luna 13

Hi everybody,
I have 8 male guppies in my 38 gallon tank along with 1 male swordtail and 3 female swordtails. some of the guppies are always ganging up on the female swordtails and chasing the poor thing around. This is starting to bother me cause i love my swords.I don't have a second tank for time out, not sure if it would even work. Do I have too many guppies in there? I thought they are peaceful fish. Thank you for any advice.

Nick G

They're not being aggressive, they're chasing them because they want to mate with them! Male livebearers will try and mate with different species of livebearer if their are no other same species females in the tank. Guppys and Swordtails can't actually crossbreed, but this won't stop the Guppys trying! The only thing that will stop them is adding female Guppies, but with 8 males you'd need about 25 females, so that probably isn't an option.

luna 13

Thank you for your reply. I guess it was wrong getting all males, in the pet store the guy said it would not be a problem. Will this stress the swordtails uot too much?
Nora

Nick G

Theres nothing wrong with having all males, lots of people do. I'm not sure how much it will stress the female Swords. The Swords will get a LOT bigger than the Guppies, so it might not bother them too much once they get older. And remember, try as they might, the Guppies can't actually mate with the Swords. Guppies can only crossbreed with Mollies, and Swords with Platies.

luna 13

Thank's for the information.
Nora

agabr123

yep i keep all male guppies (i definitely do NOT want any fry ) and they're fine together