Dealing With Bullying

[rich06]

Hi,

I was given a mixture of tropical fish for my birthday and they all seem to be fine except that 2 fish constantly bully/harass another one... the weird things are

1) All 3 fish (2 bullies and the victim) are of different species - kinda rules out any mating related issues I'd assume
2) The victim is physically larger than both of the 2 bullies

Unfortunately I don't know the species involved - I am not an expert at all... I can describe them though...

Bully 1 - Small fish with a light and dark blue body with distinctively large blue fan tail that almost has a metallic sheen
Bully 2 - Similar to bully 1 in size but with a white head, black body with very bright orange dorsal fin and large orange fan tail
Victim - About 2/3 times bigger than both bullies, olive green body with a medium sized black fan tail

There seems to be (to this untrained eye anyway!) another fish of the same species as the victim in the tank however it has a lighter black speckled tail - this fish is not hassled at all...

Anyway I was thinking that if I add another fish for both the bully species (they are singletons) that may distract them and they will leave the poor victim alone... is that a good idea?

As you can tell I am a newbie at this so I'd appreciate any advice here.
Many thanks in advance!
Rich

 

[White Whale]

Pictures would really help in a situation like this.

 

[chrisbassist]

Yeah, it could just be the species won't mix, and getting more could just make it worse.

So if you have pics people can ID the fish. Then once we know what fish are involved we can help.

 

[Ben M]

from the descriptions they sound like guppies, but that's just a guess. pics would really help

 

[rich06]

from the descriptions they sound like guppies, but that's just a guess. pics would really help

Thanks for the responses --- here's a movie clip of the main perpetrators -> http/drop.io/c65eo5z

First up is bully No.1 the blue fish, next up is bully No. 2 the orange/black fish and lastly the victim olive green/black fish... I hope it is clear enough for someone to identify the species or whatever...

TIA
Rich

 

[Jamepsss]

from the descriptions they sound like guppies, but that's just a guess. pics would really help

Thanks for the responses --- here's a movie clip of the main perpetrators -> http/drop.io/c65eo5z

First up is bully No.1 the blue fish, next up is bully No. 2 the orange/black fish and lastly the victim olive green/black fish... I hope it is clear enough for someone to identify the species or whatever...

TIA
Rich

They're Guppies. The two 'bully's' are males and the 'victim' is the female. They're not bullying her they're trying to mate with her and if she's the only female it could be quite stressful for her.

I can see some platies I think too but I would add a few more female guppies so she isn't so harrassed.

 

[chrisbassist]

Or if you don't want any breeding going on, get rid of the female.

 

[rich06]

OK - Many thanks for your help.
I will try and obtain some female guppies then to keep the amorous males occupied.

Thanks again!

Rich

 

[NinjaSmurf]

I couldn't get the video to work, but before you add more females, what's the size of your tank and can you find out what else is in there? Guppies (and most other common livebearers) can very quickly overload you with fry and it's a good idea to figure out what you're going to do with them all before that happens.

 

[rich06]

I couldn't get the video to work, but before you add more females, what's the size of your tank and can you find out what else is in there? Guppies (and most other common livebearers) can very quickly overload you with fry and it's a good idea to figure out what you're going to do with them all before that happens.

Hi - thanks for your message - the tank size is 85 litres - as I mentioned I don't know what the species are I'm afraid -- apart from the amorous Guppies of course... I'm very new at this... So would you recommend I remove the female 'victim' instead of adding a couple of female Guppies?

There are about 10 other fish in the tank (none are guppies) - none of the others seem to be bothered by my 2 Guppies so I presume they are all male..

Cheers
Rich

 

[NinjaSmurf]

If you can I'd try to post some pictures or find picture on the web that look like your fish and post them here, and we'll see if we can help you out. Or, and I don't know if the is possible, but see if the person you got them from can tell you what they are.

 

[rich06]

If you can I'd try to post some pictures or find picture on the web that look like your fish and post them here, and we'll see if we can help you out. Or, and I don't know if the is possible, but see if the person you got them from can tell you what they are.

I did some research -- apart from the Guppies I'm pretty sure the other fish are variants of Platies and Mollies...

Rich

 

[NinjaSmurf]

Livebearer section is going to be your friend lol. They should have a post the will tell you how to sex them so you can figure out what all you have, then you'll know what you'll be dealing with (as they can have a lot of fry).

 

[rich06]

Thanks - will check it out...

Rich