Hiding Tarpe...Platy

Question
Thanks for your quick response, Chris.  My error on the name; we have 2 platies.  The first platy is an orange/black one (the female that is hiding) and the male is a mickey mouse platy.  There was a third (tuxedo platy) but the male did harass the 3rd until she died 10 days in the tank back in mid-February.  If anything, the remaining female keeps the male in check and he keeps his distance or she'll lunge at him.  Overall they seem to get along great.  In the past couple of hours, I've noticed that the orange/black one is able to swim into the pirate ship (tight squeeze) and is hiding out in there (hence what lead me to believe she was under the pirate ship this morning (hole in bottom).  She won't come out. No sign of disease except the female is growing at a faster rate.   If you can advise, I'd really appreciate it.  I'll take water suggestion into account next time also. Thanks!
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Followup To

Question -
I have 2 tarpes of different kinds (1 male and 1 female) in a 5 gallon tank that has been set up for 5 months.  The fish were bought 3 months ago.  All appeared fine until today when I woke up and could not find one (female).  The tank was 20% cleaned last night.  Upon further investigation, the female was actually under a pirate ship decoration in the tank (very small space).  I thought it had become trapped during cleaning but when I freed the fish, I looked an hour later and she was back in the same spot.  5 minutes later, back again...must have dug under the rocks to get there.  She has been growing at a much larger rate compared to the male tarpe.  What is happening here?  25-26 degree water as always and pH and ammonia fine (nitrates have always been a bit elevated, hence the type of fish we chose).  Thanks for help!  

Answer
Hi Fionna;

Ah, platies! She's probably trying to have babies. Platies are livebearers. The tank is very small for them to stay healthy with babies in there though. It's barely enough capacity for just the parents. There's no room for her to escape from the male and find privacy. Platy females need clean fresh water to deliver in safely too. They like to deliver in the morning time before the lights come on.

So, make a 25% water change every day for two or three days and you may find some new arrivals very soon! Add a small bunch of live plants for the babies to hide in. They also feed on micro-organisms that live on the plants. They like soft bushy ones such as elodea and cabomba.

Oh, and shop for a bigger tank. They're gonna need it!

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins