How many male guppies???

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Dan44

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Hello everyone,

I have 3 male guppies in my community tank and Iā€™m considering adding a few more. Iā€™m just wondering about how many male guppies can be kept together. I donā€™t want to keep females because I donā€™t want any fry. Iā€™ve read a lot of mixed reviews online and thereā€™s a lot of contradicting info. I read about fin nipping and bullying to how easy it is to keep an all male tank without any issues. Just curious if anyone here has experienced fin nipping and bullying while keeping multiple male guppies together. If thereā€™s a chance of any harassment, then I would just keep the fish I have. Thanks in advance for any responses.
 
The size of the group is determined by how much space there is in the tank, what your maintenance regime is, etc. There's no number for male only guppies. To me, your current 3 is the start of a group set up, and from here on in it will depend on the individual character of the fish. If you get one with a ramped up sex drive (even more than all permanently insane male guppies), then you will have aggression, and nipping. They will all try to mate with everything in the tank, from rocks to each other, because they are guppies.
 
Agreed with Gary!

What size is the tank, and what's the current stocking, other than the 3 male guppies?

I keep male only guppies in my main display tank, and bear in mind also that breeders separate out fry as soon as they're old enough to sex, into male/female only tanks, precisely because they can breed like mad at a young age, and need to be separated to prevent the males getting the females gravid.

So it's very common for male guppies to be in male only tanks for a long time, or even for their lifespans. It isn't essential for them to be with females and breed, and not always a good idea to breed them either, when as you say, it's so easy to get overwhelmed by the numbers once breeding does begin. So don't feel bad about keeping only males, and it can certainly work.

As Gary said, there's no specific number that works or doesn't work. When I was breeding and separating out males into their male only tank before they went to the store, I could have 30-40 males at a time together, and usually without problems. I'll explain the rare problem fish later, but in a few years of breeding them, I only had a couple that were too reproduction material/aggression, and that had to be removed and couldn't live in a male only tank. But they were rare, given the numbers of guppies we're talking about, and that most are more mellow and can happily live with other males.

The males will chase each other as if competing to breed, or attempting to breed with each other, because they're guppies, and it's a natural drive. It's just what they do, and not to be stressed over, unless you find one male is continually picking on all the others, or selecting a specific target, and bullying them relentlessly, stressing out that target fish and never giving him a break. Then you need to step in and intervene. But as I said, this kind of targeting and bullying is rare, and some chasing is normal, so don't intervene too fast, spend time observing, and learn the signs of stress in fish. If you remove the target fish, for example, to recover from the stress, if the bully fish really is a male that is too driven to live with other males, then he'll just pick another target.

If you're unlucky enough to get one of those super driven males, then return him to the store, and choose more placid looking males from the stock tank. Just the ones who seem chill, but not lethargic or otherwise ill looking, just the ones swimming around calmly and not picking on the other males in the store tank.

In the few years I actively bred guppies, I'd often have 30-40 young adult males in a tank, with no issues at all. But I vividly remember one male, mostly black with red edges to his fins that I ended up nicknaming "Diablo", because he really was a demon to the other males. Even when young, he was so driven, and he was relentless picking on a specific other male. This wasn't like the typical male chasing another male around for a while. It was much more intense, and easily spotted at a distance. You could just tell he really meant it, and he'd chase him all over the tank and into corners, despite the tank being well planted, and plenty of other males there, but he would focus on one or two others at a time.

I tried removing the victims, he'd just choose new targets. Removing him, re-arranging the tank, then re-adding him didn't work either. When I finally took that batch to the store, I was kinda relieved! I did warn them about Diablo, and the laughed knowingly - they knew that the odd male turns out like this, and it's natural... in the wild, that driven male would likely be doing well with the females, if they chose him, anyway, so it's not "being mean", or an evil fish, it's just far more driven to chase off other males to increase his own chances with the girls. But more driven than the average male guppy, and that ones like that are relatively rare.

I was known at that store as "the guppy girl", since I'd bring them bags full of young guppies, and I'd always check out whatever they had in stock of course. Very occasionally, and I do mean very occasionally, there would be a male guppy in a tank alone, and they'd explain he was in time out, because he was picking on the other males in his shipment. So it is a known thing within the hobby, but again, if you're only keeping a few males together, and not breeding lots of males in large numbers, you're very unlikely to come across one of those more driven males, especially if you carefully select more chilled, but still healthy males when choosing from the store tanks.

