# guppies



## laxfanweeb (Mar 2, 2011)

I am new to the aquarium hobby and so far i love it but i am having problems with one pregnant female guppy. when i bought her she was already pregnant and i bought her with another female and a male. i found the male dead within an hour of getting it home and then i found the other female dead 2 days later. i figured the place that i was buying the guppies was unhealthy so i bought another male and another female at a different place and today i noticed the pregnant female going after the non pregnant female so i removed the pregnant female and put her alone and the non pregnant female died a little later in the day. i figure that the pregnant female killed the other two as well since they looked the same. do guppies get aggressive when they are pregnant? I also have 6 ghost shrimp 3 african dwarf frogs 2 glofish and a betta all together and they are all fine. 

i have checked the water and that is all fine. the pregnant female is also completely fin but the guppies that died looked as though they had parts of their tail fins bitten and that's what i caught her doing.

the betta in my tank is male and i thought that was bad but one of my friends who has been doing this for years said as long as there isn't another male betta or male fish that look like him they should be fine. when the first to died the betta was not in there and he goes no where near the other fish but i actaully saw this pregnant female nip the tail fin of an unpregnant female several times ripping the tail fin to shreds.


----------



## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

Hi Bruce, welcome to the forum.

Guppies are very aggressive when in a community. They love nipping fins. However, the fact that your guppies are dying within days of being brought home has me thinking there are other forces at work here. Do you have a water testing kit? And if so, what are your water parameters?

Also, how long has the tank(s) been set up? How soon after did you add fish?

Did you check for disease when you bought the guppies?


----------



## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Guppies could have a moment or two in their days that they are aggressive, but I have never seen it. I have had many Guppies and have never seen a moment of aggressivesness that is to the point of potentially hurting another fish. My bet if it is another fish killing the ones that have died, it's not another Guppy. Pregnant females that I have seen close to giving birth will scare away other fish from around them that I have seen in other livebearer behavior. 

Is the Betta in your tank male or female? If it is male, get it out of the tank as it will kill your other fish and will target Guppies more than likely because they have similar finnage.


----------

