Can males live happily w/o females?

[tear-scar]

Hi, I currently have 8 Endler's livebearer, 2 males and 2 females in my 20g, and 2 males and 2 females in my 5g. Endlers are just like guppies, so if you have experience w/ guppies, speak up!

What I'd like to do, is move the 2 females in the 5g to the 20g. I think this would make their lives less-stressful since the ratio of female to male would then be 2-1. Plus, I really just want my fish in the 5g to be more colorful.

My question though, can the males live w/o the females? Or will they become more stressed-out (or frustrated )?

 

[fishluver]

I had seperated my guppies male from female for awhile, and even tho there were no females in the tank, my males would chase each other around trying to mate...so I put my females back in there and if they had babies, i would let nature take it's course. But the males were happy I guess, well the chaser was happier than the one being chased.

 

[snowyangel]

I often control my guppy population by often seperating the sexes(except during selective breeding). I've had all male guppies in a 35 gallon, while the females are in relaxation mode in a 25gallon. I think it's actually beneficial for the guppy to be seperated at times. Males are very pushy, irritating characters when they want to breed and this immensley stresses the female out, not to mention having babies every month really increases stress and therefor probably reduces the lifespan. I try to leave a 2 months break inbetween breeding a female so my female can rest and not pop out babies every month. I do aggree with the males still being horny, even with each other, but there's no harm done. You should have no problems with your tank.

 

[tear-scar]

thanks! I think I'll move the females to the other tank today then.