If the tank allows it, I'd up your numbers to at least 5-6 male guppies, to spread around any chasing or minor bullying among several males, so you don't wind up with two picking on the third one. Make sure there are lots of dense and tall plants to break up lines of site, and give a fish somewhere to hide and get a break if it is being picked on by the others. For most fish, out of sight is out of mind, so if one is chasing another, but the other can dip out of view among a load of plants, the other will forget and move on to doing something else. So plain, bare, open tanks where fish can see each other allllll the time, and never escape from each other, are not recommended. For many reasons, not just the potential aggression. Fish feel safer with lots of live plants, and with floating plants overhead, so they feel safer from predators. They also show their colours better when they're in a well decorated/thought out tank with cover for them to hide in, add a background, things like that will give you much better chances of long term success.
 
Hello everyone,

I have 3 male guppies in my community tank and Iā€™m considering adding a few more. Iā€™m just wondering about how many male guppies can be kept together. I donā€™t want to keep females because I donā€™t want any fry. Iā€™ve read a lot of mixed reviews online and thereā€™s a lot of contradicting info. I read about fin nipping and bullying to how easy it is to keep an all male tank without any issues. Just curious if anyone here has experienced fin nipping and bullying while keeping multiple male guppies together. If thereā€™s a chance of any harassment, then I would just keep the fish I have. Thanks in advance for any responses.
Hello Dan. I kept 20 to 30 in a 20 gallon tank many years ago, before I got into large tanks. I just put in a lot of floating plants, drift wood and rocks in the tank, so all the fish had places to hide. I think I was trying to get certain colors to come through, but lost interest in that project and eventually put all the fish into a much larger community tank.

10
 
Despite of the fact that guppies are considered being friendly fish, dominance and aggression is something that should be viewed on a completely individual basis. For every single guppy has got its own way of behaving. So, one is friendly and the other "can" be a real jerk. And yes, as already stated, if a male's got a sexual overdrive, he will try to harrass another male. But again, it can also be very harmonious in an all male tank. So, that's why the stories about an all male tank can be different from own perspectives.
 
Hello and thank you all for the great responses. I really do appreciate it!

My tank is a 20 g (hob aqua clear 50 filter) decorated with Java fern, Java moss, Anubias, frog bit and driftwood. I do 25% water changes weekly

My current stock is:
- 3 male guppies
- 2 male endler livebearers
- 12 Pygmy Corydoras
- 3 Nerite snails
- 5 Amano shrimp
- 6 cherry shrimp.

I had a recommendation of adding some type of small schooling fish to my tank. But my son loves his guppies, so I thought instead of the small schooling fish I could add 2-3 more male guppies.
 
Hello and thank you all for the great responses. I really do appreciate it!

My tank is a 20 g (hob aqua clear 50 filter) decorated with Java fern, Java moss, Anubias, frog bit and driftwood. I do 25% water changes weekly

My current stock is:
- 3 male guppies
- 2 male endler livebearers
- 12 Pygmy Corydoras
- 3 Nerite snails
- 5 Amano shrimp
- 6 cherry shrimp.

I had a recommendation of adding some type of small schooling fish to my tank. But my son loves his guppies, so I thought instead of the small schooling fish I could add 2-3 more male guppies.

Hi, this sounds like really great start, and a nicely stocked tank!

Guppies and Endler's Livebearers are closely related, and can interbreed, so hybrids between the two are commonly found in the hobby. In fact the guppies I adopted appear to be guppy/Endler crosses, judging by their size and body markings. They'll be absolutely fine together. :)

Personally, I wouldn't add any schooling fish, since depending on species, they need groups of 8-12, and you'd be approaching overstocked if you added them to your current stocking. But you could easily add a few more male guppies and/or Endlers! Could take your son to the store and choose some males with different colours that he likes. Just make sure to examine the tanks in the store and make sure the fish in the store look healthy. We can give more tips about choosing fish in the store and about quarantining them for disease if you'd like.

Only other recommendations I'd make is to up the amount of water you change weekly. Remember that the solution to pollution is dilution, and if you're removing 25% of the water, you're still leaving 75% of the old stuff in there. Over time, with smaller water changes like that, levels of nitrates can gradually climb week by week, and lead to old tank syndrome. 25% isn't terrible, especially since you're currently not overstocked and have fish with a fairly light bioload. But changing 50% weekly won't do any harm at all, and will improve water quality in the tank.

