Is this guppy a fraud?

[Alien Anna]

I found this guppy on the bottom of my tank yesterday, when adding some new rock. It has been acting a little weird for a week and has been keeping well away from the other guppies (all male).

When I looked at it, it seemed to have white stuff on it. I worried it was fungus and given that I've lost so many fancy guppies in the last few weeks from tail-rot, I put it straight in the hospital tank. I treated it with Interpet "Finrot and fungus" treatment and double the salt it normally has.

Since then it's been swimming about perfectly happily without a care in the world. I fed it this morning on some flake and the fish greedily ate it and kind of wagged its tail as if asking for more (can a guppy beg?). No sign of any abnormal white on it, except a spot on its tailfin which I think is a normal marking (it's a white, orange and yellow veiltail).

Have I been conned? What other possible reasons are there for this guppy's odd, socially avoidant behaviour? I'm going to complete the treatment regime and then re-introduce him to the main tanks. Any tips/ideas?

 

[aernympha]

ok i am guessing u have a tank of males and that maybe this guppy was being bullied by the other more dominait males and now that u have put him in his own tank he has been released form the stress and been able to get better so probably seem happyier and more healthy..... i would of imagined its was some bully .. male are always ike that with each other when it come with livebearers.. .....

 

[Alien Anna]

Thanks Aernympha! I'm new to livebearers and until yesterday was under the impression that guppies were schooling fish.

I'm a little uncertain what to do next WRT homing this fish. He is smaller than the others so perhaps I could fatten him up before re-introducing him? Would more plants in the tank help? It's a fairly new tank so the plants haven't got properly established yet (and then they had the lights out for 11 days when I was on holiday). I've also considered making one of those DIY caves that was posted about today - it will keep me out of mischief anyway. Do you think that would help the bullying situation (if that is what's happening) ?

I also have a very bullish sailfin molly in there but I don't think he bothers the guppies much. I'll keep an eye on him. Otherwise this guppy will have to go back to the LFS and I'm not terribly impressed with their fish care or advice. It's OK when it's tetras, gouramis etc. and fish I know about, but when I venture into new fish I still get mislead by incorrect info.

 

[aernympha]

keep him in the hospital tank and keep the water in good condition and give him live food and he will grow alot more cos of a rich protein diet!!! i wouldnt add salt personally cos otherwise they begin to become reliant on it, like fancy goldfish with a heated tank can't handle it with out the heat ... good luck don't give up on the little feller

 

[William]

Well guppies aren't shoaling fish, so finding a guppy on its own may not necesarily mean its being bullied although usually it is an indication. Keep an eye on him, if you see other fish attacking him then a period of isolation, if he's smaller as you said then try and fatten him up before reintroducing him you mention fancy guppies, why is it that you have no females, obviously it allows you to keep a higher density of males and the males have better colours but it seems a shame for the fancies genes to not be passed on

 

[Alien Anna]

Well guppies aren't shoaling fish, so finding a guppy on its own may not necesarily mean its being bullied although usually it is an indication. Keep an eye on him, if you see other fish attacking him then a period of isolation, if he's smaller as you said then try and fatten him up before reintroducing him you mention fancy guppies, why is it that you have no females, obviously it allows you to keep a higher density of males and the males have better colours but it seems a shame for the fancies genes to not be passed on

There are too many people on this forum with too many guppies - I wanted the guppies as colourful ditherfish for my mollies (who are the fish I wanted to breed). The advice I got from the LFS was that a bunch of boys would be fine and wouldn't cause any over-population problems.

However, since they didn't have any females in stock, it might have been a ruse. Females are somewhat less colourful so I suppose as display fish, they don't work as well. I've currently got 8 male fancy guppies, but of them only 4 are posh pedigree ones - the rest I was told were "peacock guppies" and have peacock-colours on them, all mottley, but they cost half the price of the pedigrees. Knowing my luck, if I got females they'd breed with the moggies and ignore the fancy pedigree ones!

I suppose if I did get females I'd have to get at least 16 to out-number the males? Wouldn't that be rather a lot of fish for a 30 gal tank?

I've got that awful "Yet-another-tank Syndrome" coming on...

 

[aernympha]

alot of peeps dont like the idea of so many babies but i my case i reackon that my guppys just relase there fry in front of filter i never see them at all they just get suck into that dam filter!!! or get eaten................. i only had platy fry and some ugly weird fry?!?!? probably soem weird hybird which i will get stuck with cos the lfs wont ttake them my livebearers are obseesed with hybirnazation even if it not possible they still give it a go ......... today i saw my male guppy pepe` trying to mate with tangerene a yellow mollys and its possible but has ugly out comes!!!!
well eough of my problems lol!!! i have noticed when my livebearers get bullied they do like to go and hang around somewhere safe... or if they are depressed like my sylvia i think its about love lol!!!! well all i can say she now regreting giving harry such a bad time when they first met and going after his girl she use to cahse them away !!! ohwell she a bit of a grumpy brute but my sis loves her cos she nibbles her finger lol. ohwell gd luck alien anna

 

[cheirodon]

I've spent a few afternoons sitting on a dock, watching schools of wild guppys swiming back and forth under me, and they seem to have some form of hierarchy in their goingsabout. Usually, the larger females lead the pack, maybe because they are the faster ones (?), followed by one or two bigger males (as big as males can go, which isn't much). Then come the "average" members, smaller in size, and belonging to both genders, and lastly, the itty bitty guys, that are sometimes left behind because of their somewhat erratic and compulsory swiming habits (they tend to spring on and off, not always in the correct direction) I'd say they form groups of about 50 individuals, and there are usually more female than male. My guess is there are about 6 females to 1 male. The big males, near the front, spend most of their time bullying the others, and or, trying to fertilize the bigger females. Since they have many others to pick on, the bother goes almost unnoticed.
So, maybe having a small group of all males, exacerbates the dominant male's bullying habits, picking on only one or two smaller guys, that can't stand up to the challenge of continually running from the bigger male.

However un-cientific, maybe this can shed some light into the behaviour of these wonderful toothcarps.

 

[Alien Anna]

Update: my skinny guppy, having been fattened up on bloodworms for a couple of weeks has put on a significant amount of weight and is now no longer the smallest.

I released him back into my main tank, in which I've put some more caves and plants and he seems to be doing fine. The white spot turns out to be a marking, btw, as is the white border to his tail.

He's now swapped places with my pregnant molly that I am trying (unsuccessfully) to breed.