# platies fighting, is this normal ?



## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Hi

I have 5 platys in my 30 gl tank (together with other fish), 3 females and 2 males. I noticed that one of the females always hiding and only comes out when i feed them. I also noticed that one of the males (bigger one) chasing the smaller one. And as a result smaller one hides most of the time. Is this normal ?


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

The general rule with live breaders is 3 females for each male. The males chase the females for mating. With a few females for each male, they take turns getting chased by the males and get breaks.


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

pyrrolin said:


> The general rule with live breaders is 3 females for each male. The males chase the females for mating. With a few females for each male, they take turns getting chased by the males and get breaks.


Well in my case bigger male chasing smaller one. They both chasing two of the 3 females as the third one hides all the time.


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## Echinate (Jun 15, 2011)

I had a large group of platys a while ago 5 females 3 males. The females all died shortly after giving birth which left me with the 3 males. (None of the babies survived the gourami who lives in the tank) Shortly after the biggest male took it upon himself to chase and kill the other two males even though there were no females in the tank to mate with. 

I always just assumed he's just a very aggressive boy and haven't gotten any more platys since. He now lives with odessa barbs and black skirt tetras and seems to get along fine with them.

Some fish are just mean.


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Echinate said:


> I had a large group of platys a while ago 5 females 3 males. The females all died shortly after giving birth which left me with the 3 males. (None of the babies survived the gourami who lives in the tank) Shortly after the biggest male took it upon himself to chase and kill the other two males even though there were no females in the tank to mate with.
> 
> I always just assumed he's just a very aggressive boy and haven't gotten any more platys since. He now lives with odessa barbs and black skirt tetras and seems to get along fine with them.
> 
> Some fish are just mean.


Very interesting. I have sword tales before and in both cases they tried to dominate aquarium and attack other fish if they thought it approaching their female. I also had honey guramy and I had to remove him because I noticed that it was going after my adult guppies instead of their babies. I also had two more females platyes before who was in the tank originally. But when I put two more males and one female (who is in the tank now) they died almost right away. I had to replace them with another two females who is fine in the tank at the moment.


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