Do female guppies attack the male

Tl52505

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I got a male and female guppy about a week ago, and all was great until I noticed the male had a little spot raised above his mouth. He also is way less active and barely swimming around. The Female still looks great and looks like it is doing fine. Could the female have attacked him? The photo is of the male
 

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Here is a picture of the male the day I got them
 

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yes females attack males when pregnant, so they can protect their territory for their babies i think
 
Hi and welcome to the forum :)

The females sometimes get annoyed with the males harassing them all the time and some females will have a go at the males. But it is uncommon and doesn't normally lead to physical injury.

The damage to the top lip probably occured when the male ran into something in the tank because he wasn't thinking with his brain and was thinking about the girls.

Monitor the mouth for red or white areas and inflamtion, and post more pictures if it changes. Red is normally a bacterial infection, white and fluffy is a fungal infection.

You can add some salt to help prevent infection. See directions below for salt.

The fish also appears to have very red gills and this might be from water quality.
How long has the tank been set up for?
Can you check the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH of the aquarium water?


-------------------------
BASIC FIRST AID FOR FISH

Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.


-------------------------
SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt) or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.
 
Last edited:
Hi and welcome to the forum :)

The females sometimes get annoyed with the males harassing them all the time and some females will have a go at the males. But it is uncommon and doesn't normally lead to physical injury.

The damage to the top lip probably occured when the male ran into something in the tank because he wasn't thinking with his brain and was thinking about the girls.

Monior the mouth for red or white areas and inflamtion, and post more pictures if it changes. Red is normally a bacterial infection, white and fluffy is a fungal infection.

You can add some salt to help prevent infection. See directions below for salt.

The fish also appears to have very red gills and this might be from water quality.
How long has the tank been set up for?
Can you check the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH of the aquarium water?


-------------------------
BASIC FIRST AID FOR FISH

Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.


-------------------------
SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt) or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.
The tank has been setup for like 10 years, I moved the male to a quarantine tank and started treating him for mouth fungus because that is what it looked like. I noticed that he randomly opens his mouth all the way like he is struggling to, and can’t really eat off of the surface of the water. Should I move him back to the main tank or no
 
I would keep him separate for a couple of weeks and see how he goes. He might have an infection n his mouth, throat or gills and keeping him out of the main tank should help prevent it spreading to the other fish.

If he is in a quarantine tank, add some salt and keep an eye on him. Hopefully it's just a minor infection that clears up and isn't Columnaris (mouth fungus).
 
I would keep him separate for a couple of weeks and see how he goes. He might have an infection n his mouth, throat or gills and keeping him out of the main tank should help prevent it spreading to the other fish.

If he is in a quarantine tank, add some salt and keep an eye on him. Hopefully it's just a minor infection that clears up and isn't Columnaris (mouth fungus).
He doesn’t have that raised area above his mouth but still looks like he’s having trouble eating. I just got a new tank and when I moved my other fish over, including the female guppy, she just swims up and down along the glass. Idk if it’s stress from the new tank, or not having the male there. The male and female stayed near each other in my other tank. I only have a pleco, the female guppy, and another tropical fish in the tank. It’s not like I have 20 other fish that could get sick from it, and the quarantine tank is a tiny 2 gallon tank. Would it be better to put the guppy back in
 
The female guppy is glass surfing. It's common when fish are put into a new clean tank. The fish are exploring the new surroundings and are trying to fiure out what is there (clean glass). She should stop doing it in a day or so.

I would keep the male guppy on its own until it is eating well and back to normal. Change all of his water each day so it stays clean, add some salt and see how he goes.
 
It doesn't has to be that the male's been attacked by the female. It could just be an infection as you and Colin have already talked about. At this point hard to tell how bad it might be.
I would keep the male guppy on its own until it is eating well and back to normal. Change all of his water each day so it stays clean, add some salt and see how he goes.
I'd do the same...
 
It looks like when he opens his mouth, there is something covering on the sides. Is it supposed to be there.
EED958F9-4DEB-4CFF-9947-F97250759A53.jpeg
EED958F9-4DEB-4CFF-9947-F97250759A53.jpeg
 
Don't know what you mean?
Also a bigger picture might help, my eye-sight isn't good these days.
 
Don't know what you mean?
Also a bigger picture might help, my eye-sight isn't good these days.
Thanks for all the help but sadly the air pump slipped out of the quarantine tank last night when I was asleep😭
 

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