Poor Guppy! :(

[chelsiethegreat]

i have 9 male guppies in my 10 gallon tank.. two of which i just recently added. One of the two has gotten his tail nipped at pretty badly, but i have yet to catch them nipping at him. He isn't really acting weird.. still swimming around the whole tank.. still eating fine.. just nipped up.. should i take him back? or should i just let em work it out?

 

[Liz1993]

This is the exact situation im in atm with my WCMM, my poor little thing has no fin at the back now , Im letting mine work it out, unless he looks really poorly then ill take him out.

 

[chelsiethegreat]

i think thats what im going to do too.. will their little tails grow back?

 

[superguppygirl]

Add some salt and some stress conditioner, and if it doesn't get better, separate him in his own lil tank, till they grow back, but how much interaction do you have with them? They are extremely social love to just play with your fingers, the aggression could be from the lack of female company if ya know what I mean, another way to help is give them a bubble wall, mine love to ride the bubbles up weave through them

 

[chelsiethegreat]

Add some salt and some stress conditioner, and if it doesn't get better, separate him in his own lil tank, till they grow back, but how much interaction do you have with them? They are extremely social love to just play with your fingers, the aggression could be from the lack of female company if ya know what I mean, another way to help is give them a bubble wall, mine love to ride the bubbles up weave through them

thats what i was thinking ( the no female attention ) but i have bubbles going up the back of my tank wall.. plenty of foliage and hiding spots ... i dunno. i feel bad for him, but it seems like they're leaving him alone now..

 

[superguppygirl]

I found a wall more effective, or try moving your air stone to the open, when they figure out how to play in it, its really comical, if your guppys lay on the rocks or decor alot, it definitely is the lack of females

 

[Tolak]

Fresh water is the best thing around for healing damaged fins. 50% water changes daily the first week, every other day the second week.

 

[chelsiethegreat]

I found a wall more effective, or try moving your air stone to the open, when they figure out how to play in it, its really comical, if your guppys lay on the rocks or decor alot, it definitely is the lack of females

i think a couple of them might be suffering from not having any ladies.. is there anything i can do about that? i mean, without adding females to the tank.. ?

 

[LoUaI]

9 male guppies

without adding females to the tank.. ?

well if u don't wanna add females then u will have to remove those males and leave only 2 or 4 max, it happened 2 me once and after i removed most of the males and kept just 2 males in 19 gallon everything went back to normal

 

[chelsiethegreat]

things are looking better today! they're all swimming around like normal! .. but for long term.. should i like, get a female of a different kind to help and prevent breeding? or would that be pointless?

 

[FishBlast]

things are looking better today! they're all swimming around like normal! .. but for long term.. should i like, get a female of a different kind to help and prevent breeding? or would that be pointless?

Not sure if they'll chase swordtail females, but doubt they can breed with them. Might keep their attention on them. (Although there have been hybrid reports of guppy-molly... )

Also, you'd have to make sure said female won't be already pregnant, else you'll end up with swordtail fry.
Platy would probably catch the guppies attention too.

 

[superguppygirl]

Not sure if they'll chase swordtail females, but doubt they can breed with them. Might keep their attention on them. (Although there have been hybrid reports of guppy-molly... )

Also, you'd have to make sure said female won't be already pregnant, else you'll end up with swordtail fry.
Platy would probably catch the guppies attention too.
[/quote]

Actually Guppies can breed with mollies, swordtails and platies IF the females accept them I have had this happen with my smaller platies and swordtail females and have seen molly/guppy crosses in fellow hobbist's tanks but usually the bigger older females ignore their attempts to mate

 

[FishBlast]

Actually Guppies can breed with mollies, swordtails and platies IF the females accept them I have had this happen with my smaller platies and swordtail females and have seen molly/guppy crosses in fellow hobbist's tanks but usually the bigger older females ignore their attempts to mate

Not that they can't perform the mating, just that only molly+guppy (muppies / gollies) hybrids have been known.
I have yet to see a swordtail+guppy or platy+guppy hybrid.

Although these look pretty close...

But doubt it's related to the actual swordie.

 

[OldMan47]

That is simply wrong. Guppy / swordtail crosses, even with artificial insemination do not happen, they are not close enough genetically, period. A guppy or a swordtail may attempt to cross with the other fish but there are simply no resulting fry. Any fry you see after that attempt are still swordtails or guppies, not crosses. Guppies are ambush maters compared to things like endlers. An endler spends time trying to entice a female to mate and swims off they fail. A guppy, on the other hand, will make a lunge at a female who wants to ignore him. Some contacts always result when the fish are housed together.

 

[FishBlast]

That is simply wrong. Guppy / swordtail crosses, even with artificial insemination do not happen, they are not close enough genetically, period. A guppy or a swordtail may attempt to cross with the other fish but there are simply no resulting fry. Any fry you see after that attempt are still swordtails or guppies, not crosses. Guppies are ambush maters compared to things like endlers. An endler spends time trying to entice a female to mate and swims off they fail. A guppy, on the other hand, will make a lunge at a female who wants to ignore him. Some contacts always result when the fish are housed together.

So Endlers are the gentlemen of the livebearers. Lol.
I never actually noticed guppies mate, saw them do awesome displays though, wagging their tails in front of females.

Still wondering why my swordtail male keeps trying to court the female when she doesn't even care about it and eats off the floor as usual. The only time he manages to mate with her is when he sneaks up on her lol.