The fighting guppies

[StarskreamX82]

It's not a peewee football team. lol I bought 7 guppies a few days ago and now 3 are dead. I thought the first 2 had been fighting because their tail fins were destroyed but I just saw the third one dying and it was the ghost shrimp eating them. Are my male guppies fighting over the females? I had 5 males and 2 females. Should there be more females than males in the tank to stop them competing? And if it's not the other males, are Cories known to attack others? The Cory is just a tiny bit bigger than them now.

 

[librarygirl]

I'm not too familiar with guppies but I'd say yes that it's the aggression of the males and too few females. Recommended ratio is at least two females per male. The Corys are pretty peaceful fish so I wouldn't think it was them; also shrimp and other fish tend to eat fish that are dead so I wouldn't blame them either. I'd get at least 8 more females if your tank allows it. What size tank and what other fish are in there?

Also just to rule out a water quality issue is the tank cycled? What are your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate readings?

 

[Talvari]

Yeah, not only will the males fight each other because there are not enough females, but I have seen instances where the females were basically pestered to death. Too many males trying to mate with her at once, she barely had time to eat or rest.

 

[StarskreamX82]

It's a 15g with the guppies, 1 Cory, and 2 Creamcicle Lyretails.

 

[Aces11]

Livebearers should be in the ratio of 1 male to at least 2 or 3 females to prevent aggression between males and to prevent males from harassing the females to death.

 

[librarygirl]

It's a 15g with the guppies, 1 Cory, and 2 Creamcicle Lyretails.

What kind of Corys? Corys do better in groups of at least 5. With your current fish though you're just about fully stocked, so not sure how you'd fill out the Guppys and Corys. You could rehome/return the Mollys, maybe rehome/return a few of the male guppies and replace them with females and add a few more Corys, but that would fully stock you, maybe a bit over, but it would be more balanced and if you kept up with at least one 50% water change per week you may be able to get away with it. Just keep in mind that Guppys breed like mad so if you get a lot of babies you're going to have a tank that's too overstocked so you may need a separate tank for fry or upgrade to a much larger tank.