Some people are wary of large water changes, but clean fresh water is the best for fish. Just make sure to temperature match the new water to the temp of the tank before adding it, and use a water conditioner to declorinate the water before adding too. Use a gravel vac to clean the substrate during every weekly water change to remove dirt, debris and uneaten food - especially when a kid is feeding the fish, it's very easy to overfeed the tank, since fish need a lot less food than we tend to give, and overfeeding can also decrease water quality, so the maintenance of gravel cleaning and doing decently sized water changes are essential to keep the water quality good, and the fish healthy. :)

The only other tips I have are to add a background if you don't have one yet, plain black construction paper will do! Helps the fish feel safer, and also makes the fish colours and plants pop. :D

Lastly, the plants. It's great that you have the frogbit - floating plants are great for helping the fish feel safe, and also great for sucking up ammonia that the fish produce quickly. The other plants are brilliant plants for beginners to the hobby, so good choices! But they're slower growing, so don't help as much with water quality. So personally I'd add another fast growing plant, ideally one that will grow tall and provide breaks in lines of sight for the guppies and endlers, and provide hiding places at any height in the tank.

Plants I'd suggest are limniphilia sessiliflora - beautiful, fluffy and easy to grow plant, fish love it, and because it grows fast, it's good for sucking up ammonia and improving water quality. One of my favourites, so I often recommend!


Worth watching the video, it'll grow to the full height of the tank, and it's easy to maintain. Once it's tall enough, you can just snip it with scissors, then replant the trimmings and they'll grow too. I once propagated it like this and formed it into a sort of hedge that hid the sponge filter by just looking like a dense bunch of plants, and both fish and shrimp love it as a hiding place. :)

You can also do the same with hornwort or elodea, but they're not quite as pretty, and hornwort has a habit of dropping all it's needles if it's unhappy, which makes a mess to clean up.

None of these are essential, they're only suggestions, but it sounds as though you're doing great, and it's a lovely thing to share with your son! And a great way to teach him about nature, and responsibility. :)
 
Hi, this sounds like really great start, and a nicely stocked tank!

Guppies and Endler's Livebearers are closely related, and can interbreed, so hybrids between the two are commonly found in the hobby. In fact the guppies I adopted appear to be guppy/Endler crosses, judging by their size and body markings. They'll be absolutely fine together. :)

Personally, I wouldn't add any schooling fish, since depending on species, they need groups of 8-12, and you'd be approaching overstocked if you added them to your current stocking. But you could easily add a few more male guppies and/or Endlers! Could take your son to the store and choose some males with different colours that he likes. Just make sure to examine the tanks in the store and make sure the fish in the store look healthy. We can give more tips about choosing fish in the store and about quarantining them for disease if you'd like.

Only other recommendations I'd make is to up the amount of water you change weekly. Remember that the solution to pollution is dilution, and if you're removing 25% of the water, you're still leaving 75% of the old stuff in there. Over time, with smaller water changes like that, levels of nitrates can gradually climb week by week, and lead to old tank syndrome. 25% isn't terrible, especially since you're currently not overstocked and have fish with a fairly light bioload. But changing 50% weekly won't do any harm at all, and will improve water quality in the tank.

Some people are wary of large water changes, but clean fresh water is the best for fish. Just make sure to temperature match the new water to the temp of the tank before adding it, and use a water conditioner to declorinate the water before adding too. Use a gravel vac to clean the substrate during every weekly water change to remove dirt, debris and uneaten food - especially when a kid is feeding the fish, it's very easy to overfeed the tank, since fish need a lot less food than we tend to give, and overfeeding can also decrease water quality, so the maintenance of gravel cleaning and doing decently sized water changes are essential to keep the water quality good, and the fish healthy. :)

The only other tips I have are to add a background if you don't have one yet, plain black construction paper will do! Helps the fish feel safer, and also makes the fish colours and plants pop. :D

Lastly, the plants. It's great that you have the frogbit - floating plants are great for helping the fish feel safe, and also great for sucking up ammonia that the fish produce quickly. The other plants are brilliant plants for beginners to the hobby, so good choices! But they're slower growing, so don't help as much with water quality. So personally I'd add another fast growing plant, ideally one that will grow tall and provide breaks in lines of sight for the guppies and endlers, and provide hiding places at any height in the tank.

