd move them to a larger tank (wouldn't a 30 or 55g look nice?).

Thanks for replying. I have a sort of breeding net thing which the platy babies are in at the moment. When the babies go out I will put the platy in there.

thanks,

Labrakitty

Labrakitty,
You really need to remove the platty totally from the tank. Bag it up for a little bit, and rearrange the tank...add some new plants, move the decorations, as JoeFishy said. This will create a "new tank" of sorts.

Just keeping the platy in the breeding net for a little bit, then releasing him will not do the trick. The platy has to believe that it is a new fish in a new tank, and is now the "underdog" of the tank. Otherwise it will continue to push around everyone else in the tank.

Do this and it will calm down. Also Keep in mind what JoeFishy said about the bristlenoses getting larger and needing a bigger tank. Go for the biggest you have room and money for...55's are great, trust me...

Heidi
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"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

I have got 3 pieces of new bogwood and rearranged the tank completely without the platy in there. I will tell you what happens. By tthe way she has calmed donw a bit anyway.

The platy is just horny, like any healthy livebearer should be. My sisters platies are all always going after each other, but since she has so many of them, no individual fish is chased around too much.

I think if you get maybe a couple more platies, then they will be more relaxed.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

I once had a platy that went ballistic when I added new fish to the tank and used to ram them like the shark in the movie Jaws.

She has stopped doing it most of the time. Now if she trys to do it the fish just swims the opposite direction. She did it to the bogwood the other day. My male guppy keeps swimming around her and following her. Teh Platy doesn't like ti so she just reverses into her. Is He trying to mate wiht the platy? If I got 2 more male guppies would the male guppy be distracted and stop trying to mate?

My male platy sort of sideway reverses into my female platy all the time. I think he's trying to mate, but he never bothers the other fish in the tank. He's just worried about his little girlfriend. She gets annoyed with him sometimes so swims into the plants to hide a while, and surprisingly he will leave her alone for some time. Maybe your platy has a nutty/ more sexual personality. Who knows? I'm starting to think fish are a lot like people. You just never know, you know?
littletank