Is this normal Platy Behavior?

[Starburst]

I've had 2 male platies in a 10g community tank (cycled for months) that started off co-existing just fine. As a matter of fact, whenever the guppies get overly frisky the red sunburst platy would always get in between the dalmatian platy and the guppy to kinda run distraction. Fast forward to now, the red sunburst platy is always in the face of the dalmatian platy and just follows him everywhere he goes (no nipping). The dalmatian platy will try hiding, and it'll work for a short time, but then the sunburst will find him and the chasing continues. 

https://youtu.be/ykStr3bqzhg?si=chU3AqVrWeBTgA0U (for some reference)

Is this normal behavior? Should I be worried even though there's no nipping or injuries occuring? Any insight would be much appreciated.

[GoofyGarra]

Platy males will spar with each other and chase each other around, this is normal behavior. Personally i have not observed any damage being done because of it. To reduce aggression you might want to add a  bunch of females. In my experiences often the males dont feel like competing and fighting if they all have plenty of girlfriends. However if you are trying to stay away from platy fry, which i understand, you could try adding another male or two so that the aggression is much more spread out and the dalmation platy can get a break.

Beautiful platies by the way, hope this helps.

[Starburst]

On 12/17/2023 at 5:35 AM, GoofyGarra said:

Platy males will spar with each other and chase each other around, this is normal behavior. Personally i have not observed any damage being done because of it. To reduce aggression you might want to add a  bunch of females. In my experiences often the males dont feel like competing and fighting if they all have plenty of girlfriends. However if you are trying to stay away from platy fry, which i understand, you could try adding another male or two so that the aggression is much more spread out and the dalmation platy can get a break.

Beautiful platies by the way, hope this helps.

Thanks so much!  I'm definitely trying to avoid fry, but there's no more room to add another Platy so I might have to add more plants. The tank used to be more heavily planted, but the fish would never swim in the areas that were more densely planted, so I removed them to give them more space to swim.

[GoofyGarra]

@Starburst try planting in a way that gives the fish ways to swim around it but blocks line of sight like this for example (it doesnt have to be exactly like this the idea is just to give the fish space to swim around the plants:

Green indicates plants

Black indicates areas for fish to swim:

[Starburst]

On 12/17/2023 at 9:41 AM, GoofyGarra said:

@Starburst try planting in a way that gives the fish ways to swim around it but blocks line of sight like this for example (it doesnt have to be exactly like this the idea is just to give the fish space to swim around the plants:

Green indicates plants

Black indicates areas for fish to swim:

I'll try something like that and get more bushy plants. The Amazon Swords, Anacharis, and Limnophila Heterophylla won't cut it (the Limnophila are growing more tall/thin and less dense/bushy). I just got the Echinodorus and they're dying back, but hopefully they sprout new growth soon.