I bought 5 guppies last week, 2 males and 3 females and I have a 29 gallon tank with plenty of plants in it for hiding. I thought at first my fish had ich so I started treating for that. But now, I notice that the fins are just shredded looking and all of them have this problem except one female who looks perfect. She also chases and nips at the other guppies, male and female so I think this is the cause of the fin damage. The 5 guppies and one cory catfish are the only fish in the tank so I would think they'd have enough space not to get territorial over, but she is. Should I just return her to the store or put her in a fry net/cage to calm her down? I don't want her getting stressed out in the cage, but I don't want her killing my other guppies. Also, one of the females (not her) is having fry right now and has been hanging out at the bottom of the tank with her 2 fry... She seems to be hanging out for 2 days now. I've never seen a guppy take that long to have fry, and she wasn't even that pregnant in the first place. I'm not that concerned about her, but about this agressive female. Thank you!
Aggressive Female Guppy!
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I had an aggressive female balloon molly before. In fact, I still do have her. She calmed down after about a week after having her... it seemed like after I got more fish she calmed down. Mine never caused actual physical damage though! She just chased them around and appeared to nip at them but no damage. If you're sure she is what is causing damage seperate her if you can to a tank on her own preferably. Or you can take her back to the store if you want and get a different one. Each fish has a different personality. You could also keep her in the breeder net for a bit. Preferably the largest breeder box/net you have (my breeder nets are bigger than the boxes so if you have that use that).... just to give your other fish a break!
If you seriously think shes going to kill them then... 1 fish stressed out or 4 fish dead? the lesser evil is the first one.
Anyways, it's hard to imagine a female guppy causing physical damage to other adult fish... maybe your other fish have fin rot or something? idk... I'd keep her with them and just keep a close eye on her. If you can actually see her damaging the fish's fins then remove her. If she just chases and nips this should not cause damage.
I have a feeling she'll calm down in a few days or once you add some more fish.
About your other guppy... she's been hanging out with her 2 fry for 2 days?? I'm just surprised the fry have not been eaten... it shouldn't take her two days to give birth so I'm thinking she probably has something else wrong.
If you seriously think shes going to kill them then... 1 fish stressed out or 4 fish dead? the lesser evil is the first one.
Anyways, it's hard to imagine a female guppy causing physical damage to other adult fish... maybe your other fish have fin rot or something? idk... I'd keep her with them and just keep a close eye on her. If you can actually see her damaging the fish's fins then remove her. If she just chases and nips this should not cause damage.
I have a feeling she'll calm down in a few days or once you add some more fish.
About your other guppy... she's been hanging out with her 2 fry for 2 days?? I'm just surprised the fry have not been eaten... it shouldn't take her two days to give birth so I'm thinking she probably has something else wrong.
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just like with people, sometimes guppies have complications from pregnancy.
A guppy will give birth, and her health will slowly degrade as she seems to waste away, stops eating, etc.
I'm not saying that's definately what it is, but just warning you that it could be.
I had a female guppy that was aggressive... She ended up being infertile. Odd, maybe she was a lesbian or something.
A guppy will give birth, and her health will slowly degrade as she seems to waste away, stops eating, etc.
I'm not saying that's definately what it is, but just warning you that it could be.
I had a female guppy that was aggressive... She ended up being infertile. Odd, maybe she was a lesbian or something.
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Thank you for your comments everyone! I bet the reason why the aggressive fish seemed infertile was because she never let any of the males get close enough to her. I have a feeling mine will be that way too. She is still not pregnant. The other fish don't even have to be near her and she chases and nips them.
The reason why I thought they had ich at first was because their pectoral (side) fins had what I thought was a white dot or two. But seems to have just become torn fins. I was treating them for 3 days for ich and I no longer see a white dot, but just tears. I wanted to rid the tank of ich before it got too bad, thats why I went ahead and treated. I also don't believe its ich because the aggressive female is the only one that still looks perfect. I have stopped treating for ich.
