Male Guppy Avoiding Female Guppy: Explanations?

[PineSong]

I have a female guppy who was sold to me as a pair of red coral double swords. Two fry drops later, I had to conclude I'd been sold a wrong fish as not one of her fry have grown up to be red coral or double swords. Downer! 

Anyway, I thought I would try her with one of my own blue double sword/mutt guppies as she looks like she's carrying blue genes and that's a color I'd like more of in my mutts. I added him to her tank and he has steadfastly ignored her ever since. I've never seen him near her, and I've never seen her chase him away or interact with him at all.

I have lots of other males to choose from, so it's not a problem, but I'm interested in whether others have had this happen and what the explanation might be? He is less than a year old and she was purchased in February 2022 and arrived as an adult with fry on the way.

 

[Zac]

On 8/6/2022 at 9:16 PM, PineSong said:

I have a female guppy who was sold to me as a pair of red coral double swords. Two fry drops later, I had to conclude I'd been sold a wrong fish as not one of her fry have grown up to be red coral or double swords. Downer! 

Anyway, I thought I would try her with one of my own blue double sword/mutt guppies as she looks like she's carrying blue genes and that's a color I'd like more of in my mutts. I added him to her tank and he has steadfastly ignored her ever since. I've never seen him near her, and I've never seen her chase him away or interact with him at all.

I have lots of other males to choose from, so it's not a problem, but I'm interested in whether others have had this happen and what the explanation might be? He is less than a year old and she was purchased in February 2022 and arrived as an adult with fry on the way.

 

I would think maybe stress. It took my male guppy about a week or a little more to go after my females

[PineSong]

On 8/6/2022 at 10:01 PM, Zac said:

I would think maybe stress. It took my male guppy about a week or a little more to go after my females

So far, no change. I’ve never seen a male livebearer show zero interest in a female. I’m giving it another week and then I’ll switch males, I guess!

[Jenja]

Could be he's just not an exhibitionist - might be courting when the human eyes aren't around 👀

If you're going to switch males I'd probably try letting both males in with her, perhaps the competition might spark some action from your chaste male.

[Cinnebuns]

Maybe he identifies as a glo tetra. I had a male obsessed with my yellow glo tetra once. 

Sorry I don't have any other ideas. It's not often a guppy question stumps me and idk on this one tbh. Male guppies usually are thirsty creatures. 

[Cinnebuns]

Oh!  I just had an idea!  He is possibly a ribbon guppy?

[PineSong]

On 8/20/2022 at 9:46 PM, Cinnebuns said:

Oh!  I just had an idea!  He is possibly a ribbon guppy?

Nope! He’s just a mutt with a regular physique, lol. I gave up and separated them. Not sure which of them was the problem.