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Hi there beautiful planted tank people!
I have a dumb question about platies.
I have a male betta in a 10g planted tank (pictured) and wanted to test his aggressiveness before investing in a school of Chilli Rasbora.
My LFS closed at 7 p.m. so went to Petco (bleck). They didn't have guppies so I bought a pair of Platies. This was over a week ago, and at the time I didn't know I should have bought three - at least two females for the male. At the time, I was expecting I'd be returning these fish the next day bcs of the betta.
Lo and behold, the betta flared at them and chased them a bit, but these little fish showed no fear of him, so he lost interest. He totally tolerates them, and the platies were doing fine, very gregarious untill the male started persuing the female relentlessly. He is SO OBNOXIOUS. The past two days she's been hiding from him. If she comes out of hiding at feeding time, he'll chase her. SHE even took to staying very near the betta as if he'd protect her, but the male platy is relentless and has no fear of the betta who is 5x his size and fast (not a long finned type).
I read on some site that you've got to have a ratio of two females per male. So last night I sent DH to Petco for another female. When he got home (a half hour walk) the fish was dead in the bag! :/ So I removed the male platty to a temporary set up to give the female a break. She seems so stressed and she hasn't come out of hiding - maybe she doesn't realize it's safe now.
My question is, when I get another female platy, will that be enough to distract the male from focusing on the one female?
My other question - is this aggressiveness typical behavior? I was worried about the Betta behaving aggressively, but instead this little bitty fish took over the tank.
Thanks all for any insight.
p.s. I know I don't have two males bcs the gender difference is apparent.
Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk
I have a dumb question about platies.
I have a male betta in a 10g planted tank (pictured) and wanted to test his aggressiveness before investing in a school of Chilli Rasbora.
My LFS closed at 7 p.m. so went to Petco (bleck). They didn't have guppies so I bought a pair of Platies. This was over a week ago, and at the time I didn't know I should have bought three - at least two females for the male. At the time, I was expecting I'd be returning these fish the next day bcs of the betta.
Lo and behold, the betta flared at them and chased them a bit, but these little fish showed no fear of him, so he lost interest. He totally tolerates them, and the platies were doing fine, very gregarious untill the male started persuing the female relentlessly. He is SO OBNOXIOUS. The past two days she's been hiding from him. If she comes out of hiding at feeding time, he'll chase her. SHE even took to staying very near the betta as if he'd protect her, but the male platy is relentless and has no fear of the betta who is 5x his size and fast (not a long finned type).
I read on some site that you've got to have a ratio of two females per male. So last night I sent DH to Petco for another female. When he got home (a half hour walk) the fish was dead in the bag! :/ So I removed the male platty to a temporary set up to give the female a break. She seems so stressed and she hasn't come out of hiding - maybe she doesn't realize it's safe now.
My question is, when I get another female platy, will that be enough to distract the male from focusing on the one female?
My other question - is this aggressiveness typical behavior? I was worried about the Betta behaving aggressively, but instead this little bitty fish took over the tank.
Thanks all for any insight.
p.s. I know I don't have two males bcs the gender difference is apparent.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk