Guppy Issue

[pokemonmastah]

Hi Everyone!

Just earlier, one my friends gave me 9 guppies for our exchange gift at our christmas party at school. It was perfect since I've always loved guppies, but never had any. As far as my readings are concerned, guppies ARE PEACEFUL fish. But when I put my guppies together with my platies and my opaline and pearl gouramis, they began pecking at my platies! What's wrong! Is it just stress from travel or they have a behavioral problem? I really need some suggestions.. Will this problem go away once I get my tank upgrade (from 15 gallons to 50 gallons)? Thanks!

~pokemonmastah~

 

[LauraFrog]

Never kept gouramis, but I've had both guppies and platies.

How big are the guppies? What sex? What sexes are the platies and are they picking on one fish in particular? How are the other platies behaving, are they attacking the guppies back or picking on each other? How many fish are in the 15 gal?

In my experience, if anything fish that are stressed from travel will be more timid and hide (I have a fish that seems determined to fit between the gravel and the piece of wood at the moment - she'll be fine tomorrow haha, bought her today.) rather than attacking everything else in the tank. You might just have a bunch of really snotty guppies... hard to tell.

Tank upgrade may help if the current tank is overstocked because that can cause aggression. Also if you have a lot of males (all males or more males than females) you will have plenty of room to get more females which can help. If the guppies are male and (some of) the platies are female, they might be sex-crazed and trying to mate with the next-best thing since there are no female guppies or not enough, I have seen this before.

 

[pokemonmastah]

The guppies are around 1 inch each, considering their tails, and I think they're still young because their bodies are still slim and their eyes are so small. All of them are males, and they've been picking on my male platies. My platies are very peaceful, and get along with everyone. I strongly believe my tank is overstocked, first and foremost, I have about 15+ platies in there, considering the three gouramis, and that's alot already, but then I added the guppies, so it makes it more overloaded. Hmm.. I hope the tank upgrade does the job. Thanks so much LauraFrog!!!