Female Guppy Picking At Male?

So my male fancy Guppy just recently lost a piece of his tail, he lives in a 3.5-4 gallon tank with a female Guppy, 2 danio glos, and a small female betta. The missing piece looked like a clean cut to me, so I thought one of them was picking on him and ripped a piece of tail off, instead of a sickness. I knew it couldn’t be the betta because she’s very shy around the fish, I assumed it was one of the danios because they do a lot of rough play and chase each other around. So, I set up a 2 gallon tank with a filter and some Tetra Life Guard just in case, and I put the female Guppy in there to keep him some company. It has been about 2 days since then and they have been fine, but today I saw that the female was picking at the male’s body and his tail. Is this natural breeding/mating behavior or is she the one who cause the Guppy to lose a piece of his tail or is this a sickness?

 

Guppies are just fun nippers, they will nip at ANYTHING with a tail. Best way to keep the nipping at a minimum is keeping them well fed. Be careful not to over feed, if they don’t seem enthused with their food try varying their diet. Fish HATE eating the same thing day after day. I have a 29L community tank with guppies, danios, Tetras and Corys. I give them a varied diet of spiralina flakes, shrimp flakes, frozen blood worms, and tropical flakes.

 

Guppies are just fun nippers, they will nip at ANYTHING with a tail. Best way to keep the nipping at a minimum is keeping them well fed. Be careful not to over feed, if they don’t seem enthused with their food try varying their diet. Fish HATE eating the same thing day after day. I have a 29L community tank with guppies, danios, Tetras and Corys. I give them a varied diet of spiralina flakes, shrimp flakes, frozen blood worms, and tropical flakes.

Oh ok! It’s a relief to know why she’s nipping. So I’m guessing she’s the “culprit”? I’ll try to change their diet and see if she doesn’t nip so much at him. Thank you!

 

You are very welcome! Feel free to shoot any other questions at me. I have the same fish as you so maybe I can be helpful in the future!

 

As a side note, they are probably nipping because they are crammed into a small tank. If you were stuck in your bedroom with 5 other people, you will eventually start picking at eachother as well.

 

It is a bit overstocked. I would suggest upgrading to at least a 10 very soon. They is going to significantly reduce any aggression inside your tank. All of these are VERY ACTIVE fish and love room to swim, escpeccially danios.