Guppy problem

[Alba Cory]

Hi,

I have a guppy aggression problem in my tank, 6 male guppies 2 of each 'type' but they constantly go after each others tails to the point that 1 of them almost doesn't have a tail left. The biggest one was the main culprit and has a perfect tail but I added 2 more guppies a week ago to see if it eased the aggression and 1 of the new guppies got his tail shredded and is the smallest of them all but is now just looking for a tail to bite himself constantly. I can't get rid of them as no where will take injured fish so is there anything I can do to help with the aggression? I feel bad just letting it happen, the 1 with very little tail left just doesn't fight back at all and doesn't swim away just sort of lets it happen. I separated the big bully for 24 hours and he settled down a bit but it still happens. All I have been advised is they need females but my tank is fully populated so adding 12+ females is not an option. We have mollies who breed alot so when buying guppies I asked if they would be ok with no females and was told yes. Water parameters are not an issue according to API master kit. No other fish shows much aggression, mollies sometimes fight among themselves and my rainbow shark will chase occasionally. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[Ian086]

Hi Otto and welcome to AA!!!. IMO you definitely need some females. The males have a constant urge to reproduce, so a lack of females will cause fighting/bullying. You could ask your local store if they will take 4 of the males back and swap/buy 4 females. This situation will eventually lead to the death of some of the males...
You say fully stocked, what size tank have you got???

 

[Alba Cory]

Hey thanks for the reply, I guessed that would be the only real solution. I have only asked one pet shop if they would take them and they said due to injury they couldn't as they would be prone to disease. I could ask around and see, would a ratio of 1 male to 1 female be ok though? Its a 125 litre tank. I am re homing our 4 mollies and 3 zebra danios this weekend. I have 9 neon tetras, 5 rummynose tetras, 4 corys, 1 otto, 1 rainbow shark, 2 GBR and 2 neon dwarf rainbows. Oh and 1 bamboo shrimp. It already looks too over crowded with the guppies on top of that. All of these fish aside from tetras are still small in size with my plan to take some of the tetras to a smaller tank I plan on setting up for a Betta.

 

[Ian086]

Your would really need a ratio of 1m/2f but ideally 1m/3f. The rainbow shark is gonna need to be rehomed pretty soon. They require a minimum of 55g and can become quite large, aggressive and territorial. They can/will chase and kill smaller fish. This is what I would do first, it's your call, if you really want to keep him, getting rid of the mollies will cover the bioload for the new guppies....