Plants I'd suggest are limniphilia sessiliflora - beautiful, fluffy and easy to grow plant, fish love it, and because it grows fast, it's good for sucking up ammonia and improving water quality. One of my favourites, so I often recommend!


Worth watching the video, it'll grow to the full height of the tank, and it's easy to maintain. Once it's tall enough, you can just snip it with scissors, then replant the trimmings and they'll grow too. I once propagated it like this and formed it into a sort of hedge that hid the sponge filter by just looking like a dense bunch of plants, and both fish and shrimp love it as a hiding place. :)

You can also do the same with hornwort or elodea, but they're not quite as pretty, and hornwort has a habit of dropping all it's needles if it's unhappy, which makes a mess to clean up.

None of these are essential, they're only suggestions, but it sounds as though you're doing great, and it's a lovely thing to share with your son! And a great way to teach him about nature, and responsibility. :)


Thank you for the reply and all the advice. Thatā€™s kind of what I had I mind is letting my son pick out a few more colorful guppies. He loves his guppies!!! And yes please, Iā€™ll take any advice any of you are willing to share. Iā€™ve learned a lot in my short time being on this forum.





I will definitely look to see where I can get some limniphilia sessiliflora. My son is really enjoying making as natural of a home as we can for his fish, so thank you for this suggestion. I actually read your guys responses to him and he loves all the suggestions. Haha, heā€™s actually been bugging me to get a background, so thatā€™s on the shopping list for the next time we go to the fish store. Heā€™s really going to like your response!!





Yes, my son does feed his fish but I put the food in a small cup the night before to avoid over feeding. I do vacuum my gravel with each water change but I will definitely update my water changes to 50%.





I had another thread on this forum and was steered in the right direction in regards to a quarantine tank. Itā€™s not quite ready but it will be before adding any new guppies.
 
10% water change per day = 3650% = 36 complete water change per year. 50% per week = 2600% = 26.

25% = 1300 %... This equal one full change per month. Not enough, need to be twice minimum in a rationally stocked tank.

Definitively 10% per day can be too easy in many setups. and it is 2350% better.
50% a week is 1050% better. Really ?

All this micmac to say:

If you have to take out the bucket. You need to reach the 50% mark to make any difference. Anything lower. Whatever it is, It continues to build up for eternity.

I don't want to start a debate... But For me... Intermittent use of Activated carbon Always help maintain a low toxicity level and help save water and additive you are forced to use every water changes.

So what reckoner to use for minimal / no useless water waste to use ? With Activated carbon you can fairly rely on your nitrate reading to be the fastest contaminant building... Without it not sure. If your plants etc. consume a large part or all the byproduct of the nitrogen cycle. How do you know how many and how much of un-detected toxins builds up in the same period. Carbon will insure the lowest level. But if no nitrates never appears... You will still need to do water changes. but they will be more aimed at maintaining mineral levels and insuring all remains sane.

To deepen the nail a little further. If your 10% water change per day is only 5 gallons of water. You will still have carried 15 thousands pounds of water a year doing it.

I'm to old for that.

I have a total of 7.77 gallons to maintain and it's enough. Betta tank is 3 and will probably see no more than 10-12 complete water changes in the whole life of the betta in it. 4 water changes a year. 1/3 a month. 2 table spoons of carbon in a mesh bag right after that for a week, floating at the top of the filter. Then put a little fertilizer after removing the carbon.

The trick is to gauge your maintenance in relation to your "environment". Some people are able to maintain near 0 maintenance tanks with adequate "environment".

For example if you have super hard water. You can create a 100 gallons bladder snails tank, no substrate, full of duck weed, additionally feed them until you cant see inside. Put an enormous gold fish in there and never need filtration or heater. Only to scrape all the snails from the front glass to see it in the morning, top off the water level time to time. And feed the goldfish enough so he doesn't eat all the duckweed. The ever moving decor is an endless amazing sight to witness.
 
Thank you for the reply and all the advice. Thatā€™s kind of what I had I mind is letting my son pick out a few more colorful guppies. He loves his guppies!!! And yes please, Iā€™ll take any advice any of you are willing to share. Iā€™ve learned a lot in my short time being on this forum.


I will definitely look to see where I can get some limniphilia sessiliflora. My son is really enjoying making as natural of a home as we can for his fish, so thank you for this suggestion. I actually read your guys responses to him and he loves all the suggestions. Haha, heā€™s actually been bugging me to get a background, so thatā€™s on the shopping list for the next time we go to the fish store. Heā€™s really going to like your response!!

