Guppy fights

[Aurelie]

Hey guys

I just bought four male guppies, but my old guppy is seems really vicious and keeps chasing and nipping them. I am a bit worried as he is really big compared to them. I dont have another tank so cant seperate them up. Do you think this will calm down after a while? Any ways on reducing the fighting?

Thanks

[snakeskinner]

how big of a tank? are there any females? if there are females and not enough, he's probably competing for them Kyle

[Aurelie]

The tank is about 14 gallons i think, and the five guppies are all male as i didnt want to worry about them having babies. Maybe the big one is just mean, but he is really going for them, im not sure what to do! Im worried that it will stress the others out.

[aquariumfishguy]

This is commonly found with livebearers. If you dont do a "2 females: 1 male" ratio then chances are there will be SOME fish unhappy in this situation. Without sounding too sarcastic, if you didn't want babies, don't get guppies! :p

[JesseJ]

Add some female guppies if you have room in the tank. maybe take out some of the males to make room for females. This should cut down on the aggressive tendencies of the Alpha male.

As to worrying about the fry, if you don't do anything to save them they will all be eaten. So don't worry about it.

[dethjam316]

adding females, as indicated above, is probably not a good idea...seeing as you'd have to add 10 to reach the desired proportion, and you don't have room in your tank.

[Aurelie]

Hey

thanks for the information guys it is well noted for future reference! So i cant add females, but do you think i should try and create some kind of divider or just leave them all to fight out their differences?

[kveeti]

Lots of nooks and crannies, made with stones, wood, or real or fake plants to break up lines of vision and provide hiding places will help.

I find no matter what the fish, new additions of the same or different species will always be picked on for a while because someone is invading their space. My guppies picked on the new corys relentlessly for a while but now they totally ignor them.

[snakeskinner]

being that guppies tend to stay topwater, you'll need some sort of cover up there instead of caves. Try floating a clump of Hornwort or anacharis or something that will float. This might break it up as well. Short of a separate tank or tank divider, you're prettymuch going to have to let them fight it out and he'll either settle down or kill them. KYle