New guppy harassing other guppy

[Elisabeth83]

I just bought a male guppy today and put him in my tank and he is really harassing one of my other male guppies. He keeps nipping at the other males underside and chasing him around.

Is this normal behaviour for male guppies and will it stop after awhile? I was thinking of putting the bully in a breeding net for a day or so...but if this is just normal behaviour I will just let them figure it out for themselves.

 

[copeina]

That is normal. The males will compete for dominance and 'the right' to mate with the girls.

All you can do is provide cover and visual barriers for the males to hide from one another, and for the females to avoid their constant attention. Lots of plants is ideal and will also help the fry escape whn the appear.

Good luck,
/Kris

 

[Elisabeth83]

Ok I'm glad it's normal behaviour. The other male who was being bullied has been standing his ground a bit more so I think they will sort themselves out. I have quite a few plants in the tank. Plastic, silk and live. I bought a really nice silk plant when I bought the guppy..it suction cups to the glass so it lays on the surface. It's got a lot of leaves and branchs.

The new guppy is orangish and so is the one he is bothering...he isn't the least bit interested in the other colored males.

 

[cation]

Is this in your 30g? Part of the agression problem may be that for 3 male guppies, you should have either no females or 5 or more, ideally. There may not be enough females for them to bug...

 

[Elisabeth83]

Yeah it's in the 30 gallon. I have 2 adult females and then I have 3 juvenile females in the same tank. 1 is about this big

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and the other 2 are about this big

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I was hoping that the boys would be interested in them but they don't seem to be yet. I don't want to buy more females since I already have the 3 juvenile girls as well as more guppy fry in another tank.

If they don't calm down..I'll remove all the females until the other 3 get a bit bigger.