Other pets (pics and discussions)

[ProXimuS]

Man! I've heard of that game...Not familiar with it. I am, however, quite familiar with Mortal Kombat!

So are Red Eared Sliders able to live in water 24/7?

[Invisible Snake]

Bear-Cat cool looking aquariums, have you had any of those guppies successfully breed and produce offspring?

[Bear-Cat]

Man! I've heard of that game...Not familiar with it. I am, however, quite familiar with Mortal Kombat!

So are Red Eared Sliders able to live in water 24/7?

Yep. We take them outside for some play-time, but other than that, they have their basking platforms. Generally turtles don't stray too far from their pond (unless they are trying to cross the road lol)

Bear-Cat cool looking aquariums, have you had any of those guppies successfully breed and produce offspring?

Yes actually! The whole reason we bought some guppies was for a breeding project we were doing. They make healthy snacks for the turtles. We had a ratio of 2 males and 3 females. They literally exploded and the mothers refused to eat the babies. We had a bunch of different patterns and colors. We have had 3-4 different litters of guppies all together. Most of them didn't survive the move, and the ones that did died of old age. It was an interesting endeavor and they are certainly pretty, but can be pretty unsightly. They are little poop machines and eat like crazy.

[Invisible Snake]

That's awesome Bear-Cat, I was thinking of starting a small breeding colony of guppies and feed the offspring to my young garters.

Are guppies hard to keep? Are they high maintenance? Do they breed naturally or is their something that needs to be done to get them in the mood? And how many babies does a female have per litter?

Sorry to bombard you with questions

[kibakiba]

Guppies are easy to keep. I think they're relatively low maintinance, a member here reccomended that (since I have money troubles) I keep them in a little betta fish bowl and keep it at room temp, change out half the water every day and feed daily. I wouldn't reccomend that, since it's.. well... not really the best, but I know they're easier to keep than some other fish.

[Bear-Cat]

That's awesome Bear-Cat, I was thinking of starting a small breeding colony of guppies and feed the offspring to my young garters.

Are guppies hard to keep? Are they high maintenance? Do they breed naturally or is their something that needs to be done to get them in the mood? And how many babies does a female have per litter?

Sorry to bombard you with questions

Not a problem at all!
Guppies are not hard to keep at all. You will want to clean up all the debris they make, but other than that, they are relatively low maintenance. They are actually used as tank starting fish. All you need is one male and one female and they will go at it. Male guppies will try to mate with anything they see.
I really recommend that you only have one or two females and one or two males, otherwise their population will explode. The most we have ever seen a female pop out was 38 in one period. Their gestation period isn't really that long either. It takes about 4 weeks for them to give birth. They can also of course store semen like reptiles. The males may try to eat the fry, but we have never had a problem with the mothers, we kept them well fed.
They are really interesting to watch, the males doing their little derp mating dance, and are really a lot more healthy than rosies or goldies.

[Charis]

The hardest problem I ever had when I'd try to breed guppies was the other guppies! Once had a pregnant female come up to another female that was giving birth and snatch a half born baby right out of the mother and eat it. They aren't hard to keep, any decent tank kit you might buy is probably good enough. They are a bit like the rabbits of the fish world, they breed like crazy and on their own. Just need lots and lots of stuff for the babies to hide in or remove them to a separate tank because they are usually terrible cannibals. That was my problem, too many multiplying tanks because I could never seem to get enough stuff for the babies to hide in long enough to get too big to be dinner. They do have breeding net type things you can get, that go in your tank and you put the pregnant females in to give birth. The babies can stay in there until big enough to be safe, in the same tank but out of reach of the adults. I've never tried one because they don't sell them around here and I gave up on breeding them before sending away for some.

[Bear-Cat]

O_O I'm glad we didn't have a problem with cannibalism. Floating plants make great hiding places for the wee ones.

[kibakiba]

Derp mating dance... I love it!

[Bear-Cat]

Derp mating dance... I love it!

That's the best I can describe their freaky flail!