Male Guppies Together?

[pahansen]

Hi. I have a question that is similar to another post.

Yesterday I saw some beautiful male guppies -- they were so vivid! The problem is that I really have no desire to have breeding fish or to take care of fry at this point in time. (I have a two year old and another due in August -- that's enough "fry" for me!!!) I held off on buying any fish, because I was hesitant on a couple of levels.

I know that guppies are happiest in groups, so I didn't want to buy a single male. I also was hesitant to buy more than one male, since I was worried that they would hurt each other. On the other hand, if I don't buy any females, do I have to worry about aggression? (By the way, everyone else in my tank is male except for the pleco, whom I believe is female, and a suspicious looking dojo loach.)

My final concern was that I have two cherry barbs (again, males) that were used to cycle the tank. I knew that some barbs were fin nippers, so I didn't want to bring a guppy home until I'd checked them out. It would appear that cherry barbs aren't big culprits on that level, but I wanted to check out the boards here first. Anyone with experience with cherry barbs being nippy? So far these haven't been nipping any of the other fish in the tank, but they are all larger fish.

So, do I go ahead and get a male guppy? (If so, how many?) Or shall I just content myself with going to the store and saying "what pretty fish"?

Thanks for the help!
-- Pamela

 

[daudy_dojo]

you can keep them together and shouldnt have a problem just like i said in the mollies post! but wait for someone else cause IMO i have no trouble with same sex!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

As for an all male goup, these are perfectly posible to work well but much depends on the individual guppy when it comes to all male groups, how many you can have depends on how many gallons the tank which they are going in holds and its current fish and numbers- my main advice is to only only one male at a time(2 though to begin with at the same time at the start) once a week at most.
This should give enough time for the males to sort out pecing orders and for you to find out who is suitable to be with who and wether there are any obvious bullys in the group so you can exchange them for a different male before you get any serious situations arising .
A good number would be 5males if you have the space for them as this will be a bigger enough minimum number to help avoid no one male getting picked on too much by another; you kind of have to treat the situation like stocking tiger barbs, there is one fixed advised minimum number as it varys so much from group to group and from barb to barb .

 

[Annastasia]

Cherry Barbs are pretty peaceful, sometimes even a little shy.

As for males together....I've tried to put male Guppies together in the past. They all had nipped fins, etc. And there was one that always got picked on, even when the group was pretty big. 20 or so. Now...3 years down the road...I tried it again, and they are fine. Pretty peaceful, some occasional nipping. Nothing serious though.

It pretty much depends on the fish. If you do go for it, just watch them, and have a back up plan if it doesn't work out.

Other then that...I think my male tank looks awesome. They aren't very fancy Guppies, but all the colors together look very nice.

 

[afireinside]

you should not have problems, i've done that in the past, and all of my male guppies seemed just fine. but there is a difference in fancy guppy/ other types of guppies. i've read some were that fancy guppies are nicer than other breeds of guppies.

 

[Annastasia]

i've read some were that fancy guppies are nicer than other breeds of guppies.

Breeds of Guppies...as in colors? All Guppies are the same species Poecilia reticulata. The only thing I can think of is that they were talking about color variations? Since Fancy Guppies are very inbred, to give them all the color... Maybe all that inbreeding made them calmer.

 

[pahansen]

Thanks to everyone for their responses. I looked up some old posts on the Cypranids, etc. board, and the general concensus seems to be that cherry barbs are peaceful, unlike many of the other barbs, and my pair have never given me a reason to think otherwise. So I decided to give it a shot. I got a male pair of fancy guppies this evening. Their bag is floating in the tank now. I'll keep an eye on them and see how they do with each other before I decide to add any more. Frankly, I'd be happy with just the two of them, assuming it doesn't cause any aggression problems.

If I have problems with the barbs or with aggression, I have a friend with an incredibly understocked 55 gallon tank who would be happy to take one or both of them off my hands.

Thanks for the help,
Pamela

 

[Erised]

Like said before, it depends on the personality of the guppies really. I've had bad experiences only ... resulting in fin tears as well as death.

Guess trial and perhaps error is the only thing that will tell you for sure.

 

[Angry_Platy]

I have, in the past kept male guppies together without females. The males were more intent on trying to impregnate the platy girls than bicker with each other

 

[SnowyzMom]

Hope you enjoy your male guppies! I have a fair number in my large tank and they're always showing off to each other. I've never had any fighting or fin nipping with them, but pulling "walk-offs"like in Zoolander? They do that 24/7, always strutting and displaying, lol. Some are short rounded tails, some are long tails, almost like veiltail Bettas. And every colour under the sun. A right kaliedoscope, a moving rainbow of fish. I think the more stoic and mature tetras in the tank consider the guppies the teenagers in their hotrods, always showing off.