[help] how to breed guppies?

[kenn777]

i'm planning to breed guppies myself... can anyone help me.. i dunno wat 2 prepare and wat to do... is guppies picky for sexing or they just making babies with every opposite sex guppies? how many male and female do i need in a tank? wat to do so that they'll make babies? how old guppies is proper to be fed to a checkered albino garter(40 cm long)? thx guyz.. really need some help here...:D

[Stefan-A]

Guppies are almost fool proof. You need a big enough tank, with plenty of vegetation both at the bottom and at the surface. The babies are born about 4 weeks after mating (IIRC) and first sink to the bottom and either find shelter there or head towards the surface. Guppies reproduce like crazy, but they'll eat the smallest babies.

There was something about the hardness of the water, that's was important too. Can't remember what it was, though. Some aqua-forum would probably be the best source of info on care and breeding. :D

[kenn777]

does it need a lot of attention? or just leave it mating n do nothing?

[Stefan-A]

They don't really need any attention, apart from normal maintenance. The guppies don't need to be encouraged to mate in any way and as long as the babies can hide from the adults, the fish will multiply pretty quickly. Just note that that it will take several months before the second generation is mature. You can speed it up a little by catching the babies that you find and raising them separately from the adults. Not only will they grow faster, more of them will survive of course.

[kenn777]

They don't really need any attention, apart from normal maintenance. The guppies don't need to be encouraged to mate in any way and as long as the babies can hide from the adults, the fish will multiply pretty quickly. Just note that that it will take several months before the second generation is mature. You can speed it up a little by catching the babies that you find and raising them separately from the adults. Not only will they grow faster, more of them will survive of course.
thx a lot.. one more thing though, so guppies arent picky about their mate? how many Fs and Ms do i need in a tank? thx man..

[GGarter]

Concerning the water quality, its not a big problem.
Of course the water should be changed regularly (half of the water changed) but you don't have to do anything about it besides that. Some species require additives such as chemicals to bind ions and organic compounds added to the water, but guppies are very hardy in that aspect.
To the male/female issue I wouldn't keep too many males compared to females as the males will court the females continuesly. If too many males are present the females might get stressed. I keep aproximately 3 males for every 7 females and the females are still pregnant almost continuesly.

I would recommend a quite deep aquarium because my experience tells me they breed more frequently, and it looks good too.

Bottom line is that guppies will breed in a bucket if fed properbly and getting enough oxygen...

[Stefan-A]

I don't completely agree that guppies are hardy, at least not the ones that have been bred for aquariums. Some (but definitely not all) breeds are very sensitive about stuff like pH, mineral content and even salinity. Apparently many of them are bred in brackish water and do better in that kind of environment than in fresh water. The problem is that you never really know which they are selling in the stores. :D The natural form is a completely different matter, they would indeed breed in a bucket of water and when I still kept guppies, I would have "killed" to get my hands on a few of those. I kept mine at a female-male ratio of 3:1.

[kenn777]

thx a lot guyz...

[anji1971]

I've never purposely tried to breed guppies, but when I got the first garter, I bought three or four feeder guppies to try her on. When she wouldn't eat them, I figured I'd just keep them in a little bowl as pets, and within a couple weeks I had 12!! So I don't think it will be very hard to get them going!!:D

[KITKAT]

Guppies... my area of childhood expertise!

First, water quality is EVERYTHING... but guppie babies are so small that normal filtration can suck them to oblivion... so frequent water changes are the route to success.

The second thing everyone makes a mistake on is size of container...

A ten gallon tank will hold ten adult guppies in healthy condition. One gallon to one inch of fish is the general rule, if you are using regular tank sizes (no hex, tall, bow front, or other funky proportions).

Next, is temperature. Guppies can live between 45 degrees farenheit, and 85 degrees farenheit. However, optimum breeding temperature is 78 degrees. More, and the metabolism runs high, making them eat more... foul the water more... and less, and the length of time between litters of babies increases.

Guppies do well with a TRACE amount of salt in their water. Get aquarium salt at the fish store and follow directions.

The healthiest strain of guppies I ever raised were crosses between fancy guppies and common (feeder) guppies.

It is hard to find healthy feeder guppies because pet store employees think of them as expendable, and touch them with their bare hands when counting them out. This usually does irreparable damage to them.

[kenn777]

Guppies... my area of childhood expertise!

First, water quality is EVERYTHING... but guppie babies are so small that normal filtration can suck them to oblivion... so frequent water changes are the route to success.

The second thing everyone makes a mistake on is size of container...

A ten gallon tank will hold ten adult guppies in healthy condition. One gallon to one inch of fish is the general rule, if you are using regular tank sizes (no hex, tall, bow front, or other funky proportions).

