Why are my guppies dying?

Question

i had 3 male guppies in a 10 gallon tank and right away they started figting and stuff... but i figured they were just hungry. i fed them and then they were fine for about 3 minuets and went back to picking on one of the guppies. the biggest orange one ripped off most of the yellow ones tail and then after that the other blue one i had ripped off a scale! i put the little guy in a hospital tank, but it didnt make it. he was badly injured so i wasnt too surprised. i was still sad. but then a month and a half later i went to feed the guppies in the morning like i do, and the little blue one was randomly dead. i checked the water and the ammonia was pretty high so i did water changes for 3 days and now its back to normal... but now my last guppy is swimming kinda sideways and he has fin rot. im going to buy treatment today but what am i doing wrong? 

i have an oto catfish in the tank too... just throwing that out there. im really confused and thinking about returning the oto and just getting a minnow. start over and start simpler. even though i thought guppies were easy... 

anyway and help or advice?

Steve · Accepted Answer

Is your tank cycled?  That could very well be the reason you are having the problems you are.

? · Answer

I'm no expert but maybe you could get some females.  We have males and females with other fish in the tank.  All they do is chase the females around and make babies.  They don't hurt each other as much.  Then they have little ones and eat them but sometimes we save them in a different tank.  When we save them we end up with tons of fish.

I just thought I would note, when I started reading this I was saying "puppies" instead of "guppies."  I was so confused!  Lol.

kat · Answer

don't know about the cat fish but guppies can be easy fish but i have found it easier to keep guppies by themself. i had i 10 gallon guppie tank and started with 2 males and 4 females...put good hiding plants for babies and before i knew it i had a nice tank full of guppies and was actually had to start giving guppies away..also i know it sounds weird but the more inbred a guppie is they produce more colorfull and better offspring.....

Jill · Answer

don't put to many males together.
check the water everyday, buy a filter.
make sure the temp is okay.
don't over feed them underfeeding is better.
if the catfish is bigger he might intimidate the other fish and induce fighting because he is larger.

CinnamonGirl777 · Answer

how many female guppies do you have in there? you should have about 5 females to 1 male

munkiesrule · Answer

put a female in it =)
i never had fish but i think the minnows would be better

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Why are my guppies dying?

6 Answers