Angie

So everything had been great, all my fish were getting along and seemed quite content. Hubby brings home 3 guppies and a red tail shark. The shark is tiny and doesn't bother anyone. The guppies on the other hand gang up on one fish, although I don't know what they are doing to them exactly. I mean, do they bite? They follow them and stay close and "nip" at the tummy. The next day the male swordtail died. Now, I don't know if thats a coincidence or not. They mostly seem to bother the female swordtail (who I think may be pregant, not sure though) and the male molly. Nobody ever messes with our female molly, she is queen of her tank!

Anyways, I moved my maybe pregnant female swordtail into the net thingy that has my baby mollies because I thought the stress would make her abort or something. She is doing better. Now, the male molly is kinda scting strange, not swimming around, just chilling in one spot. I'm worried he's going to die next. That would be both my bigger male fish, and these guppies are tiny. Are guppies generally mean? Thanks in advance

Angie

genie

Male guppies are horn dogs! They will try to mate with anything. It is usually recommended to have 2 female guppies for every male to reduce the stress in the tank. This way the males have many females to chase, and not just your poor female swordtail.
Guppies aren't mean, they just are active.
Also just to be sure test your water and make sure that the ammonia and nitrite are 0, and nitrates below 20.

Angie

I'm not sure if my guppies are male or female. All they seem to want to do is gang up on my fish. Why would they be all up on a male fish anyways?

So my female swordtail give birth last night/this morning!!!! I have about 25 baby orange cuties. Now, I have them in the breeder net with my 13 baby mollies, who are about 3-4 weeks old.

I put the female sword back in the tank, and those guppies are following her around again. I think I am going to just take the guppies back to the store, they are just to much of an annoyance to my other fish. I was just wondering how well everyone elses guppies acted with other fish.

Amnagrla

First off, congrats on your babies!! :-) And just a quick question, how big is your tank?

Angie

Its a 20 gallon, I know..far to small for all my new babies! I obviously can't keep them all. I would love to get a new tank too!

genie

There are a couple of ways to sex the guppies-- the easiest way to explain is males are pretty, and females are dull.

They are probably "all up on" you male b/c he is competition.

I think guppies do best in a species tank-- my dad has one and they are great. You can keep them in community, but they do a little chasing. Try them with a fish that isn't a livebearer and it might be better.

Also guppies need room, so your tank may just be too small for all of their antics!

Stradius011

Your aquarium will eventually be too small for your red-tailed shark. They can get up to 6 inches long.

lolagurl

i have 2 male fancy guppies and one female molly. i just got the guppies today because i thought they were one of the most peacful fish you could get. Anyways before i got the two guppies, I had another mollie which was bigger then my balloon molly now, and they would always fight, so i took the black one back to the store, though i made sure they were both females, so gender wasnt the problem. Now i have the two fancy male guppies and balloon female molly and they seem to be ddoing good for now. My mollie is twice as big as a guppy so that was my logic. I didnt know you still had to apply the two females per male rule. oh well im sure it will be fine. Just thought i should say. wish me luck

tan.b

guppies arent usually agressive. just insatiable! they will chase alot but mine have never come to any harm. boys chase girls to mate, boys chase boys to fend off the girl..again to mate. guppies have a one track mind and all behaviour good and bad is usually because of mating!!! i had mine in a community tank until they started breeding. now they are in a species tank. they have always been harmless.

kelacon

If that is true, angie, that is maybe why my female swordtail died. I bought is then when i put it in the tank a guppy nipped at it
a few days later it died........oh well