Hello!
I have a question that I couldn't find answered on this page: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/platybehfaqs.htm --and if it's else where, I feel really out of luck, I haven't been able to find anything at all about this and I've been doing a lot of reading (Maybe I'm using the wrong search words? *laughs*) I would greatly appreciate some input. (In other words, I would really, really, really love help) Forgive me if I over explain below, I figured more info might help obtain a better answer...

I have 2 female platies, and 2 males. They don't fight with each other- luckily; 1 male sticks with 1 female. This is my first time having platies, I realize now the ratio is messed up, (thanks for that go to the store that sold them to me) but that's not the problem. The 4 of them really are fine with each other; hardly any chasing, the males just always tag along with their chosen girl, and in a month I had already seen fry- The problem is that the females, and the females alone, have recently started aggressively harassing my very fat bellied, round, fancy goldfish. I'm, sadly, unsure of the type but, they're very slow moving and I have 2 in the tank. I doubt it matters much, but one of them is fully white and the other one is orange and white- these goldfish are about 3 to 4 times the size of the platies (and growing) and don't bother any of the other fish (I've always had great luck keeping gold fish with other community tropicals. They always just seem like the silly stupid dogs of the group, happily looking for food in the gravel) The only problem I've ever had with fish, besides the occasional accident, is that I've never had much luck keeping guppies alive for more than a few months, I think my water has always been too soft or something. I digress: Why on earth are my female platies being "evil"? Any ideas? Links? Anything? They're really plowing into my goldfish- even from across the tank. They don't let up, even when my goldfish are on their fastest slow little run. This isn't just a, "Move out of my way! I want that algae tablet," kind of thing. (Because the girls do that too, but I don't blame 'em there.) I also know most people don't keep goldfish with other fish- so this might be a hard one for me to find good advice on.

The tank I have now is a 20 gallon long, it has a UVB florescent reptile light that the plants love, moderately filled with leafy and fluffy live plants, it has these plastic mangrove roots that offer large hiding areas under them, pea sized gravel, some larger rocks, massive amounts of circulation/filtration (under gravel filter, a very small bubble screen, a fluval 1, and a out of tank turtle filter that uses several levels of carbon and other filtration- the fish and plants seem to love it all) The ammonia is always at 0ppm, the Ph is normally around 6.4 (it fluxed some in the beginning, but always between 6.4 and 7.2), no nitrites or nitrates. I just added some coral and a small amount of sea salt today that took the Ph up to 7 (where I think I wanted it.) I believe it's soft water and the temp in the house is 78 (hot here) with no heating in the tank (don't know the tank temp. is, hoping you have some magical mathematical way of figuring this out if it might matter.) But it feels sort of cool, nice, to the touch. It has the 2 goldfish, 3 ghost catfish (glass fish? also new to me), 1 cory cat, 2 danio's, 5 neon's, 4 platies, and 1 guppy that's been 1/2 dead for a month- (the others got tail rot, or something, from the store I think -which is lovely- but this one survived it.) This is a newer tank, I've only had it set up for 2-3 months, but everything has been peachy -Until- I went out of town for a week, my boyfriend fed the fish a lot more than I do (but the ammonia stayed at 0 is seems) and I can't figure out anything else that would have changed. They get flake food, about 2 pinches a day, and algae tablets here and there (for the cory- but the others just get to it before him usually)- I make sure I see everyone eat but I don't believe they are over or under fed. The more gravid platy is much more aggressive than the less gravid one, but they both still bite and chase the goldfish often now. This did not happen when one was very gravid before. Everything was fine, it had babies, then got pregnant again. (and yes ;) I'm 100% on which are girls and which are boys ) The platies are now in a temp. cage. I don't want to put them back in with the others yet, I want to try to understand what's going on before I decide on doing anything else.

