All About Breeding Guppies

[ryry212]

Alright, I'm the new kid on the block of breeding fish. I have some Basic questions I would really appreciate some advice and past experience and knowledge on.

Question #1.)I know Guppies as most Live breeders mate quite often, so should I even bother to put them in a breeding Cage or trap or whatever you wanna call it (not quite sure what to call it myself ha)?

Question #2.) From the second that the female is impregnated how long on average will she hold the babies before giving birth?

Question #3.) What are some good signs to be able to tell when the Female Guppy is about to release her fry?

Question #4.) I know of the stress on the fish when putting them in the breeding trap, But I will be using the PennPlax Aquarium Nursery, Breeding Trap to try and save the fry once they are born. Is this the right way to go? I will only put the female in the breeding trap once I believe she is about to give birth.

Question #5.) What Size tank should I put the fry in to allow them to grow? Will a 5 Gallon tank be big enough to let them grow at least to the point of when they are big enough to be put into my larger tank (37 Gallon)?

Question #6.)Is it worth giving the baby fish to the pet shop for store credit once they are bigger (Like big enough not to get eattin say about 3 or 4 months old?

 

[FrogGirl]

I'm a bit of a newbie myself but since no one answered I'll share what I know/have read here.

#1 if you're referring to trying to ensure your guppy gets pregnant, I wouldn't bother. Unless you have several males & females & are trying for a certain pair to mate there's no point. Just having the males & females together will work.

#2 I can't say for certain on this but I read a post on here where someone said that you can almost count on your guppy to have fry every 28 days give or take a day or two. Tomorrow will be 28 days from my 1st drop so we'll see how accurate that is for me.

#3 if you can view her from all the right angles you might notice that she looks more box shaped. I got lucky & happened to notice my female was being harassed even more than normal. She really seemed to be upset about it & kept trying to ditch the unwanted attention when usually she put up with it more. She kept trying to hide. I couldn't get a good look but you might be able to see a white spot near anal fin which would mean birthing tube is open.

#4 I don't know what the trap you have looks like & on my phone so can't google it easy. I can tell you I originally bought a plastic breeding trap but then found out they weren't as great as netbreeders. Net breeders are larger, allow for more air flow & mine at least came with plants that plug into spots on the side so there's some built in cover. With my guppy & 1 of my platys last night I was able to predict them dropping & get them into a net. Within an hour each time babies were being born. After a few hours I took the mom out.

#5 We opted for a 20g tank because we were told the LFS wouldn't tank them until probably 2-3 months depending on size (I also read you generally can't accurately sex them til around 3 months & with guppies & my LFS they try to keep the males & females separated). Since I also have pregnant platys & a pregnant swordtail we figured we're going to have a ton of babies before we can get someone to take them. If you have 1 guppy & she has babies every 28 days & you save them all. You're looking at 3 or so batches of fry before you can get rid of the first batch. My 1st batch was 28 fry & I think I read average is 20. I'm not sure what fish you have in your main tank but green neon tetras & harlequin rasboras are my smallest fish. My guppy fry are 3 weeks old & maybe 1-2 are almost as big as the green neons but most are smaller. They range in size but a few are quite small. I probably will not move my guppy fry into my main tank & if I did I probably wouldn't feel comfortable doing it for another month at least.

#6 that is up to you. I think I responded to a similar posted question of yours earlier. You need to talk to your LFS & see what they will tell you. The slightly bigger store where we buy most of our stuff will take the fish on donation only. I haven't spoken to the manager of the smaller LFS in town but because they don't buy in bulk from major fish companies they might be willing to pay us a small amount for our guppies at least. They sell males for 3.99 & females for 2.99. Platys are cheap everywhere so I don't expect money from anyone but I definitely can't keep all these fish & right now at least (I'm pregnant myself) I just can't stand the thought of the babies being eaten so I'm trying to save them all lol.

So hope that helps some

 

[ryry212]

Yes, that did help a lot thank you!

