guppy's & platy's friend or foe?

JoJo

New Fish
Oct 22, 2008
7
0
0
Oregon
#1
My daughter recently purchased 3 guppy males, 1 platy female and 1 platy male. Well, last night she found the female dead and half eaten and now the guppy's have decided they don't like the male platy either and are chasing him. I have no experience with guppies, so I thought I would ask here to see if you all have any suggestions. She will remove the single male platy and put him in a little gallon size tank with an undergravel filter for now.

My thought was that she should either buy a 2.5 gallon tank from Walmart (about $25) and put the 3 male guppies into that if they harrass any of her other fish, or move the platy male into the 1 gallon tank to give her time to figure this out. Her biggest issue is that she will be leaving for about a week over Christmas break and really doesn't know anyone she can have take care of her fish and it will be expensive to have to have 3 fish feeders. BTW, she has 2 zebra danios, 2 albino cory's, 3 male guppy's, 1 male platy in a 10 gallon tank. She has one male betta and an albino cory in a 2.5 gallon tank and she has a one gallon tank that is empty.

Sigh, we thought we had this problem licked when we decided she was ready to put her betta into a 10 gallon tank rather than the 1 gallon tank. *BOUNCINGS We bought her all the supplies including a heater and everything for her birthday. Then her betta got sick*SICK*, so we got her a little 2.5 gallon tank for the betta and his pet cory, so he could still have more space. Then she called after buying her fish for the 10 gallon tank and told us she had one female platy and all those male guppy's :eek: and we new the fun had just started! Any advice would be greatly appreciated.....

Joanne (we have cichlids in a 38 gallon tank, a betta who has two pet cory's and 2 pet zebra danios in a ten gallon tank, and five baby platy's in a 3 gallon tank) my son has 4 glo lites, 3 platy's, a betta, and 3 cory's in a 10 gallon tank (he will leave for college next year)
 

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#2
I won't be able to help much as I've never had guppies before...

A quick solution to your problem would be to return either the guppies or the remaining platy to the store.

As for the cause of the harrassing, I don't know. It seems kind of strange given that guppies are smaller than platies. It doesn't sound like the 10g is overstocked either. It could be you just ended up with really aggressive guppies. Now that the platy is out of there, they might go for other fish then; keep an eye out for more aggression.

Also, depending on how long she will be gone, the fish can live without food for two to three days. Pet stores also sell slow disolving food thingys that last a couple days.

(Cories like to be in groups, btw.)

Welcome to the tank! :D
 

bunker_1

Large Fish
Mar 24, 2008
584
0
0
Cincinnati
#3
Welcome to MFT! When you have livebarers, you need to have 2-3 females for every male. The male will stress out a single female far more than guppies. There is a chance the the platty was already sick and they were picking on the sick fish. If they were not picking on the male, then I would assume that.
 

JoJo

New Fish
Oct 22, 2008
7
0
0
Oregon
#5
So guppy's are not normally aggressive? I didn't think so, and these guys seem to be chasing rather than actually leaving marks on the platy's. The single male platy is now being chased, which makes me think they will continue this behavior with the other fish in the tank. The danios will be to quick for them I'm sure and the cory's have defensive spikes on them to keep the guppy's away (hopefully that will be enough). I had thought of having her get 3 guppy females, but wasn't sure if that would be enough to keep the boys happy and give the females a fighting chance. She would probably still have to remove the Platy and it would put her tank at the stocking limits which would mean she would have to be very careful about cleaning and stuff (if it were my son I would say NO WAY, but she seems to keep up on cleaning the tank and checking it).

I know that cory's like being in groups, but they seem to be doing fine even as a single in with a betta. They chase each other, nudge each other but never leave marks or stuff. I'm just getting back into fish after a long break, man is it addictive!*BOUNCINGS
 

#6
I'm just getting back into fish after a long break, man is it addictive!*BOUNCINGS
MFT can help you with that!!! :D I wouldn't have expanded to three tanks and then replaced two with the 55g if I hadn't joined. And that's not even a year ago.

As long as the cories seem fine, then being alone should be fine. I had two and then one died. The other one then stopped eating and only after I got another one did she come alive again. Not to mention that they ended up producing offspring too!! :rolleyes:

The platy won't be able to live in a 2.5g long, if that's where he still is. I suggest returning him and not mixing platies and guppies in that tank. It's too small to have decent numbers of both types of fish.

And albino cories have spikes? Hmm... *twirlysmi
 

AlyKat

Large Fish
Aug 3, 2007
255
0
0
New York
#7
That's strange...I've kept guppies and platys together in the 20G for years...it's only recently I gave up the platys...but they always lived together without any problems...hmmmm...
 

#8
With no females in the tank the guppies could be trying to mate with the platy. Male guppies will try to mate with almost anything without a sufficient number of females present. Two females to every male is recommended. The damage to the first platy you found most likely happened after death as fish have no problem knawing on their friends after they pass.:( I would go with either the platys or the guppies in a 10, as another member posted a 10 is not alot of room for a good number of either. The great thing about platys are the females are just as beautiful as the males.While female guppies can be attractive they arent the little gems the males are.
 

Apr 26, 2008
40
0
0
#9
I recently bought 5 male guppies, 3 died right away and I almost lost a 4th. I noticed number 4 swimming at a top corner of my tank when I was watching him. And I noticed a huge chunk of his side missing!!!! Someone had taken a bite out of him. Probably my other male guppie? I imediatly removed him and placed him in a 1 gal. glass bowl, with a little extra water conditioner. And a week and a half later he has pretty much repaired him self. I just released him back into the main tank today. I am amazed that he made it.

I have noticed that one of the guppies is far more agressive than all the rest. We will just call him number 5! From the moment I wanted him fished out of the store fish tank he was the most agressive! Number 5 is consistantly chasing arround all my Platies, he picks on both male and famales. But mainly the famales and I have not seen any of my platies injured. I am really amazed as to how this small guppie runns my 70 gal. tank mainly full of fully grown 2" platies. I really need to get him some women!!!! I hope it will help his agressive ways. I think that some guppies are bullies. I have one of them !!!!

I would not worry about your guppies chasing your platy male to much. Not unless you see the guppies hurting him. I think that some ones suggestion to get famale guppies is a good idea. If you really feel bad about the platy get another tank and place him and a platy female or another platy male it the new tank. I would suggest another platy male not unless you get a big tank. Because you will have hundreds of platy fry in a short period of time other wise*SUPERSMIL.
 

Apr 19, 2010
1
0
0
#10
how do you know if your platty is male of female? I have 2 male guppies adn one micky mouse platty. the guppies are chasing the platty into the tree house, and pushing it around.... Ive never done fish, what should I do?

PLEASE HELP!
 

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#12
So guppy's are not normally aggressive?
Depends on your stock. I have some massively inbred guppies (I didn't raise or buy them, I got them for free off Craigslist from some people who had 100+ guppies, two large goldfish and a very large pleco in a 20gal high tank) and they are SERIOUSLY aggressive. I watched them kill two neons within an hour of putting them in the tank.
 

beckyd

Large Fish
Mar 16, 2009
381
0
0
#13
Wow. I have never heard or seen of guppies acting like this. Very odd. I think the male guppies are likely trying to mate with the platy. My tank is much heavier with male guppies now than females. The males are young, like teenagers. They are hilariously chasing anything in the tank trying to mate. Big ole swordfish, males and females, platies, I even watched one trying to make moves on a cory. The males could have stressed the female platy to death.

One way or the other, you need to change up the mix. You could get females, but with a 10g, I wouldn't recommend it. You would have a population problem so fast, it would take the fun out of it. I say change to either all male platies or guppies only. And these guppies may not be the best choice. They need to calm down. Taking out the platy my help, but only time will tell.