I just stocked my tank with 2 male fancy guppies and 6 females. While I'm not really interested right now in breeding, it would be nice if they started multiplying. I read that guppy parents tend to like to eat their babies, so should I go through the trouble of setting up a nursery tank for the babies? My 36 gallon tank is stocked with 6 amazon swords, so there's a whole lot of places where the babies can hide. My thinking is if I don't do anything, a good number will end up being fish food but a few will still survive and thus keep the guppy population going. What are your thoughts?
Making guppy babies.
- Thread starter asincero
- Start date
Reading your other thread, I'd say any angels you introduce would eventually eliminate all guppies.
However, if you pass on the angels, just provide some dense cover for the babies and you should always have a few babies swimming around. If you have a breeding pair, which is hard "not" to have, in about 6 months you'll probably have too many babies. ...without any effort taken to net them at birth. My first couple guppy births were really neat, but I have too many. Especially considering my swords are doing the same thing. (Anyone want some juveniles???) My 20g is looking very small now.
However, if you pass on the angels, just provide some dense cover for the babies and you should always have a few babies swimming around. If you have a breeding pair, which is hard "not" to have, in about 6 months you'll probably have too many babies. ...without any effort taken to net them at birth. My first couple guppy births were really neat, but I have too many. Especially considering my swords are doing the same thing. (Anyone want some juveniles???) My 20g is looking very small now.
I let nature take its course. Most babies get eaten but a few hardy ones survive. They hide in plants and nibble on algae and food that gets swept in.
I have live-bearers breeding like crazy and have two recommendations.
First, Java Moss. The babies live in it and eat it until they are big enough to eat flakes.
Second, get the daddy out of the tank. He will try to mate with the female even when she is giving birth. When he sees the babies coming out, he uses them as a snack.
This is just what I have seen in my tanks. If you need any Java Moss, send me a PM and I’ll try to mail you some.
First, Java Moss. The babies live in it and eat it until they are big enough to eat flakes.
Second, get the daddy out of the tank. He will try to mate with the female even when she is giving birth. When he sees the babies coming out, he uses them as a snack.
This is just what I have seen in my tanks. If you need any Java Moss, send me a PM and I’ll try to mail you some.
now for the guppy impaired like me, if you started with a group like this would the population more or less maintain itself over time? I guess what I mean is would inbreeding be a problem or is this (2 males, 6 females) giving the group enough variety to where inbreeding might not cause problems?asincero said:
just curious
have been dreaming up a new tank and wouldn't have thought of guppies but this thread got me thinking 
Inbreeding can easily be a problem. That is why many live bearers for sale these days aren't vaery hardy as the pool of good breeders is just used over and over again. Ideally wild specimens would be added in every so often.
A tank can easily overpopulate as well.
A tank can easily overpopulate as well.
Galaxie said:
Besides hardiness you start getting deformaties (sp?) like all with an species you inbreed. Deformed tails, spines and any other body part you can think of. However, these birth defects are actually what starts all new strains. For instance it was a birth defect that breeders looked for when they were trying to start the dachsund breed.
plainzwalker said:
And,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, look how that turned out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LMAO - i just could not pass up this opportunity!
so basically if you wanted to maintain a guppy population you would need to remove most of the babies and every once in a while change out the "parents" with new guppies formthe outside world? I hope I'm following that right. I'm VERY new to the whole breeding fish thing (which is why I haven't tried it before) and feel liek a real noob