# guppies attacking platy



## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

I have one female guppy that attacked the female platy to the point where she ripped off the scales down one side of the poor thing. I treated the platy,scales healed. I removed the female guppy. Now the other guppy is attacking the platy and has damaged her side again.
You have to wonder what is it with that particular platy that makes the others attack. The guppies do not bother the other 2 platies in the tank- just her.
I wonder if they can sense something abnormal about her. She recently ( 3 weeks ago) gave birth to 4 fry that I know about. One of them looks a bit odd- tail is too long and anal fin is mis-shapen. 
I also have a danio that has lost its ability to swim properly and all the other fish attack it too trying to kill it it looks like. 
Sort of like some mother animals that abandon babies and not others. like they have a 6th sense about something being wrong.
Anyone here know anything about animals sensing this stuff?


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

I know that in the wild animals do pick on the weaker or sick ones as those are the ones that can bring the pack down. I don't know of any reason why fish should be exempt from this. 

If you think about it as humans we pick on people who are "different." I don't know how much of that has to do with our ability to think or how much has to do with this being a primal type behavior. No I am not calling humans animals. I am talking purely about what may or may not be behind certain behaviors. There are a slew of psychologists and sociologists who deal just with these issues  Maybe we could have similar studies done with fish!


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## zog (Jul 21, 2011)

Guppies!?

Interesting, all the guppies I have had got along with my Mollies, as well as the baby mollies I had.


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## Ladayen (Jun 20, 2011)

Yes as you were thinking.. sick fish usually get killed off. This way they cannot spread disease to the rest.


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## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

My fish I first started with were 8 danios. One bieng an outcast. Always hid in my little cave thing I had. All the other fish would pick on him soooo much. Eventually causing him to not eat, and die. So fish can sense whats wrong with others. Only it confuses me because I don;t know what happened to that one. Good luck.


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## CalvinKE (Mar 17, 2011)

i know that female bettas sometimes pick on each other and if they are all bullying one, you should take the one being picked on out, not the bully, idk if it would be the same for guppies and mollies tho, maybe the guppy is mad bc the molly took her man haha


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