Male Guppy Behaviour - Looking for advice!

I'm new to the hobby and I want to be sure I do things as best I can. I know that I will make some mistakes along the way, but I want to do what I can to make things the best I can for the fish that I introduce to my 40 gallon planted tank. I have used FritzZyme to cycle my tank and have been running regular chemical tests as I was nervous to do a cycle with fish, but after finding many sources recommending FritzZyme I eventually caved in to trying it. So far everything has been great and no toxic buildup has happened, but the first fish I introduced to my tank were 3 blue male guppies. Unfortunately, in my research on guppies and the other inhabitants I wish to keep (shrimp and corys mainly) it did not come up that male guppies on their own can be troublesome. I'm not sure how I missed that, but with all the other research I have been doing on fish, water chemistry, and aquarium supplies this seems to have fallen through the cracks.

I adore my 3 guppies, but I don't want to start breeding guppies (which is what led to me getting the males in the first place) and so far they seem to be working through things alright, but I am worried about them. 2 of them get along perfectly, but one of them is a little more shy and while he usually likes to spend time with the others, he sometimes gets bullied. When this gets too much for him he swims away to another part of the tank to get a break and the others leave him alone when he does this. After some time has passed he rejoins the group and the three get along great again after that. I know one method is adding more males, but I am hesitant to add more guppies as currently it seems I got lucky with these 3 getting along fairly well overall and I am concerned that if I add more I might end up with a more aggressive one. Knowing that guppies need to be kept with gender balances generally I would not go with guppies in future as I don't want to breed them and now I know males can take issue with each other. Under these circumstances is it safe to just leave them as they are and in future look into tetras for mid-top level fish?

Thank you all for reading and I appreciate any advice that can be offered!

 

The standard advice is to get more to spread the aggression around. Male livebearers are very aggressive and won't leave each other alone, but the theory is that if there are enough, none of them will be bullied enough to wreck their health.

I'm not sure how many you should add, others might chime in. Another option is to rehome them by giving them to a fish store or putting an add on craigslist.

Good luck, getting your stocking settled is one of the hard parts of setting up a tank.

 

The standard advice is to get more to spread the aggression around. Male livebearers are very aggressive and won't leave each other alone, but the theory is that if there are enough, none of them will be bullied enough to wreck their health.

I'm not sure how many you should add, others might chime in. Another option is to rehome them by giving them to a fish store or putting an add on craigslist.

Good luck, getting your stocking settled is one of the hard parts of setting up a tank.

That makes sense, thank you. I guess my main concern is that if I double down and get more to spread out the aggression they would still be somewhat unhappy and causing each other trouble which I wouldn't want for them when I could instead just go with a more community-driven fish like Tetras. I'm a bit reluctant to give them back to the pet store as the living conditions there don't seem great with how many fish they have in their aquariums. If I am wrong and returning them to the pet store is okay though then it is what my preference would be as I don't want them to live in a suboptimal environment.

 

So, I have tried the "adding more" option. I had three male guppies and saw that two were ganging up on one. I added more and now have 5 surviving guppies. It has lowered the aggression. The shy ones are not getting picked on as much as before and even they come out and do the bullying. However, the guppy with large fan-like tails have (and probably always will have) some mild fin nipping. I will also say that as pretty as they are I will probably never own a school of male guppy again. They're always chasing each other and the large female swordtail I have in there that's 3x their size. They're happy though. They gather together and eat peacefully and I have enough plants that when one needs a break they do go off and relax. I wouldn't say they're stressed by each other since they're just doing what male guppy do.

So, you can either add more and accept that they will always chase each other or return them to save yourself the stress. Again, I'm pretty sure they themselves are not unhappy. They're just doing what they do. If you do return them you can do an all-female guppy group or add a different schooling fish of your choice. Adding other schooling fish won't change much, given my guppy chase the other fish I have in the tank, but that's also an option for you if you're comfortable with it. I will say my swordtail does not like them and has nipped back.

 

Be aware that most female livebearers are pregnant when you get them unless you get them from a breeder that separates the males and females as soon as they can tell.

 

After giving it some thought and considering these responses I have decided that I will be rehoming these 3 guppies as I don't think they will have an optimal environment here. Thank you all for your thoughtful responses and advice in helping me figure this out!

 

I had male endlers in a tank and they never slowed down. It was not calming.

I think you'll be better off this way. Even guppies can live a few years. That's a lot of water changes for fish you're not really enjoying