Tank Terror

[FishyCent]

I had 4 female plates with some other community fish. I decided to add one male Platy The male is terrorizing everyone in the once peaceful tank. Will this behavior stop? Should I add another male? Could it just be that I got a a extra nasty Platy? 

[Lennie]

Could you please explain "terrorising" behavior further?

Male livebearers generally constantly chase their females attempting to mate nonstop. 1m:4f ratio is great and your females should have enough time to chill when needed. 

 

No, don't add another male. This would cut from the potential relaxing time from your females.Consider it like this: when there is 2m:4f, females will be bothered by males much more. Meanwhile when it is 1m:4f, the females will have much less focus on themselves and easily take their time off.

On 7/23/2023 at 10:23 PM, FishyCent said:

Could it just be that I got a a extra nasty Platy? 

probably just a normal male livebearer 🙂

[FishyCent]

He chases all the fish around. Some flee when he comes near them.  All the fish used to swim around the tank. Now they spend most of their time hiding on the plants or close to the bottom

[Lennie]

what are the other fish you have? Is there a big size difference between the fish? What's your tank size?

[FishyCent]

20 gal.  I have 2 glo fish I inherited from my grand children and 5 albino Cory’s plus the 5 platys

[Guppysnail]

This is normal behavior with many fish. He is new kid on the block and sees females so wants to prove himself as “the boss man” and be dominant to attract ladies and stake claim to territory. 
The behavior should slowly calm and once the females are receptive to his mating advances it should calm even further. He was probably dominant in the tank he came from and want to ensure his place in the pecking order. 

[FishyCent]

Thanks for the information 

[nabokovfan87]

If you have a breeder box, try to move the male to that setup for ~3-5 days and just reset the tank.  He will understand he can't terrorize everyone and that will lead to things calming down a little bit.  I am dealing with this in my own situation.  4 females, 2 males.  One of the males got attacked to the point where he's missing a bit of his tail now.

The other technique is to move the decor around the tank, have floating plants or wood to break lines of sight.  Things that can cover a bit of that upper area on the tank.

[PineSong]

I've used time out in a breeder box to reset bully guppies and mollies in the past, so I can second Nabokov's advice. 

Also, to consider is that with a male in the tank you will be having baby platies every month for eternity. Not sure whether your glofish are a species that will help control that population but wanted to make sure  you're aware. 4 females x 25-ish offspring per month will fill your 20g in no time flat.