Help! need info on breeding guppies
- Thread starter ReefRaft
- Start date
Yup,
In a 10g unless you have some use for the guppy fry, you will want to avoid a pair. It will take roughly 60 days to raise your fish count well over 100. and as they grow the tank will prove to be too small. A pair of males might work, but a M/FM pair will fill a 10 g very quickly. And with guppies it's never a matter of if they will breed, or even a matter of when. They will breed immediatly or possibly sooner.
Dave
In a 10g unless you have some use for the guppy fry, you will want to avoid a pair. It will take roughly 60 days to raise your fish count well over 100. and as they grow the tank will prove to be too small. A pair of males might work, but a M/FM pair will fill a 10 g very quickly. And with guppies it's never a matter of if they will breed, or even a matter of when. They will breed immediatly or possibly sooner.
Dave
well it depends on what you feed the female guppy if you feed her BBS or some live food it will increase her rate of productivity, if you want to decrease the numbers then feed her some normal fish flakes normally she'll produce 15-20 fry as mine did. plus you'd be better off just buying an already pregnant female to speed up the process then allowing a choice male to breed with her, transfer her mystery fry into a 5 gallon and in about 4-6 weeks they'll mature sexually to restart the process. if u need anymore help on guppy breeding just pm me 
I have to disagree with this. Yep, they'll breed fast, but in a tank that small, most of the fry will get eaten, so you numbers will be kept down.daveedka said:
It wasn't really clear from your post whether you want lots of fry or not. If you just want guppies because they're pretty, then get a few males (up to 5 in a 10g). You could get only females but they're generally not as pretty and they might already be pregnant when they arrive.
If you'd like a few fry, but not hundreds, feed them flakes. Mine don't breed very fast at all, as I never give them live food.
If you want to breed them successfully, one 10g tank won't do. As a minimum, you'd need a separate tank to house the fry (breeding traps can work, but you might lose a female due to stress, and the fry probably won't grow very well in them).
Before buying guppies, I'd suggest that you check out http://www.guppies.com. It's a similar site to this, but deals specifically with guppies.
I am wondering - I have some guppies in my twenty, along with some other fish.There have so far been two litters of fry, Im sure some have been eaten,which I dont mind. If I continue just leaving them alone, will they reach their own equilibrium, or will the tank become overcrowded? Does the same apply to other live bearers?
I think the number of fry that get eaten depends more on whether they can find places to hide, rather than how much room there is in the tank.TheZoo said:
A female guppy is quite likely to eat a whole batch of fry, even if the tank will support more than just her. Conversely, if the fry manage to escape the mother (and other fish), your tank could well become overcrowded.
Letting the fry be eaten definitely helps with population control, but don't rely on it to keep your tank at the right stocking level. You may have to cull the fry you don't want. (I keep a piranha tank, which is a big help!)
There were no other tank mates listed, and I have never seen Guppies eat enough fry to Control their own population. I have never had guppies eat their own fry at all honestly, but I know many folks claim they will. Mine do not and never have. If there is anything else in the tank (Including cories), the fry will be eaten, but My guppies don't ever do so.
My current guppy breeding tank only gets fed on Saturday and Sunday, The rest of the week I am away and the guppies are left to browse the plants and bottom of the tank. Production is extreme in that tank to say the least.
One would think if Guppies were truly prone to eating their own young, They would do so in a tank that does not have a lot of food available most of the time. I have some very large females and a couple of adult males in that tak as well as a good population of juveniles. But I do not have any other fish in that tank.
Dave
No the guppies are the only fish in the tank currently. And no i don thousands but i am just going to sell them. would it be ok to put the fry in a net breeder for the first week and feed them there? there are live plants in my tank and not a lot of hiding places so i wont massivly get overstocked. Also ive heard that there is a like black line by the female's anal fin when pregnant anyway mine has a black line but is there anything i could have this confused with?
nope, that's the gravid spot alright. if it's really dark she's close to giving birth (her stomach also will be a bit large too, and she will slim down tremendously as if doing windsor pilattes or something). i bought my female and she gave birth the next day, then later that week died i'm guessing because of stress. give her lots of attention after she's finished birthing because she could easily die due to stressful conditions, i have 15 fry now doing fine, i'm guessing they only fed her flakes at Petsmart....
