More Platy Perplexing Questions!

Question
Hi Karen! Thank you for your last email! Glad to hear you were homeschooled too! No wonder you are so knowledgeable!
Here is where I am at. Dominant Male follows most peaceful platy around EVERYWHERE, every turn, he seems to be it's personal bodyguard, our other Male, Spongebob, was about as small as the other new fish, and is still fairly small.
He has now taken to hiding in the rock formation for a few days, and it looks like he has some anal fin damage.
He seems to like to try to Push the dominant male and ends up regretting it when he does come out of hiding, kinda like a kid brother tries to antagonize his older brother?
But he pecks and him and seems to be almost trying to protect the twinbar platy from this other male. But I have looked at lots of pics and they all look male.
So, what is going on with them? WHat can I do to let this little guy swim about without being scared to come out?
Also, how can I tell if the peaceful platy is stressed out by the dominant male? She seems annoyed with him, but never pecks or rams him. What would happen if I added one more male fish of similar size of the smallest? or is that too much in a 10 gal. tank. ( i just have the 3 platies, 3 plants, one rock)

Answer
Hi Laura, and thanks for your compliments! ;-)

It may help to add more platies. You say you have two males and one female? I say that because you mentioned a "she" in your letter. Your tank is definitely not overstocked and you could easily probably keep about 5-6 platies in there just fine. It's possible you have too many males in one tank and you may have to limit it to just one or two males and several females if your fish are becoming miserable. Although I'm not sure if you'd want any babies. Usually platies will keep their own fry population under control or you could keep a few other fish that will snatch up and eat the extra platy fry and prevent an overpopulation. Its harsh sounding I know, but an overcrowded tank is ten times worse.

Stressed fish will tend to behave similar to the little male (spongebob?) where they will hide and be frightened all the time.

You may also try breaking up the line of sight in your tank by using tall plants to help the fish "get out of each-other's sight" for a bit. An extra hiding place or two would be ideal too.

Best of luck and I hope this helps!
Karen~