Colorful guppies are one of the most
popular aquarium fish in the world.
They are so popular that some aspects
of guppy behavior are proverbial
even among those who have never
kept them as pets, how about that!
The existing stereotypes are often
misleading and cause confusion
and mistakes when it come to
taking care of guppies.
You know if your dog or cat is happy or
wants to play or whatever else
due to the way they behave.
Animals express their feelings
through their body language.
And so do fish.
Observation is the key
to understanding them.
Let's observe guppies’ behavior together.
Behavior patterns are affected by age,
gender, environment, and personality.
Newborn guppies of both genders
look and behave alike.
They stay together as schooling fish do.
And they all behave like kids do.
The largest and the most active prevail.
The largest female in the school
starts establishing her dominance
at a very young age.
Here you can see four month old guppies
of the same parents in two aquariums.
One male with a couple females
in each nursery.
Male guppies become distinguishable
from females at the age of a couple months
or so by the shape of their fins, rainbow of
colors, body shape, and...behavior!
This young male is full of energy and
curious about everything that moves.
He is hot fire :)
Well natured male.
Females are much more discreet.
Female guppies mature later and
grow bigger than males do.
Here is another male sibling.
This one is keeping to himself.
He guards his territory and food.
He chases away females!
He is acting kind of...
mean, don't you think so?
So, here we observed two male guppies
with opposing personalities.
In this period of life guppies behave
as teenagers.
Inexperienced teenagers could be rough
to each other or carefree and happy,
on the other extreme.
The golden middle comes with time :)
The larger female here is chasing away
the smaller female.
She is not bigger than males yet and...
she still has to figure out males.
At this age of development, the young
male is still figuring out females too.
Now look at this young male...
the one that has been "angry".
Apparent changes in his behavior
puzzles all three females!
They literally stare at the male.
Apparently he has grown up enough
to realize something very important...
important about females
and the purpose of life.
From now on it is a female guppy,
the queen, who is in charge here.
And she leads on her whim!
Male guppies are persistent in the
"catch me if you can" game.
Most common orange-reddish colors
among male guppies serve one purpose -
to attract everyone's attention.
All predators hiding around and
certainly guppy females are attracted
by hot fire moving guppy tails.
Guppy males are naturally
skillful bullfighters!
In the wild, the bright colors of guppy males
lure predators away from guppy females.
It helps females with babies survive.
For that sake,
male guppies are disposable.
Here you can see the queen charge
the male while he follows another female.
And the queen charges the female too!
The queen reserves all rights
on everything in her domain
and certainly on the only male.
But the male has to prove himself worthy.
...any time and every time.
This time the female managed
to nibble at his fin.
It does not stop the male
from playing the game.
Guppy males are cheerfully persistent.
Older males often sport torn tail fins
as a result of mistakes they made.
The older guppy females are larger,
stronger, and faster than males.
Playing around with an irritated big
guppy mama is a dangerous adventure.
Guppy females usually stop chasing
the male if he moves quickly enough
to keep a safe distance.
Otherwise...
the damage could be very severe.
The male with a severely damaged
tail fin cannot swim and will die.
Guppies are toothless fish, and yet...
I have never seen a female guppy
get hurt this way.
Only males get hurt like this and
it happens on very rare occasions.
The game is over for this male.
Males are disposable in guppy society.
Guppy males work very hard all day long
to tire a female for her short submission.
Every guppy male is a little
tireless bullfighter in this respect.
Males are smaller, but more energetic.
Eventually the female yields.
Male guppies are very persistent
in courting females.
Here is an aquarium with
2 males and 1 female.
I just moved the fish into this aquarium.
Both males are of the same
age, size, and color.
How does she choose
which male to mate with?
She does it in the stress free old fashioned
way by letting the boys figure it out
first between themselves.
Yeap.
The males compete against each other
until one yields.
She just has to watch and wait.
And then she will charge the winner.
Yeah boys, go wave your tails.
And that is what guppy males do.
They dance around each other
until one gives up.
It is a fascinating dance to watch.
The entire aquarium is a dance floor
for them.
Did you see how they touch each other
with tail fins :)
Eventually one male yields.
The other male stays
closer to the female - the queen.
He better watch his tail now!
The queen can charge him at her whim.
And the other male is watching him too
from a distance, for now.
Here are 3 young male siblings.
I did not put a female in this aquarium yet.
Nevertheless, the males compete
against each other,
whether a female is present or not.
The smaller male tirelessly
challenges the larger male.
This is a never ending game for younger,
but fast growing guppy males.
Here is an aquarium with males
of different ages and sizes.
Fish grow all life long.
So the older fish are usually larger.
The young, energetic male
challenges and eventually wins
over the older, larger male.
Now the young male
can stay close to the queen.
Guppies eat newborn babies.
And it's actually the mother or
other females who would do it.
Male guppies are less likely
to attack babies.
Here you can see a mother guppy
in a nursery with newborn fry.
She scares babies away, but does not go
all the way after babies,
the way she would charge a male.
She wants babies to swim away.
Females would eat only weak or sick babies
that cannot swim away fast enough
to hide from potential predators.
Eating a sick baby
would save the rest of the school.
Getting more live plants in the aquarium
helps save more babies.
Guppies breed frequently throughout their
fertile age that goes up to 2 years or so.
However, they breed only under
appropriate breeding conditions.
Those conditions include all parameters!
Food, water quality, temperature,
dimensions of the aquarium,
and much more.
Everything.
All parameters need to be adjusted
to meet needs of your fish as necessary.
In this example, the breeding guppies
stopped moving in the aquarium
where they have been growing
and already had babies.
They do not move.
Forget about making babies.
What is going on here?!
Remember that fish grow all their lives...
but aquariums don't.
The narrowest size of any aquarium
should be 3 times or more the size of the fish.
From that, we can estimate
the minimum amount of water per fish and
how many fish could be in this aquarium.
This particular aquarium is fit for
a dozen or so newborn guppies.
It is fit for a young breeding family
of 3 guppies.
But they grow and the aquarium
gets too crowded for them.
Only the size of the fish has changed.
One and any unfit parameter
prevents guppies from breeding.
And it's true for all living things.
I move one female out of this tank.
And the remaining two guppies
start swimming around.
They will have babies here again.
Guppies are cheerful schooling fish.
Keeping a single guppy secluded,
even temporarily, is very harmful to the fish.
Guppies have feelings and can express
their emotions through their body language.
Here you can see a young, lonely male
in a separate nursery
next to the aquarium with other guppies.
He would not swim away from this wall
for hours, watching other fish and
showing all signs of depression.
Prolonged seclusion has deep negative
effects on guppies and they can die from it.
Learning and recognizing behavior
patterns of your fish and other pets
helps understand their needs.
It takes time...probably more than
one guppy’s lifetime to fully understand
all the complexity involved in their behavior.
Give it time to observe
and understanding will come.