Im Such An Idiot!

Ages ago when down at the local river we caught some feral guppies...gave them to my nephew...They did fine with his angel fish...and still doing strong months later. Today I got 3 ferals from his tank and placed with my fancy guppies in hope to breed from pure guppy strains into fancy. Basically the more pure the strain the better the fish over time. Anyway they were in tank for 2hours until I noticed my teenage guppies tail fins had been bitten....so i popped htem into breeding net with smaller babies. I then noticed that it wasnt only the babies they had attacked but most of my guppies had chunks out of thier tails too. This saddened me so I took out the 3 ferals and Im sorry to say I culled them...as I had no where to keep them and I really dont care for ferals no longer..... My beautiful guppy fry's tails were getting colour and everything just the past 2 - 3 weeks...Im so angry with myself for even thinking about the ferals..I know their tails grow back but thats not the point...My poor little fish got attacked!!!!!!!!!!! Makes me sad and angry.

What a bad choice I made and a hard lesson.

Are you positive that you actually had feral guppys? I ask this because there are quite a few fish that look very similar to guppys but are in fact not guppys. Do you have any pics of them? I'm intrigued.
Guppys aren't native to australia, any that are living in the local ecosystems in the wild will be bad for the native fish habitats, you should contact someone about the guppys as they shouldn't be there in the wild if they are in australia, even a humble innocent looking guppy could play havoc wild native ecosystems such as australias fragile water life.

maybe some pic

i think you got gambusia their and their evil little things..... pic's will do the job.

Those are likely the black sheep of the Guppy family. Not very nice for gatherings.

Hi all. Thanks for the replies! Guppies were introduced to Australia many many years ago to keep mosquito levels down. They are a pest to our rivers and waterways thats why your allowed to fish them. They are an extream pest due to them eating native fish eggs and being livebearers themselves they multiply quickly as we all know. Ive read alot of info through parks and wildlife etc etc...They basically recommend you never release them back into the water ways if taken and not to put into outdoor ponds etc. Sorry no pics - Perhaps when I go back to visit my nephew I will take one then. But I have a sneaky feeling they are the fish I mention below.

There is also another fish that looks very similar but has a more pointed nose and thats a mosquito fish...They are silver only and have very dark black gravid spots in females. They are even worse than guppies...It could be we had those and not guppies as they did look similar to my guppies except gravid spots were more prominate. After what my poor fish put up with last night I deem never to go there again with any ferals. FULLSTOP!!!!! My poor little fish tails. My baby fry tail fins were doing so well with new colour...and now they have to grow them back.

Heres a pic of my tank in first week of set up. Now is week 4..it has loads more plants now and guppies...and some fry are in main tank...Check out the little fry in the net. Also 3 catfish and some baby snails. I have more plants on order and 20 female guppies. Will take another pic later in the week and post.

Cheers to all

I've had both wild guppies and mosquito fish or Gambusia affinis.

The mosquito's will attack anything that get in their mouth so baby guppies would have no chance this is surly what you got.
Like u say pointed head and jet black gravid spot and silvery body with small speckels if anything on them.

Hey there! Thanks for helping me clarify further. Much appreciated. All my fish seem to be thriving at the moment and loving the tank...all levels ive tested over the past week have been stable. Yay! I diod cull a female this morning she had been getting sick for some time though. All my fish are Happyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!! yay!

Yes mosquito fish look similar to guppys but are a different type of fish and are very different in their temperment.

Tokis-Phoenix said:

Yes mosquito fish look similar to guppys but are a different type of fish and are very different in their temperment.

Click to expand...

Yes so it seems...they are much more aggressive than a guppy...even a feral.