Aggressive Platies!!!

[TMartins]

Hello, all my Platies are aggressive toward each other.  I have 3-1 female to male ratio.  My Bubblebee Male Platy attacks a Female Red Tuxedo Platy (who may be pregnant) .  The Red Tuxedo attacks a Blue Female Platy but won’t attack her when Bumblebee is around.  I had Bumblebee in a time-out and she went right back to attacking Blue.  Blue will attack a Female Carolina Mickey Mouse Platy when it’s feeding time.  Bumblebee gets along fine with Blue and Carolina but can’t stand Red and literally will launch at her.  I have Red in a Ziss Breeder Box (BL-3T) for the time being.  The other fish in the 20 gallon high tank is 1- Bolivian Ram and 5- Corydoras and they’re all fine.  It’s a cycled tank that has lots of live plants.  I purchased the Platy’s from a local fish store and they came from the same tank.

[Colu]

They are just sorting out the pecking order it will carm over time

[Cory]

As more plants grow in, it'll most likely mellow out as well. Out of site, out of mind.

[CalmedByFish]

I don't know if this will help, but did you notice how they behaved when they were together at the store?

Regarding Cory's plant comment. Maybe you could stick some fake plants in to break the fishes' line of site while the real plants grow.

[TMartins]

It was a big tank with Platies and Swordtails mixed in.  I didn’t notice any aggression.  Originally I had Bumblebee and a Blue Male Platy in my Aquarium and they were fine for the first few days and then the Blue Platy really started going after Bumblebee.  I brought the Blue one back and got the females instead.  The rest is history.  The owner suggested getting dither fish to help with the aggression.  I’m looking at doing that.  I want Cardinal Tetras but the owner advised against it because of the Bolivian Ram will eat any slim shaped fish but everything I’ve read online suggests otherwise.  That’s why I haven’t tried the dither fish yet.  It’s just not the nipping but how they launch at each other.  I used to have Platies along time ago and love their colors and never had this problem, but then again it’s been 20+ years and just got back into the hobby.

[CalmedByFish]

1 hour ago, TMartins said:

 I want Cardinal Tetras but the owner advised against it because of the Bolivian Ram will eat any slim shaped fish but everything I’ve read online suggests otherwise.  

I'm not familiar with either species, but aren't tetras much faster than rams? If so, the shape would be irrelevant.