All my female guppies are gone!

My mom got me 4 pairs of fancy guppies for my 35 gallon tank for my birthday the beginning of June. Everybody was doing fine.

I added 6 albino corys (before I had quarantine tank so just used drip method). Still no problems.

About a week after that, I added one of the blue gouramis from my big tank. I had gotten a pair (in hindsight, a bad move) and it was being bullied really bad by the other one. And I admit, I just netted it out of one tank and put it into the other with no ceremony at all. All was still good.

Then one of the female guppies started looking really thin and a little bowed. I had fry in the tank so I attributed it to her giving birth. Then she just disappeared. I don't have much for decorations in that tank and moved stuff around but didn't find here. She showed up a couple days later up against the filter intake and was badly deteriorated so I couldn't tell anything from looking at her.

Now in the last few days, one by one, the other 3 female guppies have disappeared. Everybody seems healthy and is eating good and swimming around and their color is good. My nitrates are a bit high - 40 - but the other readings are good - temp 74, nitrites and ammonia 0, PH 7.8. My husband thinks the gourami is eating them. But why just the females? I have never seen her chasing the other fish around. Is there something that affects just females and not males?

 

I'm not sure... are they smaller than the males at all? Maybe that is all the gourami could fit? I don't know about that since the one showed up on the filter. Odd. Check around the tank to see if they jumped.

 

The top for the tank has only a couple of very small openings but I did check all around the outside. Didn't find anything. You might be right about the gourami. The females were about the same size body-wise but they didn't have the flamboyant tails that the males have. Maybe that is what has been saving the males.

 

Possible I guess. Check your filter. Maybe they got sucked up?

 

My money is on the BG specially if it is a female my friends ate all her female guppies and left the males alone but check the filter to be safe,

 

Them being eaten wouldn't explain why that one reappeared? I think they may be getting sucked into the filter? Since the males are more finny, do they stay away from the intake?

 

They never seemed to spend much time by the filter. They are usually in the center or on the other side. I checked anyway but there weren't any in the filter. I don't think they could have fit into the intake because the slots are quite small. I think I will ask the place I got the gourami from if they will take her back. She looks like a monster alongside the guppies and cories anyway.