Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => The Emergency Room => Topic started by: Sekhmet on October 01, 2014, 12:17:18 AM
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Hey all. I have a 64L Fish Box (aka Fish Pod) with 4 male Platys, 8 neons and 3 shrimp. For a few days, I've noticed one Platy can be near the bottom of the tank in the corner. He isn't like this all day by any means and will come out and act normal - swim about, interact with his pals, feed and be cheeky with one or two of the other Platys, I just don't get why he does it at all. I can't sit watching the tank all day to know exactly how much he does it but I know he does it enough for me to notice. He isn't showing any physical signs of illness, he isn't lethargic or off his food and if I tap the glass near him he will swim away. I test the water regularly with API strips and ammonia kit and everything is great. I do a 20% water change once a week using Interpet Bio-active Tap Safe because of the great things it removes and adds to the water.
Any tips/advice please?
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Hi Sekhmet. He could just be getting some time away from the other Platys - male Platys are known to squabble and it will probably result in a hierarchy of some description being established. If he's then at the bottom of that hierarchy he may like to get away from them for a bit. As he keeps using the same place it probably just suggests that it's his preferred hiding place - do you have hidey holes/plants/decorations in your tank?
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EDIT: beaten to it by 15seconds, but I'll leave this reply as is! :))
Male platies can get 'boisterous' and he may be bottom of the pecking order, and a 64litre tank doesn't give him much hiding space. The thing to watch out for with platies are clamped fins... that's a reasonably sure sign that he's unhappy. Plus platies can spit out their food rather than swallow it if they're unwell... so watch him eating really carefully for a while.
Do you have lots of decor and/or plants that will provide hiding places and broken lines of sight?
p.s. Welcome to the forum. :wave:
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Thanks for your replies!! Yes I do have some hiding places - plants, piled rocks that provide cover and a cave with holes to swim in and out of that provide cover also. He is the one with a deformed eye - it was like that when I got him, it causes him no pain but I am unsure if he is blind in it, so maybe they pick on him for that? He eats fine and I've noticed no clamped fins.
One thing though, today I tried to observe him a bit more and noticed he was swimming strange with one of the other platies and when I looked it up today it looked like he was trying to mate with the other, but they are all male :/
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Livebearers are like that. If there are no females in the tank they'll try to mate with each other, or any other fish in the tank. It's quite normal for them.
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Ah, I see lol Just felt sorry for the fish who was getting hit on, he wasn't a happy bunny! Thanks :)