Population Control Achieved!

[Circus]

My brackish water tank has finally reached equilibrium! My 20 gallon brackish tank houses my female guppies, with only 1 (the original) producing fry. She usually drops 50+ every 29 days or so. The daughters from previous batches are finally big enough to eat their younger siblings. Primal, Mother-of-All, Queen of the Tank, Producer-of-Armies, gave birth 3 days ago and only two fry remain. This is a number I can live with. Up until now, I have been feeding all but a couple of the fry to my betta, although Jaws took the brunt of the work and Dragon only helped a little. Finnegan had no interest (in hind sight that is a good thing, since he was the star of my community tank), Spangle and poor Ug (short for Ugly - beautiful fins, a face only a mother can love - my mother named him) were just too slow to actually catch anything.

But back to the main point. Once I can confirm none of my female guppy are pregnant I will likely put an ad online for them. I don't want to sell someone a fish that will produce endless numbers of fry. Or stunt the growth of young females by breeding them too early. So once Primal is finished with her 10 month baby binge there shall be no more fry. It will actually be a relief, I think. It has taken so much time and effort to oh-so-carefully separate the males once they show signs of color or a gonopodium. Not to mention acclimating fry just so they can become betta food.
Once my brackish tank is empty, I might get a couple of bumblebee goby or perhaps a puffer. Or convert it back to freshwater. Idk.

I have noticed that since I stopped feeding her fry that Jaws (female betta) has colors that are a little less intense.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Well done! It's so hard to get guppies to stop breeding once they've started isn't it? I had planned to stop, and cut the numbers of females I kept by not giving in and not keeping any young females I produced, even when they were pretty and I was tempted, so mine aren't producing such big numbers anymore, thankfully. But agree that it's so hard to sort out all the young males from the fry before they reach breeding potential, and becomes a bit of a chore.

But then I blew my own plans by buying a female guppy I really liked at the LFS, then a male to go with her because I wanted to see what they'd produce... whoops! She only dropped three her first batch (or only three didn't get eaten by adults in the colony) so that's manageable, but I know a small first batch isn't unusual, and bracing myself for more rounds with lots of fry.

I don't know what I'll do with the tanks when guppy production finally halts. Hardwater area so really should stick to hardwater fish other than the 1 softwater tank I'm making, but all the fish I like recently have been softwater fish. Need to research what other fish like hardwater besides livebearers. Have to be more hardwater fish out there than livebearers, right?

 

[Circus]

Have to be more hardwater fish out there than livebearers, right?

Well, if you have a bigger tank, you could do a brackish with a puffer. I know there are some rainbow fish that like hard water. Smaller african cichlids, like multis or other small cichlids. There have to me more I can't think of, lol. Dwarf puffer are freshwater but like the water hard, I think.

It's so hard to get guppies to stop breeding once they've started isn't it?

Mine weren't supposed to breed in the first place! I had purchased two "females" but it turned out to be a juvenile male and an adult female. Since this is batch number 6 (I think), I should only have a few more months. None of my younger gals have ever been exposed to a mature male (thankfully).

 

[ClownLurch]

Well done! It's so hard to get guppies to stop breeding once they've started isn't it? I had planned to stop, and cut the numbers of females I kept by not giving in and not keeping any young females I produced, even when they were pretty and I was tempted, so mine aren't producing such big numbers anymore, thankfully. But agree that it's so hard to sort out all the young males from the fry before they reach breeding potential, and becomes a bit of a chore.

But then I blew my own plans by buying a female guppy I really liked at the LFS, then a male to go with her because I wanted to see what they'd produce... whoops! She only dropped three her first batch (or only three didn't get eaten by adults in the colony) so that's manageable, but I know a small first batch isn't unusual, and bracing myself for more rounds with lots of fry.

I don't know what I'll do with the tanks when guppy production finally halts. Hardwater area so really should stick to hardwater fish other than the 1 softwater tank I'm making, but all the fish I like recently have been softwater fish. Need to research what other fish like hardwater besides livebearers. Have to be more hardwater fish out there than livebearers, right?

Rainbowfish:
Celebes rainbowfish 179-447ppm. Need a 750mm plus tank though. 80mm and need group of 6+.
3x Pseudomugils (All smallish beautiful fish)
P. Furcatus 268-536ppm 600mm+ tank
P. Cyanodorsalis 179-447ppm 450mm+ tank.
P. Tenellus 90-357ppm 750mm+ tank
They need groups of 8+ though which eats up your stocking quickly.

Mines 19dh 340ppm so I had a lot of time to research hard water fish due to lockdown tank delivery problems. I found about 25 suitable to my water and 760mm tank size.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Well, if you have a bigger tank, you could do a brackish with a puffer. I know there are some rainbow fish that like hard water. Smaller african cichlids, like multis or other small cichlids. There have to me more I can't think of, lol. Dwarf puffer are freshwater but like the water hard, I think.

Rainbowfish:
Celebes rainbowfish 179-447ppm. Need a 750mm plus tank though. 80mm and need group of 6+.
3x Pseudomugils (All smallish beautiful fish)
P. Furcatus 268-536ppm 600mm+ tank
P. Cyanodorsalis 179-447ppm 450mm+ tank.
P. Tenellus 90-357ppm 750mm+ tank
They need groups of 8+ though which eats up your stocking quickly.

Mines 19dh 340ppm so I had a lot of time to research hard water fish due to lockdown tank delivery problems. I found about 25 suitable to my water and 760mm tank size.

Thank you so much for the suggestions guys! It's going to be a while before the guppies have been wound down enough that I'll have free tanks, but that's a good thing really, means I have plenty of time to research what I'd like and what they need

Have noted these lists in my "potential hardwater fish" file! I'm not crazy about aggressive fish like cichlids, but I do love the rainbows if I can wrangle getting a big enough tank for a gorgeous planted rainbow tank, I'd be a very happy woman. But with my smaller tanks, I also really like the Pseudomugils too, really pretty and sorta unusual looking. Really appreciate the suggestions!