Strange Spots on Male Guppy

Started a new guppy tank 2 months ago (after completing a 1 month fishless cycle). Started with 4 male guppies on April 9. Only thing added since then has been a few live plants on June 7. One of the plants is a Madagascar Lace plant. A couple of leaves have tiny little hairs on them, which the guppies have been picking on. I’m not yet sure if this is relevant info, but I mention it because it’s the only major change made since April 9.

on June 8, I noticed 2 dark spots on one of the guppies near his analfin : 1 dark spot on each side of him. It crossed my mind that it could be a female and they are gravid spots, but I’m pretty sure it’s a male.

the strange part is that I’ve been monitoring him the last few days and I can’t make sense of the spots as they seemingly come and go. Here are some photos taken today about 30 minutes apart. In the earlier ones, the spots are barely noticeable and then very prominent 30 mins later. He otherwise appears to be behaving normally. I’m stumped.

 

Let me know if you find out, I also have a couple of male guppies with false "gavid" spots.
It might just be a part of their colouring

 

Are the spots on your guppies permanent or do they come and go?

i googled “false” gravid spots and found this. Doesn’t look like he got too many answers either, but it doesn’t sound like his guppy was having any health issues related to the spots, which is what I was most concerned about.

male guppy has false gravid spot
found this, too. False gravid spot?

I just had an “ah hah” moment. Again, there are only 4 male guppies in my 10 gallon tank. If this false gravid spot is a way for the male - for whatever reason - to portray itself to be female, it works. I noticed one of the other male guppies was swimming right at the side of the “false” female when his spot was on. Hmmm. And the false female is also the largest of the 4. So, it seemed he definitely fooled one of the other males. Question is why try to fool another male? Maybe he’s just eager to mate and sending out signals in hopes a female will show up? Maybe he’s a drag queen?

 

That could be, my tank is an all male one too but they all try to mate with each other (including other male presenting fish).
Male livebearers man, what are you gonna do

 

I dont know enough about guppies to help... he is pretty! I'm feeling like if no one is sick or acting stressed don't worry too much.
These fish man.... get us all crazy. Sometimes i wonder if they are secretly doing these things to play tricks on us humans lol

 

I have had fish that have individual color patterns that come and go that are different than the rest of their kind. Usually it's just an increase or decrease of a common pattern. I did have a pencilfish that turned permanently black on the last third of it's body, but showed no other issues.

If it's not displaying any behavioral or physical problems I would just keep an eye on it.

 

Their pigmentation goes lighter and darker depending on their mood. I notice it most in females when they are feeling aggressive and facing off, otherwise plain colouring goes really dark including their eyes. I think the markings on your guppy are probably just more visible when he's feeling feisty.

 

Started a new guppy tank 2 months ago (after completing a 1 month fishless cycle). Started with 4 male guppies on April 9. Only thing added since then has been a few live plants on June 7. One of the plants is a Madagascar Lace plant. A couple of leaves have tiny little hairs on them, which the guppies have been picking on. I’m not yet sure if this is relevant info, but I mention it because it’s the only major change made since April 9.

on June 8, I noticed 2 dark spots on one of the guppies near his analfin : 1 dark spot on each side of him. It crossed my mind that it could be a female and they are gravid spots, but I’m pretty sure it’s a male.

the strange part is that I’ve been monitoring him the last few days and I can’t make sense of the spots as they seemingly come and go. Here are some photos taken today about 30 minutes apart. In the earlier ones, the spots are barely noticeable and then very prominent 30 mins later. He otherwise appears to be behaving normally. I’m stumped.

It's male for sure. No doubts! The spots on both sides of him are just normal spots for a male mix guppy. So, it's not strange. It's got nothing to do with a false (pseudo) gravid spot. It's a common male guppy trait. The intensity of it, has got to do with his mood and environmental factors. Nothing more, nothing less.
A pseudo gravid spot, once it appears, it will never fade. But that doesn't occur in guppies. But it does occur in other livebearer species like platies, brachyrhaphis species, etc...
So basically, you've got nothing to worry about...

A certain group of Trinidadian wild guppies can even change the color of their eyes in total black (including the iris), depending on their mood.