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Breeding Guppies


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now that I've got me some guppies I guess I'd better start asking all the relevant questions that goes along with them. Guppies were one of the very first fish I ever kept, but the last lot were about 10yrs or so ago and I can remember bascally nothing! I have 6 large (obviously mature) female guppies and 1 male. He came into the lfs with the females so I thought what the heck and grabbed him along with his harem. I have also noticed that a few of the females have a little black spot happening just off to the side at the front of their abdomen. From memory this is developing fry? The eyes I think? How big do these spots get before they are ready to give birth? When they are ready I intend to put the mother into a 'birthing tank' with lots of plants for the fry to hide in. Is this a good idea, or would I be better penning her up in one of those hatcheries? How will I know when to separate her? Fry.. any special requirements? from memory I just fed flake, but I have lots of other options from bbs, red powder, micro pellets, flake, mw, ve Salt. Do I need to put salt in the water? I know some people do, but is it necessary or is it for the same reasons we add salt to betta's water? any other info or advice you guys can give would be wonderful TIA ~mouse

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Salt is good!! some guppies live in brackish water and it helps keep disease down. (cories don't like salt if they share the same tank) I find the female starts to go a darker colour along their back (spine) thats when I remove them into a seperate tank. Fry traps can be good, but it stresses the female out as she wants back in the tank understandably! I would remove the females to another tank altogether instead. If you choose not to remove her, lots of surface plants and java moss is good for the fry to hide in and for the female to feel safe and secure. The females will get harrassed terribly, so remove the males from the tank. (any boisterous fish) This give her peace and time to recover. I do both methods, depends on the tank they are in at the time.

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thanks Jess! How much salt would you recommend? I have plenty of small