My Guppies Tails Are Being Shredded, Any Ideas On What To Do...or Who&

[blur411]

This is a blurry cell phone picture my boyfriend sent me today (I'm across the country, so he is babysitting the fish). I've noticed some small nips in my male guppies tails recently, but this one is pretty bad.

I've had the following fish in the tank for 3-4 months
5 yoyo loaches
1 pleco
5 male guppies
1 fry guppy
apple snail
2 platies
2 mollys

I recently in the last month added 1 female guppy (I know, I need more, but if you look in my old posts I had a crises where they all died when I had them in the QT tank and she is the only survivor and I haven't been able to find any at my LFS recently)

The yoyo loaches sometimes appear agressive at feeding time, pushing the other fish out of the way, but I've never seen them nip.

Do you think the yoyo loaches are doing this, or the female guppy I added?

Any suggestions on what to do? I'm not going to be home for 11 more days.

 

[wrighty8529]

look's Like Fin Rot.

 

[blur411]

I don't think that it's fin rot, I'm pretty sure it's an agressive fish but not sure which one. I looked up fin rot, and the fish don't have those symptoms.

 

[blur411]

bump, anyone?

 

[Moby-Krib]

That is not fin rot!! It would look more fuzzy at the ends.
Keep the water parameters up or it could be soon as a wound is a open invitation.

Its aggression I would think.

From your stocking list
5 yoyo loaches
1 pleco
5 male guppies
1 fry guppy
apple snail
2 platies
2 mollys

I would suspect.. this is a guess.. the molly's,They are overly active and can be quite aggressive, seem like carp to me sometimes and I personally cant stand them, just me though as allot of keepers love em...
or inter aggression from the male guppies ( this would be the most likely from most) themselves.
Not up to speed with the yoyo so I couldn't say. the rest I doubt as aggressors but would explore the idea.
I've seen kuhli loach attack tails of sleeping fish , although rare. .. would yoyo maybe do the same?

Now a Pleco can get a taste for fish slime, certainly if its a common.. could be maybe..

I still stick to the Mollies, I bet it is them..

 

[MBOU]

My money would be on the YoYo loaches, i have seen them nibbling the long fins on fish numerous times.

That or the male guppies are doing it to each other, fighting over the single female...

 

[blur411]

Thank you guys! I think it could be the male guppies get mad over the single female, I may try and take her and the other out and put them in the QT and see if they start to heal....if not, then it's probably those loaches. If it is, I guess I will have to start finding new homes. The molly seem really docile, at least when I'm looking. I need to set up a fish cam and see what goes on when I'm not looking!

 

[Billsfan905]

I think it's definitely the guppies! My mom had 4 male guppies together with 3 platy and 2 had horrible fins like those!
I sat and watched out of curiosity, and the two dominant males kept nipping and attacking the other guppies! What psychos!
Anyways, she has the 2 bullied ones now and I have the 2 dominant males in my tanks with 3 girls each to themseleves!

I think they must have high testosterone LOL

Anyways, it's been over a month and since I've taken the 2 bully guppies away the other two male's tails look like they've almost completely grown back!

 

[random919]

The guppies could be doing it or the mollies. the males sometimes are known not to get on and mollies find the male guppies as a threat to them so attack them. This generlly only happenes sometimes between male mollies and male guppies.
As for the guppy with the shreadded tail. Keep an eye on it and look at its fins on its sides. these help it to swim and if these are shreadded too, the guppy will not last much longer if they are ok, then give some Melafix if wanted but otherwise leave and the worst of the tail should heal by itself. however it will not be quite as pretty or as full as it was. as long as the fish is swimming and is eating then it should be fine.
Single out the fish thats bullying the guppy and i would get rid of it.

 

[blur411]

Well, my boyfriend witness the culprit. Mystery solved. It was the biggest yoyo loach, we call him Bubba since he has grown significantly bigger than his/her crew. He saw him attack, and kill a male guppy. Unfortunately he killed my very first guppy. So, he had to rush off to work, but when he gets home, I told him to put that loach in the QT, I know the LFS's wont take him except Petco...but Petco doesn't even sell YoYo's so I'm not sure if they will or not. Do you think it was just a rare instance, or yoyo's in general? They are by far my favorite fish in the tank. Should I just go buy a few other small yoyo's to replace him and see if Petco will take him, and if not leave him all alone in the QT tank? I'm torn, but the other loaches haven't shown any signs of aggression yet in the 3-4 months I've had them.

 

[OldMan47]

Keep an eye on those mollies. Usually mollies are good members of a community tank but some of them are poor members of such a group. Once in a while mollies are not the peaceful members of a community tank that we think they are.