Hurt Guppies

[jratuszn]

It's a long story, but I currently have about 10 fancy guppies in a 70gal tank with 5 yellow labs and 4 peacock cichlids, all about 2-3". Recently, I've been noticing some damage to my guppies, not only to the fins (I expected that, in fact I've been keeping the guppies around to minimize any aggression between my africans. Today, I watched one of my guppies nip at the fins of one of the labs, until the lab finally had enough and gave the guppy a few nips on the head. Nothing serious, just nips, no chunks taken out or anything. But my guppies are getting lighter blotchy areas, which I'm assuming are just "bruises". I am concerned that, if this continues, the guppies may become stressed enough to actually succumb to any of the ubiquitous pathogens floating around the tank. Is this a valiid concern? Is this a real enough threat to outweigh the "peacekeeping" role the guppies play in my tank?

Thanks,

-J

 

[Allivymar]

You may have something there jratuszn; stress without a doubt can open the door to infections and if the guppies are continually picked on then yeah, they'll be stressed. Are the picked on that much? Or only occasionally?

 

[Terry]

Your guppys are not doing a peace keeping role in your tank, African cichlids are naturally aggressive. It is part of there nature, the only thing your Africans see when they look at your guppys is food. As soon as the Africans get big enough you can say bye bye guppys, at the moment they are probably trying to eat them and not succeeding but in the end the Africans will win.
You have 2 types of fish from two differant countries that shouldn't even be in the same tank. Guppys should be in an Community set-up / South American. And the African should be in a tank with just Africans.

 

[jratuszn]

I really don't think the africans are trying to eat the guppies, and they actually don;t even seem to notice the guppies unless the guppies nip at them first. I guess they're just stupid.

Additionally, while I understand that this is in no way a biotope tank, I have noticed a defiinite increase in aggression between my cichlids since I removed all of the guppies to the quarantine tank. So far, it's just been flaring and chasing, with no actual damage. With any luck it'll stay that way. I am still looking for a way to minimize, or at least re-direct any aggression that I can, but the most commonly suggested tank-rearrangement isn't really feasible, as all of the rocks on my tank are siliconed directly to the glass. Would moving some real/fake plants around break up territories, or do you guys have any better suggestions?

 

[Terry]

Hiya jratuszn,
You say that you have the rocks siliconed to the back of your tank, have you left room for the fish to swim down the back behind the rocks. If the fish swim into the rocks and they are met with dead ends then that will increase the aggression in the tank because the fish that is being chased can't get away.
What i do is when putting the rock in the tank is put the first layer about 3" from the back of the tank and then put the rest of the rock on top putting it against the back wall.
That way if a fish is being chased by a fish he can swim into the rocks and he has the lenght of the tank to get away. The way to look at it is if the fish gets cornered it gets beat up, if he gets away he doesn't. With all the little in's and out's on the bottom level the fish can swim in and out of the rocks knowing that they can get away if needed.
The other thing is ratio of fish, if you have to many males in your tank you will get lots of aggression. What you should be looking for is 1 male to 3 females of each of the species of cichlids.

HTH

 

[jratuszn]

There really aren't any "dead ends" - the rocks are big enough- most about 4-6" dia, so there is enough space in the gaps for the fish to move in and out. I doo feel like I'm watching a cartoon, when they pop in one hole and come out of another on the opposite side of a tank. Makes a head count pretty tough.

As far as gender ratios, all of my fish are 2-3", and as juveniles, it's tough to sex most of them. While there is some aggression, I have given plenty of plant cover, and noone ever actually makes contact, just the occassional chasing / confrontation. I think they'll be ok.