Aaaww, this was lovely to read, and made me very happy! Thank you. How old is your son, if you don't mind sharing? Sounds as though he's really getting into the fish and tank, and guppies are beautiful little jewels of fish, so let him know he made a great choice, they're lovely fish :D

There's definitely tons to learn in this hobby, joining this forum completely changed my hobby, in a good way! I learned so much here, and still do. We're all here to learn, share, and help each other out, and nerd out on this niche hobby that other non-fishkeepers get sick of hearing about if we're taking water parameters, or planted tanks etc. At least here, we're all hobbyists, even if we keep different kinds of fish, or differ in our opinions. :)

If your son is into the natural scaping, that's wonderful! The fish will appreciate any plants, so don't feel you have to get limnophilia sessiliflora just because that's my first suggestion, there are a lot of other options, but it's also easy to spend a lot of money on expensive plants.. and there are some out there that require high light or CO2 in order to do well.


If you find a plant you or your son like, look it up on the Tropica website. They have profiles on most of the plants in the hobby, and will label them as easy, medium difficulty, or hard. Go for easy ones, those are ones that should be fine in a low-tech planted tank. :)
Yes, my son does feed his fish but I put the food in a small cup the night before to avoid over feeding. I do vacuum my gravel with each water change but I will definitely update my water changes to 50%.


I had another thread on this forum and was steered in the right direction in regards to a quarantine tank. Itā€™s not quite ready but it will be before adding any new guppies.

You're doing a great job! A tank for your son, but with dad/mom keeping an eye to make sure it's working out okay as he learns. Reminds me of my own parents, and it's lovely to see!
10% water change per day = 3650% = 36 complete water change per year. 50% per week = 2600% = 26.

25% = 1300 %... This equal one full change per month. Not enough, need to be twice minimum in a rationally stocked tank.

Definitively 10% per day can be too easy in many setups. and it is 2350% better.
50% a week is 1050% better. Really ?

I never was good at maths, but I think your entire post went above my head intellectually. I can't make head nor tail of it I'm afraid, it's all Greek to me! :lol:
 
Aaaww, this was lovely to read, and made me very happy! Thank you. How old is your son, if you don't mind sharing? Sounds as though he's really getting into the fish and tank, and guppies are beautiful little jewels of fish, so let him know he made a great choice, they're lovely fish :D

There's definitely tons to learn in this hobby, joining this forum completely changed my hobby, in a good way! I learned so much here, and still do. We're all here to learn, share, and help each other out, and nerd out on this niche hobby that other non-fishkeepers get sick of hearing about if we're taking water parameters, or planted tanks etc. At least here, we're all hobbyists, even if we keep different kinds of fish, or differ in our opinions. :)

If your son is into the natural scaping, that's wonderful! The fish will appreciate any plants, so don't feel you have to get limnophilia sessiliflora just because that's my first suggestion, there are a lot of other options, but it's also easy to spend a lot of money on expensive plants.. and there are some out there that require high light or CO2 in order to do well.


If you find a plant you or your son like, look it up on the Tropica website. They have profiles on most of the plants in the hobby, and will label them as easy, medium difficulty, or hard. Go for easy ones, those are ones that should be fine in a low-tech planted tank. :)


You're doing a great job! A tank for your son, but with dad/mom keeping an eye to make sure it's working out okay as he learns. Reminds me of my own parents, and it's lovely to see!


I never was good at maths, but I think your entire post went above my head intellectually. I can't make head nor tail of it I'm afraid, it's all Greek to me! :lol:
Ha, well I wasnā€™t joking, my son was bouncing off the walls when I told him we were getting a background for his fish tank. He loves that it would make his fish feel safer (I havenā€™t told him weā€™re getting more guppies until we get the quarantine tank set up). Thank you for the tropica website suggestion. That will definitely come in handy. We will look at other plants, but the easy to care for ones are right up my alley since Iā€™m new to this hobby and would like to keep it simple for my kids first tank. And we both thought the limnophilia sessiliflora was a nice looking plant and love how quickly it grows. He thinks his shrimp are going to love it!! I donā€™t mind sharing at all, my son is 6 years old and heā€™s quite the nature nut. Loves animals, plants and being outside.

Thank you all again for the suggestions, I really do appreciate them!!
 

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