Next, is temperature. Guppies can live between 45 degrees farenheit, and 85 degrees farenheit. However, optimum breeding temperature is 78 degrees. More, and the metabolism runs high, making them eat more... foul the water more... and less, and the length of time between litters of babies increases.

Guppies do well with a TRACE amount of salt in their water. Get aquarium salt at the fish store and follow directions.

The healthiest strain of guppies I ever raised were crosses between fancy guppies and common (feeder) guppies.

It is hard to find healthy feeder guppies because pet store employees think of them as expendable, and touch them with their bare hands when counting them out. This usually does irreparable damage to them.
how old guppies is proper to be fed to garter?

[kenn777]

I've never purposely tried to breed guppies, but when I got the first garter, I bought three or four feeder guppies to try her on. When she wouldn't eat them, I figured I'd just keep them in a little bowl as pets, and within a couple weeks I had 12!! So I don't think it will be very hard to get them going!!:D
is it true? then wat i need to do is just feed'em like normal fish?

[EdgyExoticReptiles]

pretty much, i would get one of those filters that sucks up the dead fish because mortality rates are pretty high whens there a lot of guppies and just keep the water clean and there good

is it true? then wat i need to do is just feed'em like normal fish?

[anji1971]

That's all I did, fed 'em like normal fish, and changed the water every day or two. Like I said, I wasn't actually trying to breed them, so I don't know if it matters more what you do if you are.

[DEKAN]

Well...I breed guppys for my babies, yep, ti's really easy, the Guppy is a strong fish really, and have a lot of babies very quick, the professionals recomend certain water properties to keep them such as:

PH 7.1 - 7.5 (little bit alcaline and semi-hard)
Temperature between 20º - 28º C
Anti chlorine (with vitamin B1)


But....I just watch the temperature, use the Anti chlorine and wait till the water is clear (the filter does that job)... and I change it every month, it's recommended having 2 females per male, that is because the males are constantly following the females, a lot of plants and places where the newborns can hide and sometimes the females too, that's because the parents will eat the newborns, depend what you want, natural selection or having all the babies, in my case the first generation with 80 babies only 20 make it, so I put a plastic grid and now about 90% get to the correct size for feeding my snakes :D

Did you knew that a female guppy could use the spermatozoa of the male for 3 generations?...sometimes the female could get pregnant without a male :rolleyes: in my case 2 generations were completely different from the male I have...

[drache]

from my forays into the fish keeping world I'd say that regular water changes are the key to a healthy fish population
with enough water changes, filtration isn't really that important
when you have babies in the tank and you do use filtration, put a double layer of nylon stocking over the filter intake
also - you can make a little "mop" out of synthetic knitting yarn and hang it into the tank for a good baby hidng place
the ph is not that important either as long as there are no big fluctuations, so it's best to go with the ph of your local water sourse, unless it's way off range

[Stefan-A]

As long as you don't over-feed, you don't even need to change the water that often. :) I've found that aquarium snails are excellent at putting any extra waste to use and keeping algae off rocks and glass. They may not be pretty, but they do a good job.

[jitami]

Well, guess what? I found guppies!!! At least a few pregnant females. I can get fancy males locally, so will either hang onto some male babies or purchase a couple of fancy males. What is the bare minimum I can get away with while keeping both adults and babies safe and stress free? For now I'm going to go with a 5.5 gallon tank, although I realize that it probably won't be big enough for very long... if I can keep from spending money until after Christmas hubby will be happier :) I've NEVER kept fish, so what do I need? A filter? Heater? Water conditioner? Anything specific? Help! I'm going to pick them up on Wednesday, so that gives me a tiny bit of time to get a tank set up and functioning! I've got the tank full of water, so that the chlorine can leach out, but that's it so far! Help! :)

[infernalis]

I would recommend a filter minimum, the water will cloud up quick without it.

[jitami]

Well, I did a little shopping around and a little more reading and decided to improve accommodations a bit :) I picked up a 12.5 gallon acrylic tank with a filter, heater, air pump, and some decorations for $20 :) I went and looked at walmart prices on the filter/etc and couldn't beat $20 and the little fishies get more room to boot :)

Ok, this doesn't solve the problem of me knowing nothing about setting up or maintaining an aquarium! Gonna give it a shot this morning and see if I can get everything up and running. Would looooove more advice!

[infernalis]

It can't be that hard to do Tami, I never did any aquariums before either, and the 2 I have set up are fine.

The Oscar tank looks ten times better than the shape it was in when I picked it up from the womans house...

So really I think it just boils down to a little common sense.

My feeder tank is in the reptile room, so I don't heat the water at all. The room is maintained rather warm, so the water seems as if they are comfortable.

[jitami]

Thanks Wayne... I figured it can't be too tough, but by now you know me... I worry just a bit about anything new :rolleyes::o:)

[infernalis]

Nothing wrong with that Tami.

It beats blind ignorance hands down;)