Bully guppy

[MdngtRain]

The little guppy in the gourami tank is a real pain in the butt. I might start to be worried for him soon. He chases everybody in the tank, not giving them any peace. Even the gourami run from him... The guy has balls I tell you... He went right after my territorial male gourami, and even chased the baby whale around. Just now I noticed his find getting a little ragged. Should I be worried about him? I don't have another tank for him, and he hides the whole time when housed by himself... But I don't want to stress my other fish out, or get him killed. He its about 10 months old. He was originally removed from the guppy tank for being a jerk and running everyone to exhaustion. He lived ok with the play fry while they were smaller, but just before I gave them away, he was starting his chasing with them too. Any suggestions on how to get him to calm down? I swear he's a gourami or an oscar trapped in a guppy's body... He must have done something in a past life, but clearly isn't learning... Lol.

 

[Kiara1125]

I had both a male guppy and platy like that. I got annoyed so I finally got rid of them. They were buttholes and as long as they kept harassing my other fish, I didn't really care what happened to them.

 

[OrangeCones]

Unfortunately, he is likely a 'mature' or 'maturing' guppy and is full of himself. The only way to calm him down would probably be to provide him with a harem to play with (but then you will have a lot of fry).

Guppies, like most livebearers, are very inbred and sometimes their natural instincts to procreate is exaggerated.

 

[Kiara1125]

OC, a harem of females won't always solve the problem. My male guppy liked to go after my platies and zebra danios. If you really want to keep him, then try the harem.

 

[MdngtRain]

That sucks because I'm really attached to the little guy. I don't have space for another tank, and I don't have space for a harem in my current tasks. I would need upwards of 10 females for him...he ran my pother harem tagged, and there were 5 or 7 females there...

 

[Kiara1125]

Wow, 7 females and he still ran them ragged?? Does he try to breed with them, or chase them around?? My male guppy would try to breed with anything, while my platy chased everyone around, including my only female mickey mouse (same breed as him) until he nearly ripped all her fins off. She's fine now, but she's afraid of everything.

 

[OrangeCones]

Nevermind.

 

[Kiara1125]

*whines* OC, what's on your mind??

 

[SlateSpider]

A couple of weeks ago, one of my molly fry kept picking at my black mollies' fins and scales. He finally stopped, but I had to try several things until he finally quit. He only picked on the black mollies, no one else...

I know it's not the same situation, but fish picking on other fish...

 

[MdngtRain]

I talked to a few different people at a few different lfs' and they are also stumped... I will be getting my brothers 10g in the near future, so I think I will try that for him... Well planted and over-stocked, but maybe that will calm him down. I am planning on just that male with a bunch of females. The filter with the tank is rated for a 29g, so that should be ok. I will also do water changes more often with my other tanks, because they will all be so over-stocked. I will plant heavily also. Anything else I should know for a planned over-stocking? I'm hoping petco has their $ 1/g sale again soon so I can upgrade the gourami tank to a 55g (tho the upgrade may end up being for the live-bearer tank since it will have so many fish). The guppies may just end up in the current live-bearer (29g). Does that sound workable?