Bully in the tank!

[canadiangirl]

Yesterday, after running my tank for five days empty, got 5 platys for cycling: two red wag, two pineapple and a rainbow.

The large pineapple seems to be chasing everyone else inluding the small er one and there are small bites out of the red wag and the other pineapple one.

The two pineapple ones seem to occupy the centre of the tank while the others spend time hiding in the plants.

Should I change the larger pineapplie to a smaller one? I'm adding two angelfish in about 4 week - 6 weeks after tank is done cycling.

[Rbishop]

My recommendation would be to take all the fish back and do a fishless cylce.

Also, what size tank do you have?

[canadiangirl]

A 20 gallon tank.......I was told I needed these small fish to cycle the tank before I put angels in.

[canadiangirl]

Why should I take them back?

[Rbishop]

Be careful of some LFS employees, not all are knowledgable. :eek:

You can cycle a tank in various ways, and a fishless cycle is best and no fish stand a chance of being hurt. Check out the sticky at the top of the newbie forum for some basic cycling info.

Do you have any other established tanks you could draw some media from? Or friends that have fish?

If you haven't purchased a good liquid test kit for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, it would be helpful. If you end up doing a fishey cycle, you will be needing to test your parameters and do water changes to keep ammonia and nitrites below .25 ppm.

[canadiangirl]

I initially dint' want any other fish other than two angels. So I should have read the fishless cycle article first!

So, now working with what I've got, I'll carry on and hope for success. Will puchase a/n kit today.

But the bully is going back if it continues!

Better one to go back then the others getting hurt!

[Sonic Tooth]

I cycled my tank using 5 platys. The male platys can be pretty aggressive towards each other. I have since removed the males since they were so annoying.

If you keep up with your water changes you should be fine. For me, a fishy cycle wouldn't have worked because I honestly couldn't have stared at an empty tank for a month.

[Rbishop]

Feed lightly, monitor frequently and keep the ammonia and nitrites low, < .25

As your bacteria colony grows, you should see ammonia and nitrites taking longer to build up, nitrates developing. Eventually you will not see the ammonia or nitrites. Regular water changes will be required to keep nitrates at 20 or less.

IMO, a 20 gal is small for having angels.

[chunkoblue]

Platys can act this way with new tank mates. Aggressiveness goes down as they get used to each other. Some males are punks though. I tried a fishy cycle once with platys and based on my experience the casualty rate was 75%, I wouldn't recommend it.

[ralpf]

I also introduced two pineapples to my tank, but the female terrorised all my fish including my male Betta as well as her "partner". Swordtails need a lot of room and can be pretty territorial when space is limited. I gave both to a buddy of mine with a huge tank and now they are doing fine. Apparently the attitude on swordtails as being an easy beginners fish is changing somewhat!

Cheers!