Guppy Breeding Question.

Hi I have a really big female guppy, and recently she has been mostly sitting at the top of the tank. I think she is stressed but also very strong. There are 3 other males in the tank, 2 of which are older Offspring of hers, the other is only 1/2 her size.

I have a few questions.

1) should I put the female into my the fry tank (2 week old fry) to seperate her permanently or at least untill there are more females in the tank?

2) I should not let her offspring breed with her right?



Fry tank is 3 gallon eclipse planted, and her home is a 20 gallon Planted tank, the PH between the 2 tanks is pretty big one is 7 or higher and the other is 6.4...

Right now she is sitting in a ziplock on my desk! Please help!

Thanks,

plainzwalker said:

I can't really answer the first one, but I'd probably suggest seperating her until she either gives birth (if shes pregnant) or starts to recover. But for the 2nd one, I know a lot of the "fancy" guppies have some inbreeding already. If she breeds with her offspring or her offspring breed together it won't cause too many problems unless you just let them continure breeding with each other then you might start to see some physical defects.

Click to expand...

Thats what I was afraid of, her first batch of fry are from an unknown father and her second and 3rd batch are from the older male in the tank.

I guess my Question then becomes, what am I supposed to do with the females after they have delivered? I can't imagine selling them or killing them. I really like this girl she is really big and strong, but I don't knwo how many times I should let her offspring breed with her I know the one older male is of no relation, he came from another pet store.

I don't think she is going to die, now that she is in the ziplock her top fin (dorsal?) is back up.

Although she is trying to get out of the bag she knows the boys are waiting for her, they are still swarming around her, especialy the older male, waving their fins etc, but they can't pick on her...

She must be a hot guppy to drive my males crazy like this.

I'm thinking about moving 1/2 of the 2 week old fry into the 20 gallon There is only a whisper 10i in there right now so they should not get sucked up I don't think. and I may put her into the 3 gallon.

I think her and the older male are a couple they seem to miss each other when they are seperated, even though it stresses her out when they are together. HAHA I guess thats hard love...


Please let me know if this would be my best actions to do. I can't leave her int he bag too long...

Interesting

This article says Inbreeding can be a good thing with Guppies! ...

http://guppyplace.tripod.com/Breeding.html

I can always tell before they give birth, they seem to eat like mad, then slow down a bit (stay up towards the top or else hidden in plants) right before they drop. It's really pretty obvious IMO. I'd leave her in that tank. One fry dop is enough mine has had several hundred babies now, the first batch are smaller but have really big fins and the next batch are almost adults now and have so many different colors I can't count. Now If I could just give the other 50+ away.... One drop she must have had over 80-100 babies not to be mean but I pretty sure some of them made ADF snacks and it's best left at that.

I would recomend a 20+ gallon for a fry tank, I boguth a 3 gallon and there is now way a 3 or 5 gallon is large enough for guppies! my 10gallon is now overstocked I don't knwo what I will do if she drops more. I'm selling the other females/ seperating them because if I followed the ration to keep them living together I would need 100 gallon tank for fry soon!