Guppies - How Soon Would I Be Overstocked

[Tropical_Fish]

We've been setting up a tank - mainly for a little girl.

My wife wants to have guppies which will breed so she can see new fish appear and grow etc.

It's a 20 gallon tank and has just finished a fishless cycle. So I plan on getting some guppies at the weekend.

We were going to get 3 females and a male to start with, or possibly 4 females and 2 males.

We were going to leave them to it, and not use breeding traps or other tanks - any fry that survive survive, and any fry that get eaten don't survive!

Am I right that the guppies will eat their own fry?

Will I be able to just leave them to it - or is it going to get to a point where I'm overrun with guppies and need to separate females and males?

I do have a spare 10g tank/filter - just needs a heater - so removing some fry to try and sell is a possibility if it starts to get crowded.

My tank has no real plants, but does have three pieces of bogwood with various holes and hiding places, one big fake bush type plant (would have thought it would be great for fry) and a few other fake plants.

The only other issue I can think of is I'm running a fluval 304 which is rated to 1000L / hour so there is quite a suction on the intake pipe - will that cause any problems with fry? It has the correct strainer on the end.

 

[amyw2008]

In my experience they ea their own fry if the can catch them...
Alot survived becuse I had alot of floating plants..
If the fry are sensible they will hide and survive and some will just be too quick for mum/dad/others to eat but most will probably get munched

 

[chelbel]

Another thing to consider is them breeding witht heir own siblings/parents which will weaken the strain of Guppy and can lead to problems

 

[indigoj]

I'd consider asking your lfs if they will take fry off your hands before getting livebearers. If not you could be overstocked in 3 months with 3 female guppies, then there is the in-breeding issues.

I'd consider getting something small fast and egg laying also so that more of the fry get eaten. You can always save and raise a few in a spare tank but don't count on 'selling' them - you'll probably find you need to give them away.

 

[Tropical_Fish]

I was told on here that inbreeding didn't really matter with guppies as they are already so inbred that further inbreeding wouldn't matter.

I was hoping to get a group of about 6 neons in a few months time, when the tank is more mature - would they be good fry munchers?

 

[Ben.M]

Inbreeding isnt a problem for the forst 2 generations but when it hits the third then you may start to see problems

 

[Tropical_Fish]

I'm now thinking the responsible solution may be to just have males

 

[Truck]

I was told on here that inbreeding didn't really matter with guppies as they are already so inbred that further inbreeding wouldn't matter.

it would make the current problem a million times worse...the best thing that you can do is line breed and cull all inbreds to prevent them breeding

 

[Tropical_Fish]

So can anyone give a quick guide to how to breed guppies properly, should I get males and females from different shops to make sure they are different lines?

 

[OldMan47]

If you are going to colony breed, just let them breed at will, it would be better to start with fish of as many diverse genetic backgrounds as practical. You could try getting one female from each of 3 stores and then a male from a fourth store. If you will be selecting the breeders for each generation, the whole picture changes and you try to start with the best fish, well matched with each other, that you can find.
A 20 gallon may take as long as 6 months to become overpopulated if you only start with a trio and do not remove any fry to protect them.

 

[BlueGuppy]

We were going to leave them to it, and not use breeding traps or other tanks - any fry that survive survive, and any fry that get eaten don't survive!



I do the same thing. That way I don't have to cull and also I can sell the older ones each month and there still is about the same amount of fry in the tank. That way I don't get way overstocked.=)

Good luck on the breeding. It is fun to watch what colors you can get.

 

[Tropical_Fish]

I chickened out of the hassle and just got males