I do have a net breeder with frame and it is bigger than the plastic breeder with the v slot in it. I'll put the aggressive female in the net one. I will probably only leave her in it for a few days because I don't like how those things get full of poop and left over food. Hopefully, she will calm down by then. I don't want to add more fish yet because I don't want to throw off the tanks cycle and add too many fish too soon. But I had the thought that maybe if I did add a few more female guppies to the tank it may help.... I didn't get any swordtails or platies because in the past when I had fish, their fry never made it to adolesence becuase they were eaten up so fast but with only guppies, their fry would grow to adults. I wonder though, if adding different breeds of fish would help with the aggression.
As for the pregnant female, her mouth is all messed up looking which started the day she first started releasing fry. At first I thought maybe she tried to eat one of them and it was partially stuck in her mouth, but it hasn't changed and it actually looks like part of the top "lip" of her mouth is missing. She definitely did not look like that before she released the fry. Maybe the aggressive female nipped her there? It could be she is just deterioriating like you said.
As for water paramenters... I don't have specific numbers or anything, but I let the tank sit with the filter running for a week and a half before I added fish. I know this isn't enough time to let it cycle, but I added stress zyme which says it helps to further along the bacterial or biological cycle by adding it the first day, the seventh and the fourteenth days, and I added the water conditioners (of course) and a bit of ammonia neutralizer in the beginning. I also have live plants in there and added a little bit of plant fertilizer. These forums also talk about adding a little bit of food to the tank to help the cycle start, so that is what I did the day I first started the filter. Anyway, I suppose the tank has been running fully about 2.5 weeks now. The water is clear and always around 78-80 degrees. Per the instructions on the box of ich meds, I have done about a 10% water change on the second day of treatment.
Thank you for your comments everyone! I bet the reason why the aggressive fish seemed infertile was because she never let any of the males get close enough to her. I have a feeling mine will be that way too. She is still not pregnant. The other fish don't even have to be near her and she chases and nips them.
The reason why I thought they had ich at first was because their pectoral (side) fins had what I thought was a white dot or two. But seems to have just become torn fins. I was treating them for 3 days for ich and I no longer see a white dot, but just tears. I wanted to rid the tank of ich before it got too bad, thats why I went ahead and treated. I also don't believe its ich because the aggressive female is the only one that still looks perfect. I have stopped treating for ich.
I do have a net breeder with frame and it is bigger than the plastic breeder with the v slot in it. I'll put the aggressive female in the net one. I will probably only leave her in it for a few days because I don't like how those things get full of poop and left over food. Hopefully, she will calm down by then. I don't want to add more fish yet because I don't want to throw off the tanks cycle and add too many fish too soon. But I had the thought that maybe if I did add a few more female guppies to the tank it may help.... I didn't get any swordtails or platies because in the past when I had fish, their fry never made it to adolesence becuase they were eaten up so fast but with only guppies, their fry would grow to adults. I wonder though, if adding different breeds of fish would help with the aggression.
As for the pregnant female, her mouth is all messed up looking which started the day she first started releasing fry. At first I thought maybe she tried to eat one of them and it was partially stuck in her mouth, but it hasn't changed and it actually looks like part of the top "lip" of her mouth is missing. She definitely did not look like that before she released the fry. Maybe the aggressive female nipped her there? It could be she is just deterioriating like you said.
As for water paramenters... I don't have specific numbers or anything, but I let the tank sit with the filter running for a week and a half before I added fish. I know this isn't enough time to let it cycle, but I added stress zyme which says it helps to further along the bacterial or biological cycle by adding it the first day, the seventh and the fourteenth days, and I added the water conditioners (of course) and a bit of ammonia neutralizer in the beginning. I also have live plants in there and added a little bit of plant fertilizer. These forums also talk about adding a little bit of food to the tank to help the cycle start, so that is what I did the day I first started the filter. Anyway, I suppose the tank has been running fully about 2.5 weeks now. The water is clear and always around 78-80 degrees. Per the instructions on the box of ich meds, I have done about a 10% water change on the second day of treatment.
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