# New guppies killed my BN



## Apollo2012 (Jun 10, 2013)

I got 6 new female guppies last week but they seem really aggressive I've seen them nipping at both my bristle noses who are around the same size as the guppies at the moment whenever they're on the front of the tank. Then last night I found one of my BNs dead and its fins had been ripped to shreds. I never thought guppies were aggressive is there something wrong with them??


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## dagny0823 (Oct 20, 2009)

Of course, I have not a clue, but I just wanted to say how awful for you and your fish. What a terrible thing to wake up to. Will you need to segregate the tank now, or get another tank? Fish are so much more complicated than I ever bothered to consider when I was a kid.


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## Phoenix24 (Apr 6, 2013)

Oh that's terrible, sorry to hear it. I can't really say about the behaviour of the guppies per se, but fin nipping and aggression generally in fish can be influenced by all sorts of factors from group size to breeding condition, or to triggers that set off the aggression. 

I had a single Indian glassfish that was very shy and never nipped, but the moment I got it 7 pals to make a shoal of 8 that was it - my angelfish was being nipped constantly and I ended up returning the glassfish to the shop. The books didn't say anything about them being nippers.

On the flip side, I have a small shoal of green fire tetra that are apparently notorious fin nippers. Currently my angelfish has the longest fins I have ever seen it with... so...

Perhaps the female guppies felt threatened, or else mistook the bristlenose for something yummy, or else the bristles were a trigger for their behaviour (perhaps it triggered them to attack to defend themselves, much like small birds do to big predators, mobbing it).

Someone with more knowledge of guppies may have more information, though I do recall it being mentioned that guppies can attack endlers, so maybe they are generally an aggressive species?


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## Apollo2012 (Jun 10, 2013)

Phoenix24 said:


> Oh that's terrible, sorry to hear it. I can't really say about the behaviour of the guppies per se, but fin nipping and aggression generally in fish can be influenced by all sorts of factors from group size to breeding condition, or to triggers that set off the aggression.
> 
> I had a single Indian glassfish that was very shy and never nipped, but the moment I got it 7 pals to make a shoal of 8 that was it - my angelfish was being nipped constantly and I ended up returning the glassfish to the shop. The books didn't say anything about them being nippers.
> 
> ...


The female guppies are in with 3 male Endlers until I can find some female Endlers as my males were getting depressed since I gave away my other guppies when I didn't think it would be so hard to get hold of pure Endlers, and they seem to get along fine, I had more guppies in there before but they were equally male and female so perhaps that made a difference. I have some neons as well but they haven't tried to fin nip any fish.

The BNs are only babies so no bristles on either of them yet, maybe I will try find a couple bigger ones though as I'm sure they wont touch anything bigger than them as they haven't tried to touch my peppered corys or yoyo loaches. one of my BNs is still fine and I don't like to have only one of a type of fish in a tank I always have at least two. I think I might wait till my guppies have babies then keep the babies but pass the females on to my friend as she has a larger tank with a lot of guppies already and I know she wants my females when I get hold of some female Endlers anyway because they have blue tails


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## Apollo2012 (Jun 10, 2013)

dagny0823 said:


> Of course, I have not a clue, but I just wanted to say how awful for you and your fish. What a terrible thing to wake up to. Will you need to segregate the tank now, or get another tank? Fish are so much more complicated than I ever bothered to consider when I was a kid.


I think im just going to keep an eye on them and look at getting another small tank for the baby BN to grow and get it a couple friends too then reintroduce when its bigger. and I will be giving the females guppies to a friend once I've found some endler girls for my 3 endler males

I know what you mean I remember have a goldfish in a fish bowl when I was about 8 and I thought it was great and happy, it's not something I would either consider doing now though lol


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