Male only guppy tank

[yassy]

Hi. Currently, I got Twin bar platy and fancy guppy.

To learn the basic of fish keeping, I started off with petsmart fancy guppy and now I am ready to step up and keep fancier guppy and I now got Santa guppy, Blue Galaxy guppy, and Purple mosaic guppy (purple mosaic guppy is new one so they are currently in the quarantine tank).

I did not want uncontrolled breeding in the tank so I was thinking of putting all male guppy in the 75 gallon tank and make other tank for female tank. I never had issue with female only tank but when I tried adding Santa guppy male to the male guppy tank after quarantine time, all male (at that time, it was offspring from petsmart guppy male plus platy but platy did not bothered the Santa guppy at all, just gang of guppy male followed everywhere Santa guppy went...) and short tail, not big tail) did not give him a space and chasing and looked like pecking on his butt area..

After a day, I saw Santa guppy male pectoral fin got split so I took all petsmart guppy offsprings male and put into other thank, and I was afraid to damage his fin more than necessary so I ended up putting galaxy female and Santa guppy female... and gave away petsmart guppy male to local fish store.

Currently, 75 gallon has 3 platy, 1 Santa guppy pair, and 1 blue galaxy pair. It is more peaceful but I am wondering how I can do the peaceful male only tank to control the breeding.

My husband is thinking about making divider for the 75 gallon tank and make one side male, one other side female. But if one side got only male, it would be the same environment to the time Santa guppy got chased around 24/7..  I wonder if I would see bullying again in the male only side in the tank...

On Facebook page guppy group,I was told small fin guppy would bully big fancier tail ones...

To those who got male only tank and @Cory, what is the tricks to make a peaceful male only tank? Do you have any suggestions you can give me to try?

Thank you in advance.

[Fonske]

I had a male-only mixed strains guppy tank and it was quite peaceful. The males were chasing each other all the time, but never in seriously aggressive manner, no damaged fins or anything, even for slower guys with huge tails like deltas and half-moons. Maybe because there were a lot of them and the tank had plenty of plants and line-of-sight breaks.  

[demicent]

Thanks for posting this topic.  I am thinking of doing a male only guppy tank!  I just don't want to deal with fry at this point in my life.  I got my first guppy when I was 5 years old, and the last descendant died on my 16th birthday.  

[yassy]

On 11/30/2020 at 8:52 PM, Fonske said:

I had a male-only mixed strains guppy tank and it was quite peaceful. The males were chasing each other all the time, but never in seriously aggressive manner, no damaged fins or anything, even for slower guys with huge tails like deltas and half-moons. Maybe because there were a lot of them and the tank had plenty of plants and line-of-sight breaks.  

My 75 gallon tank is planted and there are jungle to hide in but when Santa guppy had group of male guppy following around, the group of guppies go in so, there was no break time for him...

I only got handful of fish now in 75 gallon tank but eventually, I like to fill it with colorful guppies... If my husband really can make divider in the center, one side male, one side male and only when I like fry out of whatever, then, we can move them to other tank to do their things but even then, male has to be in the male section so, issue won't be changed.

Not sure if I keep long big fin guys only,male only fish, OR as I put more male guppy as day goes by and fill up the tank, would they keep peace and less aggressive each other?

At first, when I saw male guppy chasing male guppy in male only 75 gallon tank, I thought they might be playing around but next day, I woke up to find split fin so, I do not think it was "play" but "bully"... So, I took out group of chaser guppy and put them into different tank.

I have local fish store guy that takes over our fry to rehome for now, but I never know when he would starts saying "no more"... and the mall he is located in is getting worse in shape; anchor store like JC penny started closing.... and not sure how long his store gonna last so, even more reason to think of male only tank..

 

[Fonske]

7 hours ago, yassy said:

when Santa guppy had group of male guppy following around, the group of guppies go in so, there was no break time for him...

In my experience, when just one fish is chased around or being pecked by its tankmates, it often means that something is wrong with this particular fish. Weak or sick fish can provoke others to bully it. Also, introducing a single fish to an established tank  is likely to trigger more aggression than adding a bunch of new fish at once.  

Among the strains I had, the shorter-fin guys were a lot more energetic and fast compared to big-tails, so maybe avoid short-fin varieties for a more relaxed tank. 

[yassy]

@Fonske, I always added 1 or 2 fish at a time (I was worried for ammonia spike if I add many fish at once.). When I added Santas guppy to 75 gallon tank, there were 4 short tail regular fancy guppy and other was Japan gold blue male.When I added Japan gold blue guppy, he was not being pecked at at all.Not sure if it is because tail was short. When I added Santa guppy male though, everyone went after him;probably making him know who is the leader in the tank...

For now, I worried for his split fin so added female he used to live with and only long fin guppy (blue galaxy) male juvenile with some platy in 75 gallon tank.

How many fish at a time do you suggest to add in?Many fish means more ammonia so I always did 1 or 2 at a time but if you think adding more at one time is better, then, , as long as I add seachem stability,I do not have to worry about more ammonia will be created after new group of male has been added to the tank? If so,do you keep adding stability for certain days?

 

Thank you,

[Fonske]

I can't advise about the seachem stuff, I don't use it. I usually add as many new fish as I want (typically it is less than ten, five or so) and very gradually increase the amount of food. How much waste is produced and how much ammonia is created depends on the amount of food, not on the number of fish.

[yassy]

oh... I knew uneaten food is going to cause ammonia but I did not think about control pee and poop through the mean of the food;how much to feed, not just looking at uneaten food. That is the good way to look at it.Thank you.