skip to main content

female guppy aggression

fairy_toadmother

18 years ago

hello again. anyone notice a heirarchy between their females? or is it just because i only hvae two? when the male was still there, the orange female always showed dominant behavior and the half black female would hold her dorsal fin lower, or back off. she also has fewer, if any, babies.

today i saw something never before. i hvae heard that guppies are nippy, but orange had the .5 black in the bottom corner just "biting" away at her body. if guppies could cower, she was. orange had a few babies the other day, of which only one was left. i amnot sure which, if not both, are eating them. there is also an @ 3 week old guppy in there from the first brood since i bought them.

thanks!

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (4)

skygee
18 years ago
ya know, I went home last night and stared at my guppy tank for awhile - to see if I was seeing any kind of female/female aggression.

I can't say I saw any. Just lots of guppies swimming madly about because they thought they were getting fed! LOL

What size tank do you have your guppies? Do you have enough plants about (I find plants are great shields that partition off territories)
fairy_toadmother
Original Author
18 years ago
yep, leave it to me to have tempermental guppies. since the male has been gone, it seems worse. very strange. well, i have 2 now, in a 10 gal and they could use more plants. right now, i have some hanging suction cupped plant int here meant for terrariums that really does give a lot of cover for a plastic plant. not enough though.

i say i am down to 2 guppies b/c i got sick to death of my angel aggression and placed the beast in with the guppies. it has me so p-o'd and so do the guppies...fend for yourselves i thought- if angel gets sick so be it. if little guppies get eaten or ms. orange gets harassed, so be it. wrong for me to be that way, but i am being honest. honestly, i am surprised the angel didn't choke on that month old guppy (that didn't bother anybody except the 2 day old one). unfortunately, ms. half black is now seriously hiding, but sometimes my movement freaks her out. other times, she goes nuts begging for food. i just never know how they will react.

2 angels and 3 cories in the other 10 gallon was just way too many. that beast was non stop in the 25 and would be non stop in a 75, i am sure of it. it was the healthies of the two angels, and now it looks like it has issues which i believe either existed while in the other 10, or resulted from my netting it. i don't know about plants in my guppy tank working, but i know it didn't deter that angel. all the plants i had in the 25 went into the 10 but it still managed to beat my other angel into the ground. the barracuda.

oops, so we were talking about guppies! ms. orange finds her no matter where she is sometimes. why? b/c she follows her around constantly. she used to just follow. without the male, she has taken to being very physical. i have never seen such aggression in a guppy, but i am not experienced with them, either. i must say, the angel kept her distracted it was freaked out from the move. they both came in to check it out but not too closely :)
Related Discussions
Two identical guppy tanks, reproduction in one and not the other.
Q
Comments (2)
The guppies in the one tank are cannibalizing the tiny ones. I took five little ones from the left tank and put them in the right tank and adults sucked them in immediately. They had a feeding frenzy like they do when fed fish food from the store.
...See More
strange thing coming out of my female guppy
Q
Comments (4)
Lanette: First, Lanette, it is pretty easy in guppies to tell a female from a male, so lets makes sure it is a female. One, do you actually see baby guppies swimming away? I am not being funny here, but it will say much with re to diagnosis to determine if it is a male or female. That said, males have this little pointy thing, called a gonopodium, (penis) and females do not of course. (Internal fertilization - In many species of fish, fins have been modified to allow internal fertilization.) (A gonopodium is a modified anal fin in males of certain species of live-bearing fish in the families Anablepidae and Poeciliidae. It is movable and used to impregnate females during mating.) ................ Females have this dark gravid spot (fetal area), where eggs get fertilized and babies grow. As they grow it gets darker and she gets fatter. It is under her belly towards the back of her body. Males today unless you have the plain old fashioned ones, have much more colorful tales, of different shapes and sizes. Females though more colorful then in past, are much plainer and larger often. ................... Generally, the males tend to be a bit more colorful fish, and are slender bodied. Female fish tend to be rounder bodied and larger than male fish. Males will have an adapted anal fin called a gonopodium, while females have a fan-shaped anal fin. On to your question: Hmmm, I am not sure as I have never heard of that before, in people that would be a prolasped womb (usually in older post menopausal women). But having just gone though a fish nematode situation which started with a pink vent (anus) area with red things coming out (was hard to see in small fast moving fish, in my case blue neon rainbow) I am posting this link in case it turns out to be the same. The first shows guppies with this internal nasty parasite. So not sure but maybe can rule this out. Best Sherry http://inkmkr.com/Fish/CamallanusTreatment/experience.html http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/BODY_FA091
...See More
Guppy Fry and Question
Q
Comments (10)
I just got 2 guppies, 1 male and 1 female. When I got them home and put them into the 1 gallon aquarium that has some plastic plants and a small treasure chest, a couple of hours later I noticed that the female was giving birth! My first instinct was to put the fry in another aquarium so that the mother and the male wouldn't eat them. I put them into a 1.66 gallon aquarium with an under gravel filtration system. When I put the 5 guppy fry in the aquarium all but 1 swam down to take cover in the rocks the other stayed at the top rolling, the others were all acting fine and would come up occasionaly. This morning I found it dead (the 1 that had been on the top rolling). I can't find the others and I was wondering what you think happened to them. I can tell that the female is still gravid from the dark spot on her abdomen, and I was wondering what I could do differntly next time?
...See More
Sorting guppies by sex
Q
Comments (8)
Hi The last I heard the ultimate is "Red eyed red hifin lyretail with females also bearing swords lol. That's a bit TOO much selective breeding for me lol I do like the RER but want Blood rather than cranberry or worse pink lol. Since they will not breed true always have to keep separate stock of albinos but still get a few lutinos. as well as greens . Since I keep my stock in outdoor ponds ,impossible to keep track or them. The breeding stock is kept in aquariums. Since red swords were created by crossing red platies with green swords you have to start with a intergenic cross so will never get 100 percent. As to sex change I think I've seen this but if they switch from functional male to female have no idea. I have noted the ratio of M?F can somewhat be controlled by the pH. higher producing more males. Very seldom is it 50/50 anyway.. Was hoping someone could direct me to some research on the se change issue You could raise the fish for centuriies and still never obseve this?? Thanks gary
...See More
gw:guppy-michelle
18 years ago
Dude! separate the females! Get the angel out of there and by herself! Or put the two mean ones together and let them fight it out(j/k) The poor black one is traumatized! Get her alone and back into shape and then reintroduce them! it might work.I had thet problem with my two females but the mean one died in labor and the shy one is the mother of 15. The shy blue one just kept away from the mean one and her male. Hey, you should get a male!
fairy_toadmother
Original Author
18 years ago
thanks for your input! unfortunately, i have still been unable to replace my larger tank and get everyone back to their own abodes.

