A Few Questions About Guppies

[trafty7]

Hello all...Im new to the guppy tank, but my girlfriend loves them, so we have a 20 gal. tank with 12 guppies in it...I have a few questions about some various things:

1. After we brought these fish home, I heard something about a 2 to 1 female male ratio...we have more of the fancy tails and 3-4 of the Y-tailed ones...is this ratio very crucial or will they be ok without it?

2. I guess one of the females was already carrying, because on the 4th night we already have some fry swimming around. My girlfriend thought they were so cute, and was a little upset when I said they would probably all be eaten. Just out of curiosity, is there a chance that any will make it? I put a sponge in the intake just in case...I figure there won't be, but...didn't know if there was something I could do?

3. Are all fancy tails male? Are all y-tails female? Is there an easy way to tell?

Thank you for any help!!

 

[justintoxicated]

females usualy have a dark spot on their underside near their lower fin.

 

[fishkeeper55]

I'm not an expert by any means but I have had 2 male guppies before. the different tails have no meaning to gender. Did the place where you got the guppies say if they were male and female? they should have. Also you should get floating plants or a breeder net to put the fry in if you want them to survive. I'd say that your guppy will have babies in the next month again. Also females and males are pretty easy to tell apart. Males are more colorful and they look like males!(a nice way to put it) and the females aren't as colorful and are usually more fat. Hope it helps and I hope I didn't give any wrong info! Wish you luck!

 

[Genral72]

Also the males will have an anal fin. here is a link http://www.aquariacentral.com/species/db2.cgi?db=fresh&uid=default&ID=0557&picture3_page_view=1
If you look at the top one you will notice that the fin below its "stomach" is pointed while the female's is more rounded. This is the same with all livebearers

 

[trafty7]

alright...thank you all for the info!!

i will check into floating plants...We bought them from PetSmart and they did say something about which tanks had which sex, but I wasn't paying attention...my girlfriend was the one picking them out...but, tomorrow i will try and figure out how many males and females i have by the quatlites you all have told me!

but does anyone know how important that 2-1 ratio is?

 

[hurricanejedi]

I'm not sure what you mean by y-tail. There are some that have a "y" shape but I thought those were a different variety of male. Females usually have smaller round tails and a fuller bigger body with little to no color. Their fins usually have just a touch of color or a little black on the tail.

 

[trafty7]

I was meaning the tail is colored in a y pattern...sorry i cant explain it better, and i dont have a picture!

but does anyone know about the 2-1 ratio thing?

 

[fishkeeper55]

The 2-1 ratio is very important if you do not want little fish swimming everywhere and overpopulating your tank.

 

[trafty7]

im not trying to be mean or anything, i just am a little confused...

the 2-1 ratio of females to males is important because otherwise there will be too many fry? just curious, not trying to say that you don't know what you're talking about or anything like that!

 

[fishkeeper55]

You should AT LEAST have 2 females to one male. Female guppies can get pregnant once a month. If there is more males than females then your females will never have a chance to rest. The males will chase them if they are not preg. and will stress them out if there are more males than females.

I hope that is clear...probably not...but I tried!