Guppy With Split Tail

[Neptune54]

Today, I got a male guppy from my LFS. I made sure he was fine with the other fish before I left for a couple of hours. While the lights were off, my two girls must have nipped him, because he had a split tail when I came home. This happened with my last male as well. Is there anything I can do about this?

 

[snazy]

Regular water changes and it heals itself. My mails get that occassionally from playing in the flow. As long as the water conditions are good, no ammoni, no nitrites at all times and you keep up with the maintenance, all will be good.

 

[Neptune54]

I'm just afraid that once he's healed, the girls will go and nip him again. Any way to make them stop?

 

[snazy]

He's probably too persistent chasing them, so they turn back at him. I've never seen my females nipping a male to be honest, and I've had guppies for a long time, but chasing a male away,yes. He probably bumped into something.  And they should set the law and order eventually. Guppies have some pecking order to establish too.

 

[Neptune54]

This appeared to happen with my last male, who didn't even try to chase them (still not sure why...). I just don't want it to happen again.

 

[snazy]

Try and see what caused it first. Do you have any sharp decorations maybe?

 

[Neptune54]

I have a couple of fake plants and a plastic vase. I guess he might've gotten too close to the plants. I'll take them out and see what happens.

 

[snazy]

Some plastic plants are fairly sharp. Try taking out decor that maybe the culprit. Guppies are very active and play and can easily damage their tails.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I've had males split their tails, looked like a perfect scissor cuts. They always healed up beautifully within a week with clean water.

I've not had females nipping males either... but I have had males nipping females if the numbers were out of sorts (in my case I had to transfer females into a male tank in an emergency), and I've had females nip females tails.

 

[Joshwainwright]

The plants are the most likely cause, maybe think about getting some live plants to replace them? I'm sure people in the planted section would be willing to help you find some easy ones to get started with!
 
As for your guppy, as others have said - regular water changes and good water conditions are the solution. Things will be looking normal again in no time