Can I Have Guppies?

[greekcardinal]

I have a 20 gallon tank which currently houses 2 white mollies, 2 dalmation mollies, and 2 mickey mouse platies. I would love to get a few guppies. Would this be okay? Could my tank support guppies? How many should I get? Thanks in advance! I am also thinking about getting small tank to go in my bedroom......what would be something good and colorful and small to go in a 5-10 gallon tank?

 

[lilfishie]

first what gender are the other fish, if you don't know this picture will help

 

[greekcardinal]

Well, the white mollies are female, one of the dalmation mollies are male (not sure about the second dalmation) and I can't tell about the platy.

 

[theotheragentm]

Mollies and Guppies can interbreed. If you are fine with that and the offspring numbers you will most likely see, I'd say you have the space for a few Guppies. As you have male and female Mollies already, fry will be an issue no matter what. There's no reason I see that you can't get the Guppies. Just remember they add to the bioload, so your water changes need to be kept up weekly to stay on top of that.

 

[lilfishie]

the reason i asked genders is because you should keep 2/3 female for 1 male, but i'd say you've got space for a few gups

 

[jlOisAhoTti]

I've heard about guppies breeding with mollies. What would you get if they were to? Both mollies and guppies or some new species?

 

[mommyof2bettas]

it's not likely they will interbreed, since mollies have other mollies, and guppies will probably have other guppies to breed with. Also, females store sperm so it's likely that you don't have virgins which means you'd have to wait some months before they had a chance to breed. Someone around here bred a guppy with a molly, but she took a virgin guppys, and had 2 females with a male molly, alone in the tank. The fry died though, so even if they do interbreed the fry will most likely die.
Back on topic though, you could have a couple of gups in that tank.

 

[Kevinator]

I have about the same size tank as you with similar fish and I have a few guppies in there and they do well together. What is male to female ratio on your mollies?

 

[jlOisAhoTti]

one male to every 2-3 females I believe.