I have a question about platy aggression...

I bought three female platies a few days ago for the 10 gallon tank. A red, a panda, and a blue micky mouse. When we picked them out, they all seemed really peaceful. On the ride home, the panda (who is the largest) started picking on the other two. The blue was very timid, and stayed still for the entire car ride.

However, once they got into the tank, the roles reversed. The blue suddenly began to take control, and she is MEAN. At first, she would just pick at the other two occasionally. Then she began to single the panda out, and now the panda hides a lot of the time. She's not injured in any way, there are no rips in her fins, and she's still eating. She even swims around some of the time, but lately she's been hiding a lot while the blue patrols the tank. Since yesterday, the red has also been hiding a lot (though she doesn't usually pay attention when the blue bullies her).

Is this normal behavior? It's a 10 gallon tank, with plenty of hiding places and a very powerful filter. We monitor the ammonia and other levels, so I don't think there's anything stressing the blue. All the fish seem healthy, though I was worried about ich because for the first day, two of them were scratching against decorations (as it happens, they were the blue and the panda...).

Will it get better when we add more fish? We don't plan on adding any more platies until the tank fully cycles, but when we do we'll probably add three or four more. Will that make a large enough group that blue will be less aggressive? Is a month too long to wait?

Mainly, I want to know if I should take the blue back to the store. I don't want her to stress the other two too much, so I want to nip this before it becomes a real health hazard to them.

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Creatures great and small, I love 'em all! But mainly the fish.

Anyone have any opinions?

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Creatures great and small, I love 'em all! But mainly the fish.

Maybe staking out territories, I don't know as I don't keep platies. Never have

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Thanks anyway. I just don't have a lot of experience with keeping groups of platies or any kind of fish, so any opinion is helpful!

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Creatures great and small, I love 'em all! But mainly the fish.

Did they come from different tanks by any chance?

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They did, actually. I didn't think it would be a problem because there were a lot of differently-colored platies mixed together... Could that be it? Is there anything I can do to determine if that's the problem, or to stop it?

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Creatures great and small, I love 'em all! But mainly the fish.

Well, and now the panda is beginning to chase the others. Is this a good thing? I suppose I'll just wait and see if it causes any injuries...

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Creatures great and small, I love 'em all! But mainly the fish.

I don't actually know very much about this, myself, but I thought I'd chime in anyway... hope it's okay even though I'm very very new to platy keeping too!

I have three platy ladies as part of the 20g community I'm working on restocking. Two of them came from the same tank and the other one came from a different tank. I noticed a lot of chasing and semi-aggressive behavior for the first week that I had them, but now things seem to be really evened out. One of them has definitely claimed "under the fake bridge" as HER spot, and at first, she would lunge at the other two if they came near. Now she just hangs out in there sometimes and the others know not to bother her about it.

I have no idea if this helpful, but in my extremely limited experience, the aggression died down after they established some boundaries.

I have noticed, that if the Platys come from different tanks they like to show that they "need space" So they'll chase each other around perhaps nip at each other.

This happened with my male, but of course he started doing the chasing to mate. One of the larger females wasn't interested, so she nipped him and would chase him around. Poor little guy was missing part of his fin and he look like Nemo.

After about a week, they got accustomed to each other and the boy healed up. They're not really territorial, but they just gotta give each other space and get familiar. They usually hang out together and then separate when exploring.

I had wild Platys before, that all came from the same tank and they stuck with each other like there was no tomorrow.

tl;dr: in a week or so, everyone will know each other and get along.

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Thanks, guys! PineappleRain, you're still more experienced than I am, so I'm really grateful for your input! Thanks to you too, Pigeonfish!

I guess it's just the first-week jitters. It has me and the fish nervous! For the most part, they all swim around pretty peacefully. But it seems like the blue and the panda are fighting for dominance. On the one hand, blue is fiercer. On the other hand, panda's a lot bigger. And poor red's caught in the middle!

I'm going to add more plants this payday, and maybe another cave, so we'll see if that gives them more to explore. It should also help when I add more fish, too.

Again, thanks for all the encouragement! :D Now I won't fly off the handle if I see one tiny little nip.

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Creatures great and small, I love 'em all! But mainly the fish.

Update: I think I'm going to take the blue back... She's being extremely vicious today, and the panda actually turns over onto her back whenever the blue nips at her. I'm scared to death that the panda will go belly-up if this keeps going on!

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Creatures great and small, I love 'em all! But mainly the fish.

Have you tried "giving her a time out"? That way when she enters the tank, the other two Platys seem like they were there first, and it's their turf. I believe the blue one jumped into the tank first?

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