Stocking Question

[Faith_at_Large]

My home tank has one lone Zebra Danio, one lone male Red Platy, and two Otos, and one Betta on the other side of a divider (soon to have his own tank). The fish on the main side are starting to nip at each other and it was never my intention to have just one of any species other than the Betta.

I know that adding one fish to a group might be a problem for the newbie; but will adding additional fish of the same species cause problems for a lone resident? I am thinking of adding two more Zebra Danios and two more Platys to balance things out, and I am wondering if I am going to be facing more problems trying this or if it is worth the risk.

I will be moving the Betta out of the tank but this will not be until the new tank is cycled and ready for use; however, I have a warm day tomorrow suitable for bringing fish home, but I am facing a colder extended winter in the coming weeks. I am worried about the current fish picking on each other, especially the Danio and the Platy, and I think they need company of their own kind.

In a pinch, I could put my Betta in a temporary quaranteen tank and separate any trouble makers, but my quaranteen tank is not heated and only really suitable for temporary living for a Betta or quick dips for other species.

For those who may have noticed, yes I will be adding additional stock to my work tank; however, as one recently had to be put down, I will be waiting before adding anything new. And already having two Danios but no other species, it should be easy to gradually top up - not sure what I will add, but probably more Zebras.

[Fishguy2727]

It should be fine. Some chasing may go on, but that is usually just them figuring things out. Do you know how to sex the platies? If not, the males' anal fin (last on bottom before tail) is rod-shaped while the females' is fan-shaped. You want to have at least two females for every male.

[Faith_at_Large]

Sexing Platys is easy, but if you know any tricks to sexing Zebra Danios I would be interested in hearing about it. I think that I have a male at home as he is smaller (narrower) than some of the others I have had, but I am not sure if I am looking the right way. I have been describing my recently deceased Leopard Danio as "he", but "he" was the largest Danio I have seen of that type. I have a male Platy and I was looking at two more males (and no females at all); however it might be interesting to get two females. I am not sure that I want to end up with a tank full of Platys, or leaving any babies to get eaten, but it might solve my stocking plan for my other tank.

I had a female Platy to go with my male Platy before, but she was a glutton and ate herself to death. I am not sure if there is a fish disease or condition to cause this, or if she was just a pig, but she ate nearly every bit of food that went into the tank. I had to sneak food in for the other tankmates. She would even race the sinking food to bottom of the tank to ensure that no other fish got the chance to get it, and ate the pellets whole. She eventually got enormously fat to the point of insanity and later died. I should point out that she never showed any other symptoms other than being ravenous. Her scales never protruded, she never hid or showed any signs of being timid or uncomfortable. She just ate and ate and ate. She also henpecked her mate so perhaps a second female would have been useful.

[Dave66]

Sexing Platys is easy, but if you know any tricks to sexing Zebra Danios I would be interested in hearing about it.

The male danios are slimmer and slightly more colorful than the females. She also has a more rounded belly than the male. If you watch for a while, you can easily see the difference.

Dave

[Faith_at_Large]

Thanks. I am still sorting out the sexing of Danios, but I will have some more opportunities.

I am pleased to announce the addition of two new Zebra Danios to my home tank - they were attempting to school even before the new guys were out of the bag. I have also added two female Platys for my male Red Platy. One female is a very nice Mickey Mouse Platy and the other is a striking Red Wag Platy. They are young and half the size of my male, but he seems very interested in them. Of course I am hoping that they are mature enough to sex properly - otherwise he will be very disappointed. But I am pretty sure that they are what they appear to be at this stage, there were obvious males in the tank of the same size at the store.

My Zebra Danios all appear to be nearly identical in size, the lone Zebra was the last survivor from my cycling experience - will never cycle with fish again, especially in a ten gallon.

So far all are doing well and seem to be much happier now that they have more of their own kind. I know that the Danios would be even happier in a larger school, but my tank is only so large and my Platy needed some play mates too.

My Otos are still doing well, and one appears to be getting plumper than the other. I may have to learn how to sex Otos and check out their breeding habits.

[Faith_at_Large]

It appears that I do have two females for each of my original males, and they are liking it very much. My male Platy has been alternating between chasing the Red Wag and the Mickey Mouse, but I think that the Mickey Mouse is his favorite. My male Danio is less fussy, they are all happy just swimming around together and pestering the Otos (who play along and give back as good as they get). I do have lots of fake plants, fake logs and including one with a cave in it - lots of hiding places to keep everyone happy. And both my Otos are looking plump, but in good health.

I am cycling my next tank for my existing Betta. Archimedes needs more space and this way I can remove the divider in my main tank and give everyone more room - and open up a whole new area full of algae for my algae eaters (Otos and Platys). And yes I am cycling fishlessly.

[NickFish]

Good idea giving the betta his own tank. He will be much happier that way.

[Faith_at_Large]

My Betta is getting overwhelmed by the algae on his side of the tank so I know that he will love stretching his fins in his new tank once it is cycled, and we will enjoy seeing him again in all his glory.

In the meantime, the other fish are thrilled with their new tank mates. The male Danio disappears into the cave now and then with one of the females and then comes out again a little later - cute but probably coincidence. The Platys on the other hand have the most amazing mating dance I have ever seen - I did not know that they even had one. My original male Red Platy has paired up with the female Mickey Mouse Platy and have reached a stage where they are not just chasing each other around any more - they swim in unison in this intricate little routine that looks almost like ballroom dancing for fish. They will do this for a while and then spit off. The male Platy still chases the other one on occassion, but is really hung up on the Mickey Mouse Platy and they are doing this little dance fairly often and then go pick algae together or hide among the plants. I had a pair of Platys before (male and female) but they never did this (never produced any young either).