My guppies! :(

Question
Hello Karen,

I have two questions:

1. I recently got three tiny guppy males as my first pets. I keep them in a fish bowl with a little plant and some colored pebbles and shells. Initially they seemed to be pretty comfy and swam around in the bowl. But iv just noticed two things that are peculiar.

Firstly, Of late I have noticed that all three seem to be more active than usual, and I'm not sure if this is a cause for concern.

Secondly, one of the guppies is a bit smaller than the other two. and I think he is being bulled by one of the bigger ones. I have seen him being chased around by the bigger one, all around in the bowl... although it is limited to chasing. And i have seen the little one literally swim backwards to avoid the bigger one. I first thought they were just playing around, but now they have me worried. :-(

The third male (who kind of stands out - he's a lovely orange colored male, the others aren't that colorful) sort of stays out of the picture. Its just these two I'm worried about. What should i do? :-(

2. My second question is: I wanted to introduce a different variety of fishes along with these 3 guppies. What breed can I mix with them?

Rgds,
Jenny

Answer
Hi Jenny,
Guppies do have the tendency to squabble among themselves. It could be related to the pecking order. Sometimes if there are no females around male guppies will chase each-other instead!
A fish bowl is really not a very good home for any fish. Water quality issues can be a major problem in a small bowl and another problem is bowls cannot be filtered or heated. You'll have to be careful with feeding them and try to change at least 30-50% of their water at least 2-3 times a week using a small aquarium gravel siphon is the best way to go when cleaning the pebbles in the bottom whilst draining water. Always make sure the replacement water is equal in temperature to their bowl and insure it is dechlorinated everytime.

With such a small environment we don't want to overcrowd things here and cause pollution problems. And unfortunately I wouldn't recommend putting any other fish in the bowl. At most a few ghost shrimp but that's all.

If I were you, I'd get at least a 2 gallon aquarium with a small gentle filter. Or better yet a 5 gallon or a very inexpensive 10gallon. It's much easier to maintain an actual aquarium than a fish bowl and the fish are much healthier and happier. And with the extra room, they may not fight as much. And with an actual aquarium you could definitely add a few extra fish. In a 2gallon you'd be limited also but you should still have your three guppies, and maybe 3 Pygmy cories. Or you could also try an african dwarf frog which are totally aquatic frogs who are very peaceful with fish. Ghost shrimp would also be suitable.
If you have a 10 gallon you could do a lovely community tank of say 5-6 guppies, 6-8 neons, and maybe a few little corydoras catfish. The bright florescent colors of the neon tetras and the beautiful colors of the guppies make for a very pretty aquarium. All these aquatic critters are easy to care for. But you just have to be careful when stocking the tank at first. You'll need to let your tank "cycle" which means allowing special beneficial bacteria to colonize in your tank. These bacteria convert ammonia into less toxic compounds, but they take a while to establish and when you first setup an aquarium the bacteria are not yet in sufficient numbers to handle a lot of fish and ammonia. So you need to stock your tank very slowly for the first few weeks after your aquarium has been setup.
To read more about cycling, visit: http://www.firsttankguide.net/cycle.php

I know starting an aquarium probably isn't your first choice, but trust me you and your fish will be a lot happier in the long run. If you can, try to get an aquarium for your guppies.

It -might- help if you had more than just 3 guppies. But with that you'd need an aquarium of about 5-10gallons. 6 or more guppies might get along better than just three.

Fish that are compatible with guppies:
Small tetras: Neons, Cardinals, Glowlight, Lemon, Black phantom, and Harlequin rasboras, Zebra danios, leopard danios, Cherry barbs, corydoras catfish, bristlenose plecos, Hatchet fish, otocinclus catfish and Dwarf gouramis.

I really hope this helps!
Best of luck!
Karen~