Guppy Aggression

I have 3 male fancy guppies in a well planted 10 gallon tank. The aggressor is nipping fins and the other two are hiding behind a large rock in the corner of the tank. I just put them in yesterday. I had expected them to duke out a pecking order but the aggressor has claimed the whole tank as his space, relentlessly chasing them and shredding fins if he catches sight of them. My friend is out there yelling at the fish for being a turd. Not sure how to solve this issue so everyone can be happy. Should I remove the aggressor? I had him in a time out net to give the other two a chance to acclimate but that only worked for a short time. Any suggestions would be fantastic.

EDIT: My friend was not literally yelling at the fish, more like scolding. Lol we are not emotionally abusing the fish so no worries folks...

 

Interesting. I have 2 males in a tank together and while they do take turns chasing each other it just seems like play and nobody ever gets injured. If it were me, I would remove the aggressive one. They usually only act like that if there are females present.

 

Interesting. I have 2 males in a tank together and while they do take turns chasing each other it just seems like play and nobody ever gets injured. If it were me, I would remove the aggressive one. They usually only act like that if there are females present.

Thanks for the reply Dch48. I have checked their analfins and can be assured they're all male. Though it did have me worried for a second. I tried to remove him but he's agile and there are so many plants for him to hide in. He did chill out a little after I chased him around so I suppose I'll just have to act as the Biggest Fish if he gets out of hand again. I do have one fish that has taken quite a beating though. I would say about 1/3 of his tail is missing. Anything I can do for him while he heals aside from keeping the tank very clean and distracting the aggressor when he gets feisty? They seem to get along much better after I intervened. I doubt I would be able to net any of them out of there unless I rip apart the whole tank. I just don't want to medicate the whole tank unless it is necessary.

 

Rearrange the furniture in the aquarium and take the aggressive one out for 24 hours.

If that doesn't work you have some choices to make

 

Chasing a fish around with a net to be the Biggest Fish is, um, not a good thing. Neither is yelling at the fish. Your guppy didn't "chill" after you chased it around for a while. It became physically exhausted because it thought it was about to be eaten by a predator. Stress could be one of the reasons for the behavior. Trying to reduce the stress would be a good thing.

You said you just put them in yesterday. Is your tank cycled? What are your test readings? Guppies can be very aggressive, but it's not that common. I'd look for water issues, at least to rule it out.

 

Chasing a fish around with a net to be the Biggest Fish is, um, not a good thing. Neither is yelling at the fish. Your guppy didn't "chill" after you chased it around for a while. It became physically exhausted because it thought it was about to be eaten by a predator. Stress could be one of the reasons for the behavior. Trying to reduce the stress would be a good thing.

You said you just put them in yesterday. Is your tank cycled? What are your test readings? Guppies can be very aggressive, but it's not that common. I'd look for water issues, at least to rule it out.

I wasn't chasing the fish for fun. I was trying to remove it, as suggested by others. He has been exhibiting normal pecking order type behavior since then. And so have the other fish. Tank has been running for 7 weeks and fully cycled for a week. Ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 10.

 

The other fish's tail should grow back. I wouldn't use any medication unless you see white edges forming indicating infection.