Male guppies can live together. However, guppies tend to breed a lot. In the absence of female guppies, male guppies get aggressive and start fighting. That is why it is advisable to keep only male guppies together if you want to control the population of guppies in your tank.
Having said that, you need to keep certain things in mind before you decide to keep only male guppies in your tank. Let’s talk about them now.
Is It Ok To Keep Only Male Guppies?
Keeping only male guppies together or only female guppies together is entirely your choice.
You can certainly keep only male guppies as they will spice up your tank with their fancy looks.
Keeping only male guppies is highly recommended if you do not want a fry (baby guppy) in your tank.
This way, the number of guppies in your tank will not increase. You will also not face the problem of population explosion in your tank.
Now that you know you can keep only male guppies in a tank, let’s also talk about how many male guppies you can keep in a tank.
How Many Male Guppies Should Be Kept Together?
As a thumb rule, you can keep 1 guppy per 2 gallons of water in a tank.
With this thumb rule in mind, you can determine the number of guppies depending on your tank size.
As mentioned earlier, guppies are shoaling fish.
They tend to grow more if they are kept in groups. So you can keep 3 to 5 male guppies in a 10-gallon tank.
This way, your tank will look very attractive as male guppies are colorful.
Now, keeping male guppies together is fine, but will male guppies fight with each other if they are kept together?
Do Male Guppies Fight With Each Other?
Male guppies do fight with each other. They mainly fight with each other for dominance. Also, if you have only male guppies in the tank, mating becomes a problem. Male guppies can become aggressive when there are no females around. This aggression can lead to fighting between male guppies.
You don’t have to worry about this because it is a typical guppy behavior.
However, you should always keep a close eye on your guppies because they may get injured while fighting.
But can these fights lead to death?
Do Male Guppies Bully Each Other To Death?
Male guppies do tend to bully and fight each other to death in a tank.
This primarily happens if a new fish is added to the tank later.
Male guppies do tend to nip the tail of other guppies while chasing or fighting them.
So there are chances that nipping will cause injuries to the guppies, or your guppies might get infected due to the injuries.
You should always pay attention to their fights because as they fight with each other, their fins get damaged.
If they fight continuously, the tissues on their fins will get damaged, and they will face the problem of fin rot.
Your guppies may not necessarily die because of the injuries.
However, there are chances that they might die because of the infection caused by the injuries.
Now, the main question is, can you stop your guppies from bullying each other.
Well, definitely there are ways to stop your guppies from bullying. Let’s talk about them now.
How Can You Stop Male Guppies From Bullying?
You will mainly face this problem of bullying if the number of male guppies in your tank is less, like 3 or 4 guppies only.
In that case, some of the guppies will target a particular guppy that is weak and start bullying it.
You can stop your guppies from bullying each other by doing the following:
- Keep 2 to 3 female guppies in the tank. This will ensure that your male guppies will be busy chasing the female guppies and will not bully each other.
- Keep at least 6 or more male guppies together. This will again ensure that no particular guppy will be harassed or bullied continuously.
- Keep plants in your home aquarium. This will ensure that the weak guppy will get a place to hide from other dominant guppies.
Using one or all of these tricks, you can save your weaker guppies from getting bullied and killed.
Okay! But is it a good idea to keep only male guppies together?
Can Male Guppies Live Without Female Guppies?
Male guppies can live without female guppies. But, like all creatures, male guppies also have an urge to breed.
So, if they do not find any female guppies around, they will become restless and show signs of aggression.
It is therefore advisable to keep female guppies in your tank.
You should maintain a good male to female ratio in your tank. Ideally, you should keep 3 female guppies to 1 male guppy.
This way, your male guppies will have enough females around to chase and mate.
And at the same time, your female guppies will not get stressed and will get respite from continuous male attention.
Having said that, the biggest advantage of keeping an all-male guppy aquarium is that you can control the population of fish in your tank.
Female guppies breed like crazy, and in no time, your tank will be overcrowded with fry.
So if you don’t want to increase the population of guppies in your tank, then you should keep only male guppies in the tank.
However, if you want to keep female guppies in the tank and don’t want fry, then just leave the female guppies in the tank.
Mother guppies tend to eat their own fry.
