Killer Guppies?????

[poppab02]

OK, so I'm a cichlid guy. I figured I had an empty, cycled 10 gallon and figured what the heck, let's put some guppies in they should be peaceful and no problem, and I can feed any babies to my cichlids. Well, I got myself a male and three females(actually only wanted two but ended up with three through a mistake). Anyways, second day here one of the females who was pregnant when I got her gave birth. The ate the babies since I hadn't gotten cover for the babies yet. So, they've been doing fine and all the water parameters are fine ande everything's going well for a couple weeks. All the sudden, I wake up yesterday and the male looks like I had put him in with my africans for the night, I mean tatered fins, chewed up, just in bad shape. I isolated him but he didn't make it.

My question is what happened? Do I have feminist man hating female guppies or did I do something wrong? 8O

 

[webmoose]

You can get hornwort / floating plants that work great to hide guppy fry..

You didn't do anything wrong.. There shouldn't be anything wrong with 3F:1M ratio for guppies.. You just have some tough lady guppies.. Haha..

Biker guppies.. If you do indeed want to breed them try another single male.. If you don't want a tank full of guppys than just leave it with the three females..

Male guppies are VERY persistent and Female Guppys can get annoyed.. That is why they recommend a larger portion of Females so the Male doesn't stress them to death...

If you still get hornwort with the existing guppies you might still get fry.. They are livebearers that have sperm sacks and can hold and self pregnant with out the male present...

Moooose

 

[TankGirl]

I think this is a fluke occurrence, personally. I keep Endler's livebearers, which are very similar to guppies, and I would be very surprised to have this happen. I think he was ill or something and the females took advantage of the situation and kindof beat up on him in his weakened condition. Normally the females won't be able to overcome a single male if he is strong.

Sorry to hear about it - I keep a 5.5gal Endler's tank that is my "no brainer" tank for a constant supply of fry and easy maintenance, but tons of cover, so that might make a difference for you. If you don't have live plants get some silk ones.

 

[webmoose]

Good point TankGirl..

 

[FawnN]

I have been keeping livebearers and breeding guppies for over 2 years now and have never seen or heard of aggressive guppies.

I would have to agree with tankgirl that the male must have been sick and the females sensed that. This was definintely a very rare case.

From my experience, all weak/sick fish get picked on and nipped at. It was unfortunate that he didn't make it. Sorry for your loss.

 

[poppab02]

Well, I'm going to get another male this weekend. Will Hornwort be able to survive under a typical fluorescent light? I was thinking about getting a live plant but I would want something that was hardy and didn't need any new lighting.

I figured it was a fluke but just was kind of checking to make sure. Thanks everyone.

 

[FawnN]

I'm sure your hornwort will be fine. What about some java fern? they are pretty hardy and low maintenence and livebearers love them.

 

[TankGirl]

Don't know what you got for the tank but water sprite is a great plant that can be floated or planted and has lots of branchy leaves for hiding. You can also give hygro a try, it can be floated as well.