I Have 2 female guppies and one male. So this poses a problem for me as I don't have the tanks to safely let them grow.

I am going to purchase a 5 gallon tank as this is what i can afford and It will just have to do the job. What type of filter do u use for your fry tank?

What temp do you keep your water at in the fry tank?

Any tips u would like to share with me on how to raise the fry?

Thanks so much again.

 

[FrogGirl]

We originally bought the tank as package deal. It came with a hood, light, under gravel filter, heater & 30lbs of gravel for $40. Since we bought it after we already had fry & we knew it had to get cycled we weren't really sure what we were going to do. We ended up going & buying a smaller Fluval Filter for it so that we could move some of our filter media from our 100g into it to get it cycled asap. Since both of your tanks will be much smaller I think that's going to be major overkill for you, plus those aren't exactly cheap filters. Whatever you do though you really need to try to make sure the tank is cycled before you put the fry in or they'll likely die.

Our temp is like 77 or 78

So far, we just keep noticing someone's pregnant & keep an eye on them. When I notice some strange behavior & the prego looks like she's going to pop, is boxy etc I catch her & put her in the net breeder. A few hours later she's popped out a bunch of babies & I put her back in the main tank. I keep the babies in the net breeder & I bought some Nutrafin Max baby fish food, it's small but to make it easier for them to eat in general I take a pinch & try to crush it as I sprinkle it in the net. I usually do a sprinkle or 2 in the morning, mid afternoon & then evening. Since my fry tank is up & running I think once a week is up my new fry will probably go in the fry tank with the older fry. I just have to pay attention to the sizes & see if I think they'll do ok. I did buy some frozen baby brine shrimp & since I put the older fry in the fry tank I've been thawing some every other night or so & putting it in the tank for them. Everything I've read says that a variety of food is good for all fish but something like baby brine or small worms etc will help them grow faster. We feed worms or fry to our main tank at least every other night as well so our pregos get a good diet so that the fry come out healthier as well.

 

[Ludwig Venter]

Alright, I'm the new kid on the block of breeding fish. I have some Basic questions I would really appreciate some advice and past experience and knowledge on.

Question #1.)I know Guppies as most Live breeders mate quite often, so should I even bother to put them in a breeding Cage or trap or whatever you wanna call it (not quite sure what to call it myself ha)?

Nope!!... just have sufficient hornworth floating plants available..... breeding traps causes them to stress and deliver some still borns.....

Question #2.) From the second that the female is impregnated how long on average will she hold the babies before giving birth?

Tested and tried.... at (approximately) 26/7 Deg C..... she will deliver at (Approximately).... 28 days intervals.....

Question #3.) What are some good signs to be able to tell when the Female Guppy is about to release her fry?

The Male(s) will be showing more interest in her..... and she'll be less responsive/aggressive to their approaches......

Question #4.) I know of the stress on the fish when putting them in the breeding trap, But I will be using the PennPlax Aquarium Nursery, Breeding Trap to try and save the fry once they are born. Is this the right way to go? I will only put the female in the breeding trap once I believe she is about to give birth.?

Nope!!... Hornworth floating plants in an open tank is still the best way to go!!......

Question #5.) What Size tank should I put the fry in to allow them to grow? Will a 5 Gallon tank be big enough to let them grow at least to the point of when they are big enough to be put into my larger tank (37 Gallon)?

This will depend on the number of fry which were delivered..... If it was less than 20.... your 5 Gallon might be ok (at a push).... more than that... you'll need a bigger tank with plenty water changes and (at least) 3 x per day feedings..!!.......

Question #6.)Is it worth giving the baby fish to the pet shop for store credit once they are bigger (Like big enough not to get eattin say about 3 or 4 months old?

.....At 3-4 month old fry.... you should have them ready to start the next generation.... and they will be ready for store credit anyways..... But I'll give them another 2/3 weeks so's I can demand bigger tanks/ heaters/ pumps/ filters/ etc... etc... rather than more mature Guppies! ..!!.......