Platy Problem

Hey all,

So a while back(few months) I got a male and female platy. Well, the female
died(long long cycling led to fungus etc). So after my tank had finished
it's cycling, I bought a female platy to keep the company of this male
Platy. Well, at least I thought it was a female(must have been a juvenile),
anyways, it turns out to be a male. Well this caused no problems for a
month or two now. But today, I notice the fin on one of them is torn up and
they are circling and fighting each other pretty aggressively. So I caught
one of them and put him in the breeding trap. So the question is now, what
to do about this situation? The obvious solution I guess is to buy
females.. but I really don't want to get 2 to 3 females for each male(As I
probably don't have room for 4-6 new platies in my tank). What do you guys
recommend?

-Erik

"Erik Soballe" <soballe.DeleteThis@uiuc.edu> wrote in message
news:yAdob.47761$275.117255@attbi_s53...
> Hey all,
>
> So a while back(few months) I got a male and female platy. Well, the
female
> died(long long cycling led to fungus etc). So after my tank had
finished
> it's cycling, I bought a female platy to keep the company of this male
> Platy. Well, at least I thought it was a female(must have been a
juvenile),
> anyways, it turns out to be a male. Well this caused no problems for a
> month or two now. But today, I notice the fin on one of them is torn
up and
> they are circling and fighting each other pretty aggressively. So I
caught
> one of them and put him in the breeding trap. So the question is now,
what
> to do about this situation? The obvious solution I guess is to buy
> females.. but I really don't want to get 2 to 3 females for each
male(As I
> probably don't have room for 4-6 new platies in my tank). What do you
guys
> recommend?
>
> -Erik

If you can, buy 3 females, at least the size of your males. Then add
some plants for additional shelter. This might improve your conditions
enough.

NetMax