Are My Guppies Breeding Or Playing ?

[pippoodle]

please dont shoot me down but i've never had guppies/tropical fish before but have kept coldwater - fancy goldfish for years

So here's my question/explanation

My male guppy keeps rounding up 2 or 3 females and keeping them up one end of the tank then the other male comes and takes one away to the other end of the tank .
The males then take it in turn swimming really fast along the surface of the water from one end of the tank to the other while the girls are left in the corner then the girls join in .
They then both go down to the bottom of the tank and swim fast to the surface then the male and the female go down to the floor of the tank and the male keeps swimming around fluttering he's tail at the girls .
He then gets underneath them for a while then they swim off and do it again until the female goes .
Then they go and play with the minnows in the bubbles until a female swims past and it starts again .

Are they breeding or playing ?

I have 3 males and 7 females

So sorry to ask such a dumb question its just goldfish are so easy to know they are breeding as are my white cloud minnows , i just like to ask a lot of questions so i know whats going on in my tank .

 

[pippoodle]

anyone know ??

 

[omega59]

you should have 3 females per-1-male and it sounds like they maybe fighting.

 

[helterskelter]

The males will always flirt with the females. but sounds nothing to worry about.

 

[pippoodle]

all the males are doing is nicking females off of each other but they are not butting each other or anything
some of the chubby females i pictured yesterday with the darkeening gravid spots the males havent touched so maybe they are early pregnant as someone thought


So are they mating or just flirting ?
i was watching the yellow male and if i was a female fish i'd be impressed lmao
how would i know if they were mating ?

 

[omega59]

a dark gravid spot doesnt mean necessarily they are pregnant, some and many fish have a dark gravid spot all their life, and they aren't pregnant at all!

 

[pippoodle]

a dark gravid spot doesnt mean necessarily they are pregnant, some and many fish have a dark gravid spot all their life, and they aren't pregnant at all!

yes i read about that but i posted some pics yesterday wih some plumping young females and some people thought that thye could well have been pregnant due to shape

 

[helterskelter]

how would i know if they were mating ?

After flirting the male approaches from behind and below the female. And the actaul mating is when he swings his gonopodium (anal fin) and presses it against the female.

 

[pippoodle]

how would i know if they were mating ?

After flirting the male approaches from behind and below the female. And the actaul mating is when he swings his gonopodium (anal fin) and presses it against the female.

thankyou for that helter


so i now know what they've been doing only one male goes through with the actual anal fin business the others are still only flirting but the LFS did say they were all quite young --- dirty buggers lmao