# male guppies killing female ones!



## jolondon

i have 6 male and 10 female guppies, 2 of the females are huge, at least 3 times the size of the rest,,,,and the rest are the same size as the males 3 of the males have constantlyharrased the large female and now have killed her by biting lumps out of them, is this normal!!!!


----------



## NatBarry

This wouldn't normally happen seeing as there are more females than males, I would expect it if there were more males. It could be mating behaviour as they would try to mate an awful lot.


----------



## PaulLamb

It is perfectly normal for males to try and mate with the largest, strongest females any time there are both large and small females for them to choose from. There are a couple of reasons for this behavior. The first reason is that larger females can give birth to more fry at a time, which increases the odds of the male who mates with her of passing on his genes to future generations. The second reason is that the first time females give birth, they often have problems that can result in their death. Larger females have already given birth before, and so the odds are better for a male who mates with her that his offspring will survive to birth.

That being said, the way to tell the difference between mating behavior and aggression is to notice if the females are losing their tails. Mating behavior in guppies does not normally involve nipping, so even if several males are swarming a female, they are not harming her.

So to answer your question, if the large female's tail was intact before she died, then my guess is that there was normal mating behavior going on, and that something else caused her to die. Once she was dead or at least very sick, the other fish would naturally begin eating her body, resulting in the missing chunks that you described.

If the males didn't kill her, there are a number of things that could have happened, including disease, old age, problems during birth, or even chemical or temperature stresses that compounded the stress of pregnancy and lots of males swarming her.


----------



## tyger_eyes

the normal ratio for guppies and any liverbearers that ive always heard is 3 females for every male. so if you have 6 males you should have 18 females to make them happy.


----------



## fancy face 30

everything I have heard has also been 3 females to every 1 male but that isn't always true. I have 4 females and 2 males and all of mine are doing fine. I just had fry today that are hiding in the plants floating in my tank. My males tend to try and breed with everything in the tank.


----------



## llogan

i dont neciceraly follow the guides for male to female ratio, i have 1 male and 2 females, and have no problem, just now i have 1 f and 1 male as my other girl is in a breeder. personaly if i had the same situation as you id get rid of the agressive male(s) as i think its bad breeding if he is being so aggressive towards the females and its rare for guppies to be aggresive, i wouldnt want my fry to grow up and be aggressive too, and my guppy trys it on with every fish in my tank as well lol


----------

