I have 3 female guppies in my 10g tank now and will add a dwarf gourami in a week, but for now, i heard about this dominance thingy that happens between a group of female fish of the same kin when there is no male around.

My questions are:
-how long will they fight and when will they stop?
-will it be fatal?
-will one of the female guppy actually turn into a male?

And last question~
-when i acclimated one of my guppy into the tank, she jumped out of the net and fell onto the carpet, will she be fine? (i quickly picked her up with the net and my finger and put her in)

Thank you

From my experience with my two platies, slight bickering to establish pecking order is normal. I don't know about guppies, but my platies stopped a couple of days after starting, though one of them occasionally picks on the other.

I doubt it'll be fatal, but if you see that one of them is suffering (clamped fins, staying near the bottom and avoiding the others, or wounds and torn fins), then I'd suggest taking that one back. I've read that in some cases, a fish who is particularly weak and defenseless could die of stress from being picked on by tank mates.

I've never heard of a guppy changing gender. The only fish that I know of that CAN is the wrasse, and it's a large saltwater fish in the wild.

As for the fish that jumped, she should be fine. When I worked at PetsMart, fish were jumping out all the time, and I can't think of a case where one died as long as it was put back in the water immediately.

Good luck, and hope this helps!

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Creatures great and small, I love 'em all! But mainly the fish.