Male guppy attacked by group of females

J

jessicar613

AC Members
Oct 17, 2006
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This is something that happened in the past when I had guppies and I wasn't able to find any info on it at the time. The guppies of course bred in the tank so I had the original male and female and about ten medium sized descendants (I took all the fry I could easily catch to the pet store periodically). Only the male was a "fancy" guppy since the original female had came from the feeder tank. After months with no problems and no aggression of any time, I came home to find a large gang of female guppies swarming around the male and eating his long fins. Not nipping - eating. They were like sharks in a feeding frenzy. I moved the male immediately and put him in another tank but he had no fins left, and didn't last long.

Has anyone seen this happen with guppies before? Why would the females attack the male this way, all of a sudden? It was creepy, frankly.
 
A while ago, I had 2 male and 4 female tequila guppies in my 10g. The females destroyed the males within a day. next day both males were dead.

Till this day I do not know why.

So, I kept the tank with 1 male guppy no females until about 2 weeks ago when i added 2 females. Luckily, no probs.
 
I read somewhere recently that fish bred in captivity have a tendency to be more agressive than those in nature. Maybe we have unwittingly created little monsters.
 
I find that certain coloured fancy guppies incite more aggression in fish than others. I have a large tank with many male guppies in, along with swordtails, platies and a betta. I found that the paler the tail or the larger the size of tail the more likely they were to get attacked. Males with red or blue tails were always left alone. I think rather like ared rag to a bull it is all to do with how fish perceive colours.
 
Well, that's interesting. He did have a fairly light colored tail. I wondered if he had contracted some sort of fin fungus or other condition and the fish were eating the dying pieces of fin. But none of the other males were eating them, just the females. And he hadn't even been nipped before; his fins appeared to be in perfect condition before the attack. :huh:

Anyway thanks for your insights everyone! I wonder if it just comes down to too many guppies in a tank.
 
Another interesting case was where I had two identical scissortail male guppies. Both had large pale blue tails and were healthy. For some reason one of the fish was picked on and constantly had his tail nipped whereas the other one didnt. They were both as active as each other but I think for some reason other fish sensed that this fish was weak and eventually they hounded him to death. The other fish has never been touched and doesnt have any nips in his tail. I dont think it takes much for fish to zone in on fish that just arent as strong or that are more vulnerable in some way.
I think fish numbers can have something to do with it. Pressures for food and space will always lead to battles of supremacy.
 
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