20 Gallon Tank I want to know your experience keeping male guppies

Hello!
I’d like to know the experience of someone keeping just male guppies with other tank mates. I have a 20 gallons tank with 6 albino corys and 7 harlequin rasboras (plus shrimps and snails) with live plants. I really want to add some colorful peaceful fish, and so far I have had a terrible experience with neon tetras (they killed each other). I don’t want to be full of baby fish, and that’s why I was thinking about just male fancy guppies or cobra guppies.
thank you!

 

I keep endlers, which as far as I've heard are basically the same as guppies when it comes to care and temperment. I've never had them attack one another or another fish.

 

I keep endlers, which as far as I've heard are basically the same as guppies when it comes to care and temperment. I've never had them attack one another or another fish.

Do they reproduce like guppies too if they’re mixed males and females?

 

Do they reproduce like guppies too if they’re mixed males and females?

Yes they produce a lot of babies, if you don’t have another fish that will eat fry, then they can quickly get out of hand. The rasboras might help.

 

Yes they produce a lot of babies, if you don’t have another fish that will eat fry, then they can quickly get out of hand. The rasboras might help.

What fish do you have to keep the population controlled? Have they ever been out of hands? What’s the advantage of endlers over common guppy?

 

At the moment I do not have a population controlling fish, but plan on getting an apistogramma in the future. I take the fully grown fish to my local fish store, this helps control the numbers. Even with emmense amounts of baby fish in the tank, i’ve never had an issue with ammonia spikes.

 

I tried separating males and females too, but found that the males fight amongst themselves after awhile, much like keeping a few roosters and no hens.

 

I've had only males, up to 8 in a 20 gallon and it was awful, constant flaring and bullying, torn tails. They all went for a ride to the pet store. I have 2 beautiful blue ones now, brothers, kept in separate tanks. They would torture each other.

Now, others have had no problems and this amazed me. Never again here!

 

The problem is that you never know beforehand wether such males will fight or not. There are males that will put the aggression on and there are males that are peaceful towards another. But there are some triggers that may result in aggression.

 

I have 3 male guppies in a 5 G tank with a few white cloud minnows. & another 5 male guppies in a 40 G tank with 3 goldfish. Both groups are doing well. No aggression ever. I may put all the guppies in a 10 or 20 G tank at some point.

 

I have 3 male guppies in a 5 G tank with a few white cloud minnows. & another 5 male guppies in a 40 G tank with 3 goldfish. Both groups are doing well. No aggression ever. I may put all the guppies in a 10 or 20 G tank at some point.

What kind of male guppies do you have?

 

I have 3 male guppies in a 5 G tank with a few white cloud minnows. & another 5 male guppies in a 40 G tank with 3 goldfish. Both groups are doing well. No aggression ever. I may put all the guppies in a 10 or 20 G tank at some point.

Interesting- after breaking up the male guppies, my white cloud minnows kept nipping at the solo male guppy's tail, so he is now spending his days relatively alone in a 29g with inverts and corys.

 

What kind of male guppies do you have?

5 were sold on eBay as mixed fancy males. mutts!
not sure what they called the 3 from the LFS. Will get you some pics later. All very good boys.

The ones above the ship are the mutts.

 

It's never worked well for me with full grown store bought males, but tank bred males put together as juvies and then maturing together have worked well for me. Adding new ones to the pack when they are young seems fine too.

 

5 were sold on eBay as mixed fancy males. mutts!
not sure what they called the 3 from the LFS. Will get you some pics later. All very good boys.

The ones above the ship are the mutts.View attachment 838587View attachment 838588

Are they fins a little bit nipped?

 

I have never had males attack each other when kept in same sex groups. Fin damage can be attributed to fin rot. It's normally the females that become aggressive towards each other if they're kept in small numbers without males. Male guppies do not flare or directly compete with each other for sexual success; they perform sigmoid displays to impress females. In the absence of females they will begin to mistake other males as females and continue these displays. You will likely see males chasing other males; this is not aggression, this is one male simply trying to mate with another, mistaking him for a female. It can be alarming if you've never kept livebearers before but, they are highly prolific and male livebearers will be constantly seeking to mate. This is why its advised to keep more females than males.

If you can, go with endlers. They are smaller, so you can keep more, even more passive than male guppies, and far hardier and miles less likely to drop dead. I wouldn't try to get a same-sex group of platies or mollies as it can be hard to sex them if you don't know what you're looking for. I could sex them just by looking at them but most, including a lot of fish store workers, can't. You also want to avoid a same-sex tank of swordtails, as they are the only common livebearer where males will become aggressive towards each other if they don't have enough female attention between them, enough space or if they haven't been socialised with other males from a young age. I have kept an all female group before, not out of choice, and they seem to become quite insecure with no male presence. They retreat into tight schools and don't socialise with any other fish in the tank. They're the only livebearer that really needs to be kept in all-sex setups to thrive. I'd argue all livebearers should ideally be kept all-sex due to their prolific nature, but its not an absolute requirement for most.

 

I have never had males attack each other when kept in same sex groups. Fin damage can be attributed to fin rot. It's normally the females that become aggressive towards each other if they're kept in small numbers without males. Male guppies do not flare or directly compete with each other for sexual success; they perform sigmoid displays to impress females. In the absence of females they will begin to mistake other males as females and continue these displays. You will likely see males chasing other males; this is not aggression, this is one male simply trying to mate with another, mistaking him for a female. It can be alarming if you've never kept livebearers before but, they are highly prolific and male livebearers will be constantly seeking to mate. This is why its advised to keep more females than males.

If you can, go with endlers. They are smaller, so you can keep more, even more passive than male guppies, and far hardier and miles less likely to drop dead. I wouldn't try to get a same-sex group of platies or mollies as it can be hard to sex them if you don't know what you're looking for. I could sex them just by looking at them but most, including a lot of fish store workers, can't. You also want to avoid a same-sex tank of swordtails, as they are the only common livebearer where males will become aggressive towards each other if they don't have enough female attention between them, enough space or if they haven't been socialised with other males from a young age. I have kept an all female group before, not out of choice, and they seem to become quite insecure with no male presence. They retreat into tight schools and don't socialise with any other fish in the tank. They're the only livebearer that really needs to be kept in all-sex setups to thrive. I'd argue all livebearers should ideally be kept all-sex due to their prolific nature, but its not an absolute requirement for most.

I loved your answer, thank you

 

I kept 3 Tequila sunrise guppies from my outdoor pond and moved them inside while setting up a 32g Fluval flex for my black moor. All 3 turned out to be male and sometimes will fight or chase each other but not enough to cause damage. I assume they are brothers though and were raised together so maybe that has played a role. In my 5 gallon I had 2 males from Petco and they would always fight. After about 6 months 1 passed then the other after about 2 months. So I probably would have not keep different males together.