dhenn

Hi all ... I'm back with another question.

Quick history since I'm not around often... DD bought 4 male guppies back in July. They've been doing quite well together and up until recently they actually swam around the tank in pairs (2 yellow and 2 blue).

Well, the past few weeks we've noticed that one of the blue ones is chasing the other blue one around the tank almost unmercifully. The chased guppy spends MOST of the day hiding in a barrel and DD is telling me he doesn't seem to get the opportunity to eat very much.

So my questions are these ....

1 - is it normal for fish who got along very well for months to suddenly show animosity?

2 - what can we do to alleviate this problem?

She has a 10 gal tank and the 4 guppies are the only things in it. She tried a snail but the lovely animal crept out of the tank one night and died. We don't have a set up for a quarantine tank so really have no place to move either of the guppies in question.

The water tests out fine (just tested it this morning). 0 nitrite, 0 ammonia, 0 chlorine, about 10ppm nitrates. It is a strip test but the tests have been very consistent. Since the tank is in her bedroom and I'm letting her take care of it mostly herself (she's 13), I don't want her messing with chemicals.

Any help would be appreciated. She did have plants in the tank but they didn't seem to be helping much and in truth she really doesn't like them. She's wanting to replace the plastic with real plants so any tips/hints/ or whatever you can share on that topic would be appreciated as well. She also wants to swap out the gravel but we're not doing any of that until we figure out why these 2 fish aren't getting along anymore.

Thanks!
Denise

Dozey

Guppies take 3 to 4 months to mature. When they do mature the will breed about every 5 weeks. The males become very aggressive to females especially during this time. It is important to provide a lot of hiding spots for the females and weaker males. What you are seeing is completely natural and there’s little more you can do besides watch and provide as many little hiding spots as you can.

dhenn

ok thanks ... they're all males so we thought we'd be OK. I will get her to put more hiding spots back in the tank for him. Should we be trying to separate them (maybe with a tank divider) for a bit?

Dozey

The aggression should settle down when their hormones settle down. If you feel the one is in danger then certainly you separate them. Look for any signs of injuries; this would be a good indication that it’s time to split them up for a while.

A better choice if possible would be replacing one of the males for 2 females. Although the male would still be aggressive during mating periods as a whole they would get along better. Good luck!

sirdarksol

Not a good idea. If females are going to be in the mix, they should be at a ratio of two females for every male, or more. It is quite possible for males to harass females until they die from exhaustion. Having this many females spreads the males' attention out a bit.
Aside from that, you don't want females and males mixed in a guppy tank unless you really want dozens of little guppy babies swimming around the tank.

Try taking the aggressive males and putting them elsewhere, like in a breeder net, for an hour or so. This may reset their aggressiveness. It works for mollies.

dhenn

Thanks SDS.

I was thinking about a breeder net but wasn't sure if that would be the right way to go. I'll have her pick one up for the aggressive guppy. I also read elsewhere on this board that the ration was 2 females to 1 male and truthfully ... it's only a 10 gallon tank so we'd have no room for the multitude of guppy babies that would be produced. That was the reason we bought all males from the get go....to avoid the babies.

sirdarksol

Precisely what most folks around here suggest for 10g tanks; all males. I have three females to my one male, and the male still pesters the females quite a bit. However, all of the surviving fry so far seem to be female, as well, so hopefully nobody is being overly bothered.

Breeder net isn't a good thing for any extended period of time, but you just want to make the aggressive male feel like he's in a new environment, and it only takes a little bit of time (like I said, an hour or so) to do this.

fishlover78

th males are chasing the females to get them preggo! I highly recommend getting a breeder box to hang on the tank so the mothers can birth their babies in peace. then you raise the fry in the breeder box. after a while it would be a good investment to get a 10 gallon fry tank. all this is completely natural and their is nothing to worry over. I also would suggest to go ahead and get a few live plants. the fish may feel like they're in their natural habitat. -fishlover78
P.S. guppies also like slightly harder water so if your already not you can add aquarium slat every so often.

sirdarksol

No females to impregnate in dhenn's tank.

catbtony

All guppies think about is procreation-and will atempt to bread with anything I had male guppies chase a female swordtail due to no females in the tanks and she was 10 time bigger than them....this type of behavior is normal behavior but it sometimes can end in death for one...good luck