# Nasty aggressive fish



## Trishfish (Feb 18, 2007)

I have a huge male white mickey mouse platy who thinks he owns every drop of water in the 38 gallon tank he shares with five females. Except now it's only four females. Once I saw how aggressive he was with two females, I bought three more thinking it would help. Today I watched him chase one poor fish around and around. She accelerated and crashed into the tank wall, literally knocking herself out. I thought she was instantly dead. About 30 seconds later I saw her try to swim. I got a gallon container and filled it with tank water, gently netted her, somehow thinking there would be something I could do to help. Sadly no. She would swim for a few seconds then sink, then swim, then sink until she finally didn't swim or move anymore. She was a beautiful calico with black speckled blue sides, a yellow underbelly and brilliant orange fins.

There are numerous hiding places among plastic plants and rocks. My ammonia is 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5. What can I do with this fish?!? 

I have a very pregnant female that hides most of the time in the plants but now an hour later he is harrassing her. 

Any suggestions?


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## daisycutter (Jan 4, 2007)

apart from getting short of the male theres little else to suggest


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## Sadie (Jan 21, 2007)

*aggressive platy*

I'm having a similar problem. I have 2 males, 2 females, and a few other fish and over the last week one male is becoming increasingly aggressive. I don't have anywhere to move him right now. He is constantly trying to assert his dominance. If I come up with a solution I'll share. On Monday I'm going shopping to see if I can find some other shelter that is maybe a bit harder to buzz in and out of in hopes of slowing him down.


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## magic_marty (Feb 3, 2007)

We had a similar problem with our male platys and what we did was give them a time out.We put them in a hanging breeder net on the side of the tank its kinda like sending them to the corner for bad behavior... :wink:


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## Trishfish (Feb 18, 2007)

Alrighty then! He's in time out. How long do I leave him in there?


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## magic_marty (Feb 3, 2007)

it seemed to help when we put them there for a couple hours.But its kinda of a quick fix and the problem will probably return in time.But it seemed to help us with them.


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## Gump (Oct 26, 2006)

read the title and after reading the post its about platties... :dunno:


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## sazzy (Oct 20, 2006)

if isolation doesnt work...
maybe he has too much dominance as he is the only male?? surrounded by his harem of women he must think he is some chick magnet :roll: 
maybe getting another male will sort him out?


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## Trishfish (Feb 18, 2007)

I don't think I should use time out again. Within 15 minutes my mickey lost the color in his tail so I think he was too stressed. My preggo found a new hiding place way up in the hollow of a castle decoration. She comes out to eat so I hope she'll be ok. 

I wish I could just send him to his room! Since I am down one fish I think I will get another male, although I'll be back to 2 males to 4 females. Maybe I can find another huge monster.


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

Gump said:


> read the title and after reading the post its about platties... :dunno:


It's still possible. I would suspect the platy is not purely a platy at all.:shake: Having swordtail genes simply will add up to its behavior.:shake: Note that swordtails are the ones that get aggressive, not platies. The platies you have are possibly Xiphophorus variatus, a cross between platies and swordtails.

Isolation will not work. The only thing that will work is providing thickets of plants and larger room for the bullied ones to escape.


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## Trishfish (Feb 18, 2007)

Gee, Blue, you might be right. He truly is quite large and that would fit with the swordtail. Any tips on purchasing "true" platies next time around? I will add in a few more plants too. My tank is 36" across and new so I can't add more space at the moment.


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

There can't be quite many pure platies these days considering how eager platies and swordtails will crossbreed with each other. Pure ones don't really get aggressive although they are still no exception to the rule that males will chase the females around alot.


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## Sadie (Jan 21, 2007)

The thing that worked for me is that I put the weaker male since he was the one suffering the rath the most into the other tank and swapped out a larger fish and put it in the trouble maker's tank and that seemed to settle him down.


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## Trishfish (Feb 18, 2007)

Thanks for the suggestion. I don't have another tank with fish to swap around. He still rules the roost but has now made "friends" with the others. Occasionally he even gets chased away. There are four females and two males and a bunch of babies in there.


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