I've always had tanks with goldfish, danios, neon tetras, angelfish (weirdly enough, they got along) cory cats, and even sometimes guppies in them -all together, & in tanks some might consider crowded- (I had that whole list in just a 10 gallon when I was growing up- they all live forever too -the two angel fish even bred. It had those 2 angels, 5 neons, 2 goldfish, 2 danios, 5 guppies, and 1 cory- *laughs*) I don't consider this new tank crowded by my previous standards. They seem to have plenty of room and even their own areas if they've wanted to claim one. They're just the kind of fish I like and it's seem to have worked well enough for me before. But, like I said- this is my first time with platies, and my first community problem. -Just wanted to give an idea of my background with fish. Very few of mine, except guppies, and even ones bought sickly, ever die on me- even after years and years. (it's always their new caretakers when I have to move, *chuckles*)

I'm surprised you've had such good luck with your overcrowded, mixed-species tanks. As you mentioned, experts say to keep goldfish only with other goldfish in aquariums for the most part. How many inches long are you goldfish? If they are over 3" long, if you have a female goldfish, she could be carrying eggs as well which would lead other fish to try to eat those eggs, sometimes right out of her. Seeing as you have new fish in a 20 gallon tank, that's not likely just a thought I had. Most fish will pester goldfish at some point. Sometimes they get along for years and then, bam, they decide goldfish torture is their favorite hobby. You've been lucky that this hasn't occured before. Angelfish especially should have bothered goldfish. My main suggestion would be to buy at least another 20 gallon tank and move the goldfish in there. The remaining fish should get along okay. Glass catfish can be hard to keep alive.

I too have very soft water. I can't keep guppies alive. The coral and salt will help raise the pH and hardness as both the goldfish and platies like a pH of 7-8 with moderate hardness. My goldfish seem fine in my soft water though.

Aside from the crowded conditions and mixing species that could conflict, it sounds like you're doing most everything else right since your fish are doing so well.

Your platies aren't evil, they're just telling you that the goldfish should be in their own tank!

Thanks for being informative (and nice about everything) I know I'm doing some ignorant things with my fish, I think it's why I wanted to describe what I was doing in the past. That first over crowded tank was started when I was just 7 years old or so and lasted until I was 18 and had to give it away. Since it worked so well I never really educated myself much further- which is what I'm trying to do now; because I know ignorance is no real excuse, - heh, boy do I really know that ;) but my intent was always well meaning- So I'm trying to make up for that now.

Heh, yeah- when I went to college and took in a large angel from a guy who was graduating I heard tells of her territorial killing spree, when she was just a wee angel. That shocked me because I then knew just how strange my oldest running tank had been.

Heh heh, I wanted to put "evil" in brackets because I knew they were just doing something natural, I just wasn't sure why. I've never once met an evil animal, although, I'll sometimes joke that some cats are- even though I don't really mean that either ;)

[this is it]


The gold fish are just under 3 inches. Everything was quite small since we only have the 2 basic big pet stores here: Petco and Petsmart, and their stock can be pretty unhealthy and small sometimes. The plan has been to get a 55 when we move, which is going to have to be in 2 months because our lease is up, and then maybe make a pond for the goldfish. (Because there's nothing I love more than ponds, it just depends on exactly where we move) In the past, when the goldfish I've had in with others got too big & destructive to the tank layout, it's usually what I'd do with them and they seemed happy. Now that I think about it- Are there ever any problems with moving tank goldfish outside when the climate is still close to that of their tank? Besides fancy goldfish, which I know can have problems with the cold, are there other concerns I might want to know about such a transfer?

I'll be really interested in seeing how the glass fish do, they're amazing looking- I just hope we work well together. (I've vowed, after this time, to just not try guppies again. They're so pretty but it's not very fair to them if I don't think they'll live *sadness*) When I saw them I figured they weren't real big fans of light, and sure enough, they love hiding under the fake roots when the lights are on. Then at night they come out and sit in the strongest current, directly in front of the fluval. They love it, it's really pretty cool.

The goldfish would love a pond. Fancy goldfish can have a tough time if they have to compete with regular goldfish. Plus, predators get them more easily. As long as the pond and tank water have a similar temperature and water chemistry, there shouldn't be any problems moving the goldfish outdoors, assuming the pond water and pond are safe.