Breeding Guppies

[BenVernon]

Will a single pair of male and female guppies breed in a heavily planted 10 gallon community tank with 6x Neon tetra and 3x Pygmy Cories?

 

[rybrows]

They will breed anywhere they're like rabbits! Although if the fry survive (probably get eaten) your tank will become overstocked very quickly...

 

[BenVernon]

So are you suggesting that 6 neons, 3 pygmy cories and 2 guppies is a good stocking? I will remove the fry if the guppies breed. 

 

[rybrows]

Its probably borderline, the general rule is 1" per gallon for fish so really your slightly overstocked….

 

[Ch4rlie]

So are you suggesting that 6 neons, 3 pygmy cories and 2 guppies is a good stocking? I will remove the fry if the guppies breed. 

 
The guppies WILL breed if they're healthy and fertile, then in that case the fry will make the tank overstocked very quickly.
 
And good luck catching tiny fry if you see them!

 

[fluttermoth]

Pygmy cories do better in groups larger than three.
 
Guppies prefer hard water, whilst the neons would like it soft.
 
The inch per gallon 'rule' doesn't really apply to small fish like these (or large ones; it's a pretty useless 'rule', tbh).

 

[bluesword23516]

What would you do with the fry?

 

[fishlover101]

guppies will breed in a puddle if you let them. but as mentioned be careful, if too many survive you can become over stocked quickly

 

[the_lock_man]

The major thing to point out is that the male guppy is likely to harrass the female to death if kept as a single pair.
 
In those terms, it would be best to have at least 2, and even better 3, females so that the male splits his attentions across the females, and doesn't focus just on the one.
 
However, 4 guppies, plus the neons and pygmy cories in a 10 gallon is very overstocked. If you wanted to do it, I would strongly suggest getting a second tank just for the guppies.
 
The other thing to consider is that it won't be easy to move the guppy fry on. Local fish shops already have a trusted source of fish, which are probably costing them 50p at most. Why would they risk allowing in diseased home-bred fish - I'm not saying that your fish are diseased, I'm saying that the LFS don't know whether yours are or not. You could try Gumtree, but then people won't be interested until they are at least 3 o4 4 months old - by which time you could have 90 or so fry, at various stages of development.

 

[BenVernon]

I am planning to remove the fry from the tank and into a small 4 gallon tank on their own for just a few weeks. Then I was planning on selling them on Gumtree meaning that my 10 gallon will pretty much pay for itself. Perhaps this is not a good idea, I might just keep the corys and the neons. Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[the_lock_man]

I'm not saying don't try it, but as I said, it will be a struggle to find homes for the fry. You could also advertise them on Aquarist Classifieds. I had a quick look on there, people are selling guppy fry for 50p.
 
I think you'll need something bigger than a 4gallon for the fry, I think you are underestimating how quickly you'll be able to sell them.