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Hi all,

This is my first post. I have a 14G guppy tank, 1 adult snakeskin male, 2 adult females, 4 adolscent females, and a bunch of fry (5-9??).

I just caught the 2 adult females squaring off against each other while the male curled his body (like a 90 degree angle) and startin darting around the 2 females?

I had an orange male that recently died, he was beaten up and stressed by the snakeskin...and since then, the snakeskin has been absolutely zipping around the tank, almost looking for a fight??

Any ideas what's going on in there? Its a mad house?

I also have an apple Snail (who is awesome) and a Pepper Cory (who thinks he is a Guppy).

Just got a 72G bowfront that is going to be an African Cichlid tank...but that's another post!

72G Bowfront. 1 Sunshine Peacock, 2 Yellow Labs, 1 Ps. Elongatus, 1 Blue Ahli, 1 Red Kadanga, 1 Mel. Exasperatus, 1 metriaclima emmiltos, 1 Ancistrus.

14.5G 4 Neon Tetras.

Males can be pretty fiesty towards each other. The females may have little spats but don't usually face off as much as males do. What the male was doing was trying to seduce your females. That's normal behavior for livebearer males. Adding more adult females may reduce the competition between the two you have already.

I figured that the squirming and generally spazzy behaviour was some sort of 'courting' behaviour. I isolated the Snakeskin with one of his breeding mates, and introduced a Red Guppy to the 14G. I had to do this because the Snakeskin immediately set out to destroy the Red I put in.

I assume that you are right about needing more adult females. I only had 2 that were of breeding age, but I believe 2 more have just reached that age.

If I purchased 2 more females, would it be alright to re-introduce the Snakeskin?

72G Bowfront. 1 Sunshine Peacock, 2 Yellow Labs, 1 Ps. Elongatus, 1 Blue Ahli, 1 Red Kadanga, 1 Mel. Exasperatus, 1 metriaclima emmiltos, 1 Ancistrus.

14.5G 4 Neon Tetras.

I don't know if it's a good idea to keep one male and one female together, it might be best to just isolate the male if he's the troublemaker. He might harass the lone female so just watch and see.

Males tend to do most of their fighting with each other, so I don't know if introducing more females will solve his issues if he has issues mainly with other males. It may solve the problem if your females are chasing each other, whoever is the instigator will have more females to spread out their chasing amongst.

I don't know if this is a good suggestion...but more males might spread out the snakeskin's agression. At least three or four. Or it might make the problem worse...but with only one other male to pick on, he's definitely going to get the brunt of the snakeskin's issues the same as your poor orange male! If he's going to get along with anyone, probably it would be best to have just him by himself as the lone male, with a large number of females to spread his energy out amongst. In the meantime, I would just keep him in a breeding net by himself if he's out to conquer and destroy.

Otherwise...plant the tank really heavy, provide lots of decorations and stuff to hide around.