Poor Platies, the centre of bullying!

[Nameless]

Now my platies are not only bullied by the silver molly (I am returning tomorrow) but also by the guppies, specifically the female ones. The thing is that if the platies would swim away it would not be that bad but they just lay on their said while the other fish nip them.


Now, i need some help, what should I do to help my little platies?

[t_chelle16]

You can try adding more plants & hiding places, but you may have to separate them or get rid of either the bullies or the platies.

-Chelle

[Nameless]

Do you really think more plants will help? I didn't know it would make such a difference. Thanks. Aren't guppies are mollies supposedly the best the tank mates for platties, but in my cause they are the worse. The gourami and neon tetras are the only ones that leave them alone. I am going to have to put them in my 2 gallon fish bowl to heal, but I can't get rid of both my guppies and mollies, they look soo good in there and so do the platies, I don't know what the cause of all this aggression is. Is it possible that water temperature is a major factor in this. Cause I know my water temperature is very high or was high these couples day with the sudden rise in heat, my tank was like at 78-84oc for like 3 or 4 days straight until now it is at like 76. Another problem that I have is that I can't take proper care of plants, I don't know anything about controlling the CO2 and lighting and whatever, that is why I only had fake plants and rocks like decorations in my tanks. So what are some tips on keeping plants. Please do not tell me to use java moss or java fern cause I have yet to meet the lfs here that carries that.



Thanks!

[t_chelle16]

Plants (fake are fine) should give them more places to hide and also help break up line of sight so the guppies and mollies don't always see them.

I know they're supposed to be good tankmates, but sometimes things don't always work out they way they're supposed to. You could have just gotten a freaky, aggressive batch of fish. And generally, fish get more active (and sometimes more aggressive) with higher temperatures but since they didn't start until your temperature dropped, I'm going to guess it's not related.

-Chelle

[Nameless]

I am going to exchange the molly and see what happens, may be I should add another platy and two mollies so the platies seem more in number and the mollies would be preoccupied with each other.

[Fish Addict]

maybe get rid a the molly's and just going with platy's

[Nameless]

I am thinking of getting rid of the molly today, but I really don't want to get rid of the the four guppies.

[Trickster]

How about adding a temporay tank divider, so eventually the guppies learn that they cant get the platies because everytime they try they hit glass, i would leave it in for about a month.. sperating the platies and guppies.

That should fix it in my opinion, Good luck