New to Guppies-problem with male

[sarahgt4]

Hi everyone, My son got 4 guppies a couple of days ago. We researched and did a full cycle with our tank. Our tank is 5 gallons. The girl at the store randomly picked 4 fish out, from the looks of them it was 3 females and 1 male. One of the females did not look good, even while she was still in the bag from the store. She ended up dying withing 12 hours. The other 3 seem healthy. Except the male is just constantly picking and following one of the females. He seems aggressive with her. He tends to leave the other one alone. I don't want him to hurt her. Nor do we really want babies, how do I even deal with that? What are my options? Do I get rid of him or add another female? I don't want to loose them. Could I bring him back and get 4 females.
Thank you in advance

 

[Littlebudda]

Ok the thing is if a male has been with a female she will be pregnant and she will be having babies. If you don’t want fry your best to just have males.
Unfortunately sometimes they just get obsessed with one female, I have several females and they all get impregnated and left alone except one all the males follow her all day and night I actually think she is holding her fry as she seems to have been pregnant forever. For some reason all the males are obsessed with this one female.

 

[NeonTetra1]

I agree with little budda. And if you get only females, they can hold onto sperm for up a long time, so you will probably be having babies every month, even if there are no males. Also, if you got them from the big chain pet store, like Petco or PetSmart, there fish usually don't have good genetics and health, and the employees there don't care about the fish, so your best bet is to go to a local fish store. they almost always have knowledgeable employees and care about the fish, and usually there fish are in better health and prettier.

 

[BPSabelhaus]

Ok, been thinking on this for a bit about how to give the best advice. Let’s start with a picture of the fish and the tank. From there we’ll advise the best course of action. But as you just found out, you own a baby factory lol Welcome to the club. Anything posted by Emeraldking on the subject is knowledge. I keep a few strains of guppy cousins and am starting to move towards pond type guppies.

 

[sarahgt4]

Ok, been thinking on this for a bit about how to give the best advice. Let’s start with a picture of the fish and the tank. From there we’ll advise the best course of action. But as you just found out, you own a baby factory lol Welcome to the club. Anything posted by Emeraldking on the subject is knowledge. I keep a few strains of guppy cousins and am starting to move towards pond type guppies.

Thanks for the replies, here is a photo of my tank and of the trouble maker.
Thanks for the replies. This one female actually looked a little round in the abdomen when we got her. How do most of you handle having frys? I have a small tank so I can't exactly handle a bunch more fish. If I did get all males would they fight? I heard they can be territorial? Thanks

 

[Littlebudda]

So they are both male the smaller one is an endler guppy cross and the bigger is a male guppy.
I take it your kids like Star Wars

 

[sarahgt4]

So they are both male the smaller one is an endler guppy cross and the bigger is a male guppy.
I take it your kids like Star Wars

Really?! I was sure that was a female. OK so the small endler male is being aggressive with the bigger male then? Should I add females? Or separate them? This is so complicated. And yes my boys are both big Star Wars fans, as you can tell lol!
Is this yellow one female or male?

 

[BPSabelhaus]

3 males. The two smaller ones are Endlers or crosses. The large one is a guppy, but that Endler thinks he’s a female.

 

[sarahgt4]

3 males. The two smaller ones are Endlers or crosses. The large one is a guppy, but that Endler thinks he’s a femalehank you

OK great three males atleast I wont have a fry. So will the little engler ever give up or will he keep being aggressive? Is there anything I can do to stop it before I have more dead fish? Thank you!

 

[b33fsquatch]

I keep endler's and guppies. I've had to separate them because the endler's were ganging up on the guppies. Maybe it's a common thing.

 

[ProudPapa]

OK great three males atleast I wont have a fry. So will the little engler ever give up or will he keep being aggressive? Is there anything I can do to stop it before I have more dead fish? Thank you!

I'd suggest taking the aggressive one back to the store and see if they'll let you trade it for another one.

 

[emeraldking]

Yes, you were tricked. Three males instead of females.

 

[HupGupp]

Sounds like a familiar problem. A small tank can be tricky with mis-matched males. If I was going to try keep a few males in a 5G I'd get males from the same batch that grew up together and had similar characteristics - ie size & speed.

Tbh, even though I'm a guppy fan, I'd go with a Betta in a 5G instead. Guppies do better in 10G+.