agressive guppies?!??!?

[willowthepoet]

I just bought a couple guppies this morning, and i've been watching them for some time now, since they're on my desk and far more interesting than the computer (sorry guys!)

A couple times, though, the one male tequila sunrise keeps going after the lyretail male, and upon close inspection, the tips of the lyretail's fins are starting to get a little nipped up.

I've never heard of guppies being agressive and I was just puzzled. I'll give them another day or so to see if they're just adjusting to the new environment and tank mates before I think about bringing them back.

Has anybody else heard of or had experience with this, or are my guppies a little crazy?

 

[lyquidphyre]

I believe its because of the male to female ratio. If you have a tank full of males they will most likely be aggressive towards one another..

 

[mr86mister]

yeah the male to female ratio really should be looked into with livebearers, if you have no females and only males they will chase eachother constantly, if you have females it should be about 1 male to 3-5 females each...more the females the better as long as they fit well in your tank w/o overstocking.

HTH

 

[willowthepoet]

5 females, 2 males. also in with an oto and an albino cory cat. i have never seen anything like this before.




edit - now the one male has a little notch out of his tail.... what is going on?!

 

[smallfry]

do you have plenty of hiding spots? (plants, cave/rocks)

 

[TankGirl]

It ought to be possible to keep only male guppies together, and often it is, but sometimes you will get a particularly nippy one. If you do not want to have guppy fry every 2 weeks and want to stick to males you can try taking the aggressive one back to the store and swapping him out for another one at the LFS that you observe to be peaceful. I don't think the current situation will change on its own, though, and waiting will only stress the other fish.

If you throw more females than males in there, though, that would likely solve the problem, too, but it is not 100% if this one is already being nippy.

 

[willowthepoet]

well, i've separated out the female that's just about to have her babies and they seem to have calmed down. she's not happy in her little breeder tank, but she'll get over it.

thanks guys. i'll keep posted if anything else crazy happens.

 

[dcp]

just per i though out your fish is gonna have her baby, thats why your male guppies being more agressive to female