also, the females seem to have adjusted, they are out swimming even with the angel. and, too many fish and nowhere to quariantine a male guppy

Related Stories

TREES Native Plant Alternatives to Invasive Common Buckthorn

By Pollination Press LLC

Learn how to identify and control this aggressive plant, and what to grow in its place

GARDENING GUIDES Invite Cellophane Bees to Your Garden by Providing Patches of Bare Soil

By Pollination Press LLC

Look for cellophane bees (Colletes) pollinating flowering trees and shrubs in U.S. gardens this spring

GARDENING GUIDES Invite Mining Bees to Your Garden by Planting Their Favorite Plants

By Pollination Press LLC

Look for mining bees (Andrena) pollinating woodland wildflowers in U.S. gardens this spring

GARDENING GUIDES Meet the Grass-Carrying Wasp, a Gentle Pollinator of Summer Flowers

By Pollination Press LLC

These fascinating insects nest in wood cavities and hollow plant stems

GARDENING GUIDES Great Golden Digger Wasp: A Beneficial Flower-Visiting Insect

By Pollination Press LLC

Introducing the great golden digger wasp, a colorful pollinator that also hunts foliage-eating insects

GARDENING GUIDES Look for Metallic Green Sweat Bees Visiting Your Garden This Fall

By Pollination Press LLC

These beautiful sweat bees will dazzle and delight you with their bright emerald green color and midsummer and fall flower visiting

GARDENING GUIDES Welcome Sweat Bees to Your Garden Throughout the Growing Season

By Pollination Press LLC

Look before you swat! These friendly sweat bees will feed on your sweat on a hot summer day, but their main buffet is flowers

GARDENING GUIDES Attract Thynnid Wasps With Summer-Flowering Native Plants

By Pollination Press LLC

These beneficial insects will hunt damaging beetle grubs in your lawn

GARDENING FOR BIRDS Backyard Birds: Meet Some Clever and Curious Jays

By Habitat Network

Boisterous jays provide plenty of backyard bird-watching in winter. Here’s how to identify all the varieties and welcome them into your yard

GARDENING GUIDES Small Carpenter Bees Are Looking for a Home in Your Plant Stems

By Pollination Press LLC

Provide flowers and nesting sites in your garden for this beautiful, tiny, metallic blue wild bee — your plants will thank you

Sponsored

Davidson Builders

1 Review

Franklin County's Full-Scale General Contractor