Blue Tail Guppies Being Terrorised By Endlers

[Memz]

Hello, fairly new to all this and have had a few ups and downs with a lot of learning in between. I have been one of those who believed everything the 'Expert' at the aquatic shop has told me (including twice trying to put Cardinals in a fairly new set up... with multiple deaths). So I'm so glad I have found this site. I have read lots in the last few days and am devastated to realise that some of the 'downs' have been so preventable. So hopefully some of you good people will be able to give me some advice and please be as honest as you want. I need to learn!!!

This first question is about my Guppies, I have a 48 litre tank that has 13 fish, 4 Golden Tetras (with red tails), 2 Glow-lights, 2 Blue tailed Guppies, 4 Endlers and 1 remaining Cardinal. The Endlers have only been in there a couple of weeks along with the Golden Tetras and they seem to be terrorising the Blue Guppies, nipping their tails and fins etc. One seems ok the other's tail is starting to look a little torn.

I am very happy to return any fish to the shop, I now know that I really should have more than 2 of anything, but wasn't advised at the time of buying. Should I return the 2 Blue guppies and get 2 more Glow-lights or return the endlers and get 2 more blue guppies? I wonder if the Endlers will start their terror campaign on someone else if I remove the blue guppies... I have noticed one of the Golden Tetras has a nip out of it's tail.

Or any other advice as to what's best would be gratefully received.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Memz]

Two more things.....

1) I also now know that the tanks is really quite small, I will certainly be upgrading in the next year,

2) At the end of the original post I typed in a smiley with a colon, hyphen and bracket. Not sure what I have produced but I'm hoping it's not offensive!!!!

 

[Memz]

Hi, I was told that I can't have an airstone as I have a planted aquarium and it disperses the CO2. Is this true? I just read another thread that suggested an airstone to help prevent nipping.

Your advice would be really appreciated, thanks.

 

[FishBlast]

Hi, I was told that I can't have an airstone as I have a planted aquarium and it disperses the CO2. Is this true? I just read another thread that suggested an airstone to help prevent nipping.

Your advice would be really appreciated, thanks.

Airstone to prevent nipping? It prevents low oxygen, but definitely not nipping.
Adding females or removing the aggressive fish OR increasing space would prevent nipping.

 

[Memz]

Thanks for your reply FishBlast, with your advice in mind, I think my best bet would be to return the Endlers and get 2 female guppies to go with the 2 males.

 

[FishBlast]

Thanks for your reply FishBlast, with your advice in mind, I think my best bet would be to return the Endlers and get 2 female guppies to go with the 2 males.

For 2 male guppies, you should have 4 females. (Ratio ideally is 2 females per male).
Also, beware that they are very prolific and you may end up with lots more guppies (although some predators in your tank might eat the fry so that may hold them in low numbers for a while).

 

[Memz]

O.K, so should I just leave the two blue boys as they are? No females at all? They seem to get on fine, it's just the Endlers nipping them. Could you give me some advice on what to replace the Endlers with? I don't have enough room (yet) for babies. Thanks again.

 

[FishBlast]

O.K, so should I just leave the two blue boys as they are? No females at all? They seem to get on fine, it's just the Endlers nipping them. Could you give me some advice on what to replace the Endlers with? I don't have enough room (yet) for babies. Thanks again.

You can get more guppy males but that may be asking for trouble if the 2 boys are getting along fine.
Adding more males to a group usually should stop an aggression between lower numbers, but if they are peaceful, you might end up bringing aggressive guppies in the group and disturb the peace.
Just leave them as they are for now, unless they start nipping at each other, then add more males.

 

[Memz]

Thanks for your help again FishBlast, I took the Endlers back and now have 3 new Catfish, spoke to a lovely woman at the shop and she thought that the Catfish would be good for cleaning the sand and thinks they are hugely funny to watch. A good friend of mine was also there (who has been keeping fish for years) and she agreed, they both said that Catfish are peaceful too so hopefully, at long last, there may be a bit of harmony in the tank.

 

[FishBlast]

Thanks for your help again FishBlast, I took the Endlers back and now have 3 new Catfish, spoke to a lovely woman at the shop and she thought that the Catfish would be good for cleaning the sand and thinks they are hugely funny to watch. A good friend of mine was also there (who has been keeping fish for years) and she agreed, they both said that Catfish are peaceful too so hopefully, at long last, there may be a bit of harmony in the tank.

What catfish? There are over 9000 (ok maybe more) species of catfish out there.
Did they say Corydoras? If so, you need 3 more of those for them to form a society there. Else they get bored and start climbing on the walls or hide too often.

Could you post a picture or describe them please?

These are examples of corydoras:

 

[Memz]

You have no idea how long this has taken me!!!!!!

I now realise I have to put these pics on some sort of hosting site...... hang on....

 

[Memz]

Actually FishBlast, I'm gonna have to register with a site and my husband is waiting to go out and getting a little impatient, would you mind if I put the pictures up tomorrow? They are peppered Corydoras and look similar to the second one down but with sploges rather than spots. Thanks for your patience!!!!

 

[FishBlast]

Actually FishBlast, I'm gonna have to register with a site and my husband is waiting to go out and getting a little impatient, would you mind if I put the pictures up tomorrow? They are peppered Corydoras and look similar to the second one down but with sploges rather than spots. Thanks for your patience!!!!

Tinypic is a website with no registering needed. I use that one.
Peppered cories are cute but not sure how big they get. Still, they need to be in numbers of 6 or more.

EDIT: found info on them. Max size is 7 cm / 3 inches.
They look quite awesome.

 

[Memz]

Hey look at me, even doing this on my phone now!!! (Your reply email comes to my phone) If you think 6 is what I need and they will not overstock the tank, then 6 I shall get. Thanks so much for your time.

 

[FishBlast]

Hey look at me, even doing this on my phone now!!! (Your reply email comes to my phone) If you think 6 is what I need and they will not overstock the tank, then 6 I shall get. Thanks so much for your time.

Nice
I am not sure if they will or not overstock it, what are the tank dimensions (in cm if you can, but inches I can convert too) and water quantity (liters preferably, gallons if you can't).

EDIT: scratch the liter part, I saw, 48L, but you will need about 80 cm length to keep 6 cories. If not, you can keep those 3 but not sure how well / active they will be. I never kept cories, only hoplos, but there are a lot of cory keepers on these forums.