Female Swordtails attacking Female Platys...

[Tetrathug]

Hello every one, this is my first post and i need a bit of help.

Two of my female swordtails have been literally attacking the fins and sides of my female cherry balloon platies. One of the balloons has lost a side fin. This attacking is not constant, but im worried. The female swordtails dont get along amongst themselves either. Im wondering if introducing a male platy or male swordtail might help?

The swordtails do not attack any of the other fish in the aquarium, like the guppies or tetras. They deliberately target the balloon platies. Please help
:help: :help: :help: :help:

[rich311k]

I do not know if a male would help or not. if it were my tank I would remove the swordtails and get more platys.

[Lab_Rat]

Hi Tetra,

Welcome to the forum!

Can you tell us more about your tank? It would be helpful to know what size tank you have and what other fish (species and how many of each) are in your tank. Then maybe we can figure out what's going on.

[Tetrathug]

hey!

i have 2 swordtails, 2 platys, 1 guppy male, 2 guppy females, 1 clown loach, 2 neon tetras, 2 black neon tetras, in a 20gal freshwater tank.

[Lab_Rat]

Well, the 20g is not super cramped if they're not at adult size yet so I'm not sure why they would act so nasty towards the platies. I've never considered swordtails to be a particularly aggressive, or even semi-aggressive. Do you have another tank you can keep them in? Or could you possibly rehome them or take them back to your lfs (local fish store)? You could possibly try a tank divider, keeping the swords on one side and the platies on the other, though this would greatly decrease the swimming room for all fish and the swords could still pick on each other.

If you can figure out a new home for the swordtails we could help you improve your stocking list (the tetras generally need to be kept in schools and unfortunately the clown loach is a schooling fish that will get huge and needs 125g+).

[Tetrathug]

thanks for your help.
i think i will seperate the swordtails from the platys, in a seperate tank, so that i dont have to get a seperator since the tank is only 20gal.

the clown loach is a small size, so im not sure if it will grow as much. But if it does i am sure it will take a while cuz we'v had this loach for a month and it still looks the same in size, compared to the swordtails and the neon black tetras.

[Lab_Rat]

No problem, I'm glad you have a second tank to move the swordtails to. Hopefully the platies can heal up quickly, extra water changes will help them heal faster.

Here's a profile for clown loaches: [Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

Properly kept, they will grow over a foot long. They do grow slowly, but they are a social fish and like to be kept in groups. The tetras are also schooling fish, they do best with 6+ of the same species.

[Neon]

welcom Tetra in AC !!!

[sheamurai]

Funny, I had the same problem. I have a m/f pair of cherry balloon platys and 1m + 2f swordtails. The female swords were constantly harassing the female platy. I thought it was because they figured out she's always pregnant and therefore is a source of food sometimes. I ended up moving the platys to my ten gal tank at work.

[Tetrathug]

Thanx for the advice everyone. Ive seperated the swordtails from the lot and i mite have to find them another home.

[Tetrathug]

Does anyone think that introducing a type of male platy would help? It might mate with both the swordtails and the balloon platies to ease the tension or at least distract the swordtail females from the female balloon platies. I dont want a male swordtail, because the females are such a handful. If you advise against mixing the swordtail females with the male platy, then i'll just give up on the swordtails and just get a male platy. Either way, which platy do you recomend and should I try this theory of mine?
I just want them to all get along, ive grown attached to them.
:grouphug:

[Lab_Rat]

I wouldn't try for platy/swordtail hybrid fry, unless you plan to cull all of the fry. Plus, do you have a plan for the fry if you add a male? They breed often and produce many fry.

[Tetrathug]

I will either cull the hybrid fry or raise to maturity in my breeding tank and then trade them in at my pet store. I'll probably keep a couple of them for myself. This is all hypothetical though, only if it actually calms the swordtails down will I go through with it.
I have a new theory aswell, I saw one of the platies actually attack back and began pestering the swordtails!! The swordtails left them alone for about a whole day and then began nipping at our apple snails. Most our fish will gently nip at the shell as if getting algae. However, the swordtails were going for the actual flesh of the snails. I think its the slime coating that they seem to have a taste for. Rite now im feeding them tropical fish flakes, and bloodworm. I was thinking of introducing an algae based food, or algae wafer what do you think?

[rich311k]

Good idea on the veggie flakes. These fish will appreciate it.