worried about guppy harassment

[Kennakm]

I have a ten gallon tank with 2 female guppies and a male. I'm worried about one of them. actually both of them for different reasons.

1) the male only bothers female 1. constantly. i am worried it will stress her out or kill her. he is relentless!

2) female 2's last litter was premature and they all died within 12 hours. it's been 6 weeks. she looks pretty pregnant but her gravid spot has bits of orange in it instead of being completely black. in addition to that, the male leaves her alone. I've never seen them mate. he's always chasing the other around.

so i have three questions.

i have some fry that are getting big enough to be added to the main tank but not quite. should i invest in a couple more adult females to lessen the harassment on female 1?

why won't the male mate with female 2?

why is female 2 having reproductive issues/ lengthy pregnancies?

(tank is cycled.)

 

[HopeGR]

Re:

I had the same problem. I started mating my guppies in Sept and even though I had luck with a handle of fry that survived from 3 set of pregnancies, what followed as turned me off to guppy breeding for now.

It is recommended 4 females to one male guppy. Is the male a tuxedo cobra? Those are the worst. They are like rapists, not to make light of it. They usually stick to one female and stress her out to the point of killing her - and it's a slow death.

Add more females to avoid this uncomfortable situation. I hope you do it soon because she may not survive. This happened to me many times in these 2.5 months and I lost all 8 of my females, because I would add them in one by one instead of as a group. Also, I have seen them die hours after giving because they get so stressed during breeding. Good luck. Oh and with 10 gallons, I think you can do 5 or 6 guppies, max.

 

[Kennakm]

I had the same problem. I started mating my guppies in Sept and even though I had luck with a handle of fry that survived from 3 set of pregnancies, what followed as turned me off to guppy breeding for now.



It is recommended 4 females to one male guppy. Is the male a tuxedo cobra? Those are the worst. They are like rapists, not to make light of it. They usually stick to one female and stress her out to the point of killing her - and it's a slow death.



Add more females to avoid this uncomfortable situation. I hope you do it soon because she may not survive. This happened to me many times in these 2.5 months and I lost all 8 of my females, because I would add them in one by one instead of as a group. Also, I have seen them die hours after giving because they get so stressed during breeding. Good luck. Oh and with 10 gallons, I think you can do 5 or 6 guppies, max.

Okay yikes. He is a tux but not a cobra. He is so disinterested in the other one. Its hard to watch. Ill move them to a different tank until i can get more females and see how they do. I’m getting a 30gal this month and plan on letting the guppies i have move to that one . Then i want to make my 10gal a hospital tank.

Thank you for the input!

 

[HopeGR]

Okay yikes. He is a tux but not a cobra. He is so disinterested in the other one. Its hard to watch. Ill move them to a different tank until i can get more females and see how they do. I’m getting a 30gal this month and plan on letting the guppies i have move to that one . Then i want to make my 10gal a hospital tank.

Thank you for the input!

Yes move her quickly. I meant to say the cobras harass more than the tuxedos. But generally speaking, the males will not leave them alone. I am left with just one female and one male, amongst the handful of guppy fry and I see her already stressed by the tux guppy. I don't know what to do since I do not plan to get any more guppies - I feel I enjoy the tank more with the mollies and platys I have. And I think the females of those breeds do not get as stressed ad the female guppies do. Good luck, and enjoy the hobby as I was told to do as well!!