Riot Breaks Out

[Nicky2]

I got up this morning and there was a riot goin on in my tank. The guppies have a lot of fin nip and the mollies tail fins seem a bit nipped, i have seen the guppies trying to kick off with the male sword tale. The female mollie is also havin a go at anything that swims by. Tank has been set up now for about 6 weeks with the full community of fish in for about 4 weeks and only this morning they begin to riot.... any ideas?

Tank contains
4 guppies (all male i think)
2 mollies (at least one of which is female)
5 neon tetras (not sure of sex)
2 sword tails (one male and one female i presume)
2 bleeding heart tetras (not sure of sex)

Thanks

 

[black angel]

How many gallons is the tank? Sounds like they need more room??
Fin nipping i think is common between livebearers and swordtails will bite tails and fins though i'm sure they are all guilty of doing it to each other.

 

[Nicky2]

How many gallons is the tank? Sounds like they need more room??
Fin nipping i think is common between livebearers and swordtails will bite tails and fins though i'm sure they are all guilty of doing it to each other.

17 UK Gallon

 

[black angel]

Id say you were overstocked but not by much, but it could explain the fighting. Swordtails and mollies need a lot of swimming space and if they dont get it turn territorial.

 

[Nicky2]

Id say you were overstocked but not by much, but it could explain the fighting. Swordtails and mollies need a lot of swimming space and if they dont get it turn territorial.

I was informed that i could stock 15 - 20 fish so I chose 15 with the help of the staff at the aquarium. Just seems strange for them to have lived happily for 4 weeks then start fighting

 

[Dana C]

Maybe they were getting use to the tank and now they have settled in they have got abit aggressive.
The same thing happened to me with some black ruby barbs, for a month they were lovely fish swimming around all happy. Then one morning I got up to see them attacking any cory they could find it was chaos, fish shooting about everywhere.
I returned the barbs so maybe if you can work out which type of fish is the one creating the problems you could take it back and try another type instead.

I have just noticed you say you have 2 swordtails 1 male and 1 female. I think you have to have more females than males as this can cause aggresion with livebearers the same goes for guppies.

 

[Nicky2]

I have just noticed you say you have 2 swordtails 1 male and 1 female. I think you have to have more females than males as this can cause aggresion with livebearers the same goes for guppies.

Not sure if there is one male and one female all i know is one has a large sword and the other doesnt. also the guppies are i think all male, as they didnt have any females at the time.

 

[Dana C]

You can have problems if both swordtails are male as males don't get on in pairs, you need to keep them in groups of 5 or more.
How are your fish now have they stopped fighting or have you worked out who is causing the problems?