Male Platy Aggression

[DesignsOnYou]

Male Platy Aggression, Scales Missing

I have what may be a stupid question, but I can't find the answer to it online, so I'm asking for help. I have a 55 gallon with 6 zebra danios, and 3 male platys. It's had the fish in it for just over a week, but I used BioSpira, so it should be almost cycled. My ammonia is at about .3 (on the way back down from a slight spike, I'm pretty sure), and the nitrites are at .25 (same thing, going back down), and the nitrates are at about 3. So, I know it's not fully cycled yet, but, my problem is that with my 3 male platys, 1 of them seems to be getting picked on. Today he has a slight red spot on his side that looks like he either scratched it on something or is getting nipped a bit. All the other fish are fine, and it doesn't seem to be ick or velvet, or anything else I've seen. Just a slightly pink area on his side that seems irritated. It almost looks like he's missing a couple scales, with a whitish small indentation. He does hide a lot, but all of the platys do off and on. There is one platy in particular that is slightly bigger and seems to be dominant, often chasing the other two. So, should I get some females? Should I take the bully back? Should I switch out all the males for only females? Or, are they still just figuring out so called pecking order and it's fine? The reason I had all males was because I didn't want to have to deal with fry. I tend to stress about things and would constantly be worrying about taking good care of the babies. But, if I need to just have fry and if they live, great, and if not, that's life, that would be ok too. I'm hoping to be able to get more fish on Thursday (my birthday), but I'm wondering if I shouldn't go ahead and adjust the platy ratios somehow now, to take care of this. Any suggestions? Thanks for reading and being so helpful.

 

[Lotus]

I'd return the aggressive male. If you don't want fry, definitely don't get females! Are you 100% sure you have all males?

 

[DesignsOnYou]

Pretty sure. They all have the male fin. I'm having issues with water levels anyway, so I think I'm just going to ride it out unless something changes. Everyone's active and eating, so I think they're ok. On another note, I did a 10% or so water change yesterday before adding stability, given to me free from the pet store, because the BioSpira clearly wasn't performing as it was supposed to. When I did the change, I only lightly vacuumed the top of the gravel, I added the Prime in the bucket, and let it sit for 10 to 15 mins, then put it in the tank, then added the Stability. Today, my ammonia and nitrites are both at 1, nitrates at about 3 or 4 (I think). That's a huge jump in both AFTER the water change. I don't know what happened. The LFS said that apparently our tap water is so bad that it might have made things worse. But, aren't good bacteria supposed to be in the filter, not the water? Shouldn't a relatively small change with a nearly cycled tank have helped, or only slightly delayed the process, not made things worse? They suggest not doing anything for 2 weeks and then testing again, which is incredibly frustrating, since that was the whole point of the BioSpira and I'm trying to get the tank set up before classes start again. Any ideas? Suggestions? Am I just stupid and killed my cycle by doing a 10% water change 8 days after BioSpira when I'm pretty sure my levels were going back down? I've seen multiple web sites that are advocates of both doing water changes and NOT doing water changes during cycling. Grrr.

 

[Lotus]

I'd advise you to do water changes whenever either nitrites or ammonia are over 1ppm. This will help keep your fish alive. If your nitrites or ammonia went up after a water change, check your treated water before you add it to the tank, in case you're introducing one or both with the new water.

This is a nice article on cycling with fish: Aquamaniacs :: View article - Cycling Safely - by Clint Tisher

 

[Dr_fish]

From the description you gave me about the irratation on the male platy It sounds like your platy has fish fungus. This usually happens from a nip from another fish or a cut that gets infected. If you want to treat it I suggest you follow what Lotus said and remove all the aggresive platys and try using melafix (it helped me cure my gouramis of the same thing) Just make sure you remove all carbon from your filter before dosing.*thumbsups

 

[DesignsOnYou]

Thanks to you both. Lotus - I bought some RO water from my LFS and will begin using that for changes, and now all the platys chase each other relatively evenly, which makes me think they just need some girls. Once my levels are safe I'll work on it. Dr_fish - Thanks for your input. I talked to the LFS and they advised waiting for a bit to see what developed, since ich treatments can be dangerous, and no one had any clear symptoms of anything. He's actually getting better, thankfully. So, thanks to you both, I appreciate it.

 

[ts808]

I had experienced the same thing with my platys. I had two males and 4 females, and the one male was very aggressive towards the other, constantly pecking at it until it developed white patches. I was able to isolate the fish being attacked and put some medicine (an antifungal) in which healed it, but as soon as I put it back in the main tank, it would be attacked again and was eventually killed.

I now have one male and two females, and notice that the male is aggressive towards one of the females constantly too, but at least isn't pecking at it..more so chasing it away.

 

[webgeek]

I am having this aggressive male platy problem. I have 3 medium sized males who are chasing every female of all sizes (baby to adult). So i decided to get them out to a smaller tank. Of course, this decision is taken because i am pretty sure at least 2 of the females are preg and will give fry in the next few days and i don't want the males to chance them right from their birth. However, i am open to experiment and take suggestions on how to get their aggressive behavior down and join the crowd.

 

[nanu156]

Umm this came up bc of a spam bot.... it's not a new thread.