How many Guppy?

[Shnookina]

Ok, I love guppys and want them to be the first and maybe only fish i get for this tank, is there a nice number to keep them in or will they like the more the merrier?

 

[WILDER]

If you wan't guppys your tank will have to be cycled as they are not a hardy fish, make sure you get them in excellent condition, like no raggy tails and fins, check when they go to the toilet as i find most guppys come with internal parasites, how big is the tank.

 

[One_Trick_Pony]

good chocie tho, some of them can be most attractive fish

 

[NinjaSmurf]

Depends on if you want males, females, and babies. If you don't want babies, then just get males, if you want babies get some females too, however, proper stocking for mixing the genders is one male per every two females. Plus I really hope you have something to do with the babies if you do have them breed, or else you are going to be knee deep in guppy fry.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

guppies are ~1.5 inches of fish so (safely speaking):

in a 2 gallon, you can keep 1
in a 5 gallon, you can keep 3
in a 10 gallon, you can keep 7
in a 15 gallon, you can keep 10
in a 20 gallon, you can keep 14
in a 30 gallon, you can keep 20
and so on...

the more males you have, the less likely they are to damage each other's fins. and the more guppies you have, the less likely any significant number of fry are going to reach adulthood if just left in the tank.

if you really just love guppies, but have no major fishkeeping experience, i'd go for the 20 or 30 with all male guppies. it be a very lively tank with a wide variety of colors and you wouldn't be tempted into the fry business. plus, if you ever tire of guppies, you'll have enough tank space to keep many other interesting species.

if you do decide you want to breed guppies, be warned that most LFS either won't take them or will only exchange for other inexpensive fish. i bought a male/female pair and am on the 4th generation. typically i just clear out all of my males of a certain size and trade them off at about a 5 to 1 ratio. my females would probably just get thrown into the feeders; they aren't very colorful. unless you feel you just *have* to breed guppies, i wouldn't. its a bit heartwrenching, to tell the truth.

 

[Shnookina]

i havn't worked out the gallons yet cause i dunno how lol this is the tank size, so how many gallons is that?