Aggressive Mickey Mouse Platy

[nfiliou]

Hi everyone,

Am a newby to aquariums. 

Began my 5g in August and loved it so much that I got a 20g. 

So my 5g has a betta and my 20g has 4 ghost shrimp, 2 rock shrimp, 5 zebra thorn snails, 1 apple snail (+3 babies), 7 rasboras and my new additions 3 mickey mouse platties.  I just got them this morning and they seemed fine at first.  But then realized one was harassing the other two- so did some research and figured out that I have two males and a female.  So I took out the aggressive platy (he's in my hospital tank) and not quite sure what to do.  Wondering if I should exchange him for a female?  If the aquariumj store would even go fo this.  I couldn't add more fish- I'm pretty sure I'm at my quota- and from what I read I need two females per one male- so would need four female platties to my two males- which would be way too many fish for my aquarium.

Thanks for any input!!

[nissannx]

i have a trio like yours. 2 males 1 female. the alpha male is quite latger and will pick on all of them once or twice a day. they have been that way for months and seem fine. now fin damage or anything. just a pecking order thing

[Nerine]

You should be able to exchange a male for a female! When I worked at an LFS I always made sure to give someone either all females or 2 females and a male because the pecking order can get nasty sometimes!! I have 2 trios in a tank and the males will pick on each other from time to time, but given lots of shelter, they can also be happy. But since you just bought them, go for it and exchange a male for a female

Good luck!!

[cdylnicki]

yes absolutely return it! 

If you don't want to breed them (they may mostly end up eating all the babies), you may want to return both males and keep 3 females instead.  A female can hold sperm for up to 3 months so you still may end up with babies down the road.

Or, if you have the baby bliss: add a male swordtail (choose a young male - just when his sword is starting to grow).  He might possibly breed with your platies (he will try!).  He will put on quite a show to impress the ladies!

I believe you could add one more fish.  You could try a female Gourami as a dither fish (blue/opaline/pearl/yellow).  Your rasboras will begin schooling more.  Or adding a live plant (crypt/java fern) can be a nice touch!

Good luck and welcome to the world/addiction of aquariums! 

Cheers!

[nfiliou]

Well, I took out my aggressive male, but then noticed that the harrassed fish didn't look too good, so put back the aggressive fish back into my 20 g and took out the harrassed fish and put him in my hospital tank.  

Then called aquarium store but couldn't do an exchange so I ended up buying three female tuxedo platies (they were out of female mickey mouse platies).  By the way, I looked closely at the tank the mickey mouse platies came from- did not look good- a dead fish and what looked like fin rot!!!  

So brought home new fish and to my surprise found my harrassed platy dead!!  Very upsetting.

Then this morning noticed that my male platy wasn't looking good either- he couldn't move one of his fins, which looked much smaller than the other- and he was breathing rapidly.  He also died this morning  

So now I'm thinking fin rot- so will have to medicate- but I have 9 snails in my tank (3 babies) and 6 shrimp.  So is there anything that I could do that wouldn't kill my snails/shrimp?  I'm going to add aquarium salt as I've heard this helps a lot- but what else could I do?  

I know for sure I will be buying a larger hospital tank- and when buying new fish will leave them in here until I am sure they are ok.

Very frustrated and sad newby,

Nat

[Nerine]

Sorry to hear your platy died!

For sure have a hospital tank, I have a 5 gallon and a 20 gallon hospital tanks (depends on the size of the fish I'm putting in there!) and I let them stay in at least a month.

For salt - don't add too much, some critters aren't overly keen on it! I am not 100% sure about snails and salt, maybe someone who has snails can chime in??

The damaged fins could have gotten infected or just been bitten off due to harassment...