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I bought 1 guppy last week (a male named Emilio), and put him in my 25 gallon tank. then this week I got paid, so I bought 3 more (a male and two female). The minute I put the two females in the tank Emilio started to nip at there fins and chase them around. Emilio's colour even started to change, his baby blue tail turned dark navy. I know Emilio is probably just trying to mate with the females. But there appears to be some damage on the tail fins of the females. Should I be concerned? Or is this simply a normal mating ritual?

General rule for keeping guppies is to keep them in a 2F:1M ratio. This way, the aggression/flirting is spread out among more females and they get to rest in between getting chased.

I personally have never seen males pick on the females to the point of actually ripping fins, but I suppose it's possible. I don't keep my guppies in mixed groups (don't have the room for more babies!), so my personal experience with male aggression is limited.

I would suggest getting another pair of females just to make sure that the girls don't get picked on too much! Good luck!

Oh, also, many fish become more vibrantly colored when mating or when they are ready to mate, so that is most likely why your fish changed colors.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Yeah, that seems to make sence. More females will make it safer for them. I've got enough room in my tank for more guppies, so it shouldn't be a problem. I guess I'll be up at the pet store next payday.
Thanks for the help.

One more question. Do male guppies pick a certain female to try and mate with, or do they just mate with every female they see? What does it look like when they mate?

No problems!

As for having room in your tank, just be warned that guppies give birth every month, month after month. Births can be anywhere from 10 to over 100 babies. If you have room now, you won't for long unless you have another fish in there that will eat the babies!

I found danios work well enough... they only eat very young fry and if the fry survive the first few days, you can be assured that the ones left are the best and brightest (or simply the fastest and luckiest!) of the bunch. After a few days, my danios wouldn't even look at the fry.

Good luck, and I hope you don't get too crowded!

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Do male guppies pick a certain female to try and mate with, or do they just mate with every female they see?
They mate with any and everything, I swear! I actually just had my two male guppies preening and dancing for my female bettas! That's why it's a good idea to have more females than males, because the guys don't care who it is, as long as he has a female to chase.

What does it look like when they mate?
They do this shimmying "dance" for the girls... it's really obvious when they do it. They sort of shimmy while they swim and do their best to show off their colors and fins. One of the moves you'll likely see is the male getting in front of the female, so they're looking at each other. Then the male will curve his body so that the female can see the spread of his tail. He'd sort of look like an L shape if you looked from the top of the tank. I like to call it the mating dance, because he really will look like he's dancing to win the girl. He'll also be flexing the gonopodium and shimmy up alongside the female.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

This has been most helpful. Thank you very much!