What Was The Biggest Number Of Fry You Have Ever Gotten?

[dirtbiker250dualsport]

hey i dont know if this is the correct place to ask this but how many male/female guppies would you need to get them to breed

 

[fry_forever!]

hey i dont know if this is the correct place to ask this but how many male/female guppies would you need to get them to breed

You should always keep one male for every 3 females. The males tend to stress the females out a lot, (like in normal society... ) so having more females will disperse the male's attention. But to get them to breed, you don't even need a male! Females can store sperm, so they can have multiple batches of fry before needing to mate again.

Cheers!

 

[OldMan47]

Right you are Fry Forever. It is something that complicates a serious breeder's life because it is difficult to be sure who the male parent is when a female drops fry.

 

[fry_forever!]

Yes, but when I first started breeding, it was pretty easy to tell which male was the father... all of the babies grew up with yellow and black tails, and blue and black tails! Now they have red tails....

 

[fry_forever!]

Also Oldman47, I don't know if you'll know the answer, but why are all my female fish so skinny? Is it because they had an internal parasite, and they're recovering from it? I hope they can still have babies once I'm done treatment, because they've had internal parasites for awhile, and I don't know how damaged their insides are now...

But it's weird, because even the fish at pet stores and fish stores specifically are all sick. Do you get your fish from a breeder or club?
Thanks.

 

[OldMan47]

The molly that I show so often in various threads to demonstrate some point, came from about the worst possible source. She came out of a tank at Petsmart, but I was a bit selective in what I was willing to take home. Most of my livebearers come from club auctions and are not available anywhere else at less that $20 to pay for shipping plus whatever the market will bear for the fish. I am very selective in what I bring home and just don't have many problems with new fish. I will walk away from a tank rather than bring home any dodgy fish at all. I consider that any fish in a tank with sick fish is automatically to be assumed to be sick so they stay right where they are. Walking away is the first step to a healthy tank, no matter how seldom you have seen that fish available.

 

[fry_forever!]

The molly that I show so often in various threads to demonstrate some point, came from about the worst possible source. She came out of a tank at Petsmart, but I was a bit selective in what I was willing to take home. Most of my livebearers come from club auctions and are not available anywhere else at less that $20 to pay for shipping plus whatever the market will bear for the fish. I am very selective in what I bring home and just don't have many problems with new fish. I will walk away from a tank rather than bring home any dodgy fish at all. I consider that any fish in a tank with sick fish is automatically to be assumed to be sick so they stay right where they are. Walking away is the first step to a healthy tank, no matter how seldom you have seen that fish available.

Yes, I'm starting to walk away now, but I can't go to club auctions. First of all, I'm not part of a club, second of all, all the auctions of fish that are outside of clubs, I don't live close to. Heck, I don't live close to any aquarium club!

Anyhow, I have a female swordtail that looks about ready to drop, but I don't want her to in the community tank. Can I move her to my 10 gallon tank to drop, or would that stress her out to much, and cause her to abort her babies?

I will again try to get some pictures up.
Also, is it okay if I always keep a sponge on my 20 gallon filter intake all the time? Because I want small fish to stop getting sucked up, and pantyhose just clogs. I'm using a sponge in my 10 gallon baby tank instead of a real sponge filter, and it works great.

Thanks!

 

[Platygirl11]

I was going to a LFS to get some tuxedo platys, but most of them were in a huddle behind a sponge filter by a wall. Soooo sad, but I can't put my tough fish at risk....
Some of my fish are rescues though, not from illness but from bad conditions. My rainbow platy was in a tank with 6 or more male platys and no other females. Poor gal! She has turned out to be one of the best fish I've owned!

 

[fry_forever!]

I was going to a LFS to get some tuxedo platys, but most of them were in a huddle behind a sponge filter by a wall. Soooo sad, but I can't put my tough fish at risk....
Some of my fish are rescues though, not from illness but from bad conditions. My rainbow platy was in a tank with 6 or more male platys and no other females. Poor gal! She has turned out to be one of the best fish I've owned!

Yeah, I know what you mean! Very unfortunately though, where I live, there are absolutely no petstores or fish stores that carry healthy fish. I always have to get one with either an external and internal parasite, and then spend a whole bunch of time and money getting medication for them, and treating their disease. It's really sad, even a professional all fish and reptile guy has some pretty sick fish in his tanks... But I'm also very limited to my fish store choices, because I have a severe allergy to bloodworms, and I can barely go near a freezer without using my epi-pen.

I really hope I can see the bright side of the coin soon....

Good job saving those fish!

Something like that actually happened to my friend. I gave her young guppies from my tank, thinking only one was a male. It turned out they were very late developing, and they were all males except for one. Lets just say I never made that mistake again!

Thanks!

 

[OldMan47]

Fry Forever, another source that I have found successful but expensive is to buy fish from places like Aquabid. If you are careful about where you buy, some of those fish are very nice indeed. The shipping cost can turn a great buy into an expensive buy but if you are using medications for everything you bring in to your tanks, you might be better paying for shipping instead.
If there is no club within easy driving distance, you might post a notice on the bulletin board of your LFS to start a club. Even a group of 5 or 6 people who meet at each other's homes once a month can become a place for trading healthy fish around and can also be a group that makes group buys from distant suppliers to reduce the cost of shipping per fish. Meanwhile it would give you a place to discuss things that interest you all and to get much more personal analysis than you will find in places like this. Your LFS should be willing to support the club with information and might even be able to improve their operation if they thought there was a group of interested hobbyists in the area that they could deal with.
I am a member of my local club but it is an hour drive from my home to a regular meeting. The club is like most clubs and welcomes outsiders as both buyers and sellers at their auctions. There are 3 clubs, including my own, that I frequent for auctions. I am a buyer and a seller at all 3 of them. I sell whatever I have in surplus at the time and far too often I spend much more buying than I ever make selling. I may be able to reverse that at the next auction by selling off my creamsicle molly juveniles, the ones I sometimes post pictures of. I sold some at a neighboring club's auction and was a bit surprised at how good a price they brought.

 

[fry_forever!]

Fry Forever, another source that I have found successful but expensive is to buy fish from places like Aquabid. If you are careful about where you buy, some of those fish are very nice indeed. The shipping cost can turn a great buy into an expensive buy but if you are using medications for everything you bring in to your tanks, you might be better paying for shipping instead.
If there is no club within easy driving distance, you might post a notice on the bulletin board of your LFS to start a club. Even a group of 5 or 6 people who meet at each other's homes once a month can become a place for trading healthy fish around and can also be a group that makes group buys from distant suppliers to reduce the cost of shipping per fish. Meanwhile it would give you a place to discuss things that interest you all and to get much more personal analysis than you will find in places like this. Your LFS should be willing to support the club with information and might even be able to improve their operation if they thought there was a group of interested hobbyists in the area that they could deal with.
I am a member of my local club but it is an hour drive from my home to a regular meeting. The club is like most clubs and welcomes outsiders as both buyers and sellers at their auctions. There are 3 clubs, including my own, that I frequent for auctions. I am a buyer and a seller at all 3 of them. I sell whatever I have in surplus at the time and far too often I spend much more buying than I ever make selling. I may be able to reverse that at the next auction by selling off my creamsicle molly juveniles, the ones I sometimes post pictures of. I sold some at a neighboring club's auction and was a bit surprised at how good a price they brought.

Yeah, that would be awesome, but what's the minimum age to be in a club? I don't think my parents would allow me to be in one, unfortunately. Oh well. My friend has some pretty healthy guppies, so I know where to get those. Also, from time to time, Petland will get a new shipment, and their fish will actually be decently healthy!

I got a few mollies from there once, but unfortunately they were too pregnant when I got them and had a bunch of stillbirths... That was like, 2 years ago though.

Thanks for all the help!

 

[OldMan47]

I am not aware of an age limit in our club but there are annual dues to be a member. The dues help pay for the club newsletter and things like that. The club activities include things like monthly meeting fish lectures by visiting experts on various fishy subjects, the club auctions, an annual picnic and other minor social events. We do offer family memberships at our club that are almost the same price as a standard annual membership because we like people to get their families involved.

 

[Platygirl11]

I have a problem. My females drop fry, and I put them in a breeder net, then they all die, usually after a water change. Help!

 

[fry_forever!]

I have a problem. My females drop fry, and I put them in a breeder net, then they all die, usually after a water change. Help!

Okay, first of all, to reply to Oldman47: I don't think my family would ever join anything like that! My parents could care less about fish, and so could my brother. It would bore them to death going to things like that. I would LOVE to do something like that, but I am way too busy all the time, what with school and extra-curricular activities. I barely have time to even clean my tanks once a week! Thanks!

And to Platygirl11: Does your platy fry show any symptoms before death? Clamped fins, any discoloration, rubbing against the breeder net, etc.? Who's the mother and father? Are they healthy? Are the rest of the fish in the tank healthy? I was looking at your fish pictures on the picture site, (imageshack?) and it looked like one or two of your platies were a little sick. (With clamped fins.)

Clamped fins could mean external parasites, bacterial infections, as you probably know. Rubbing against the ground could mean any external parasite. Nothing unusual about the body but rubbing against the ground: gill flukes. Tiny white spots, rubbing against the ground: ich. Tiny, thread like worms on body, rubbing against ground: anchor worms. etc, etc.

I doubt that helps you at all, but I tried... If you can answer those questions on top, I'll be able to help you much better.

Good luck!

P.S. At least your platies drop! My fish don't even get the babies out, and when they do, they all die of similar causes...

 

[OldMan47]

Are you losing the adult female or the fry Platygirl?
If you are losing the fry, try raising them in their own tank instead. Every time I see fry in one of those nets it bothers me. I know people have good luck with them but I worry about the poor water circulation and potential contamination that they represent. If you are losing fish right after a water change it could be one of 2 common problems. The first is if water is allowed to degrade a lot before the water change and the change makes such a big change in quality that it shocks the fish. The second potential problem, much more likely in a place like this, is that water suppliers often up their dose of chlorine or chloramine if there has been water mains work going on in order to make the water safe for people. The trouble is that the fish can't tolerate near as much chlorine as we can. I double dose my dechlorinator almost all the time as a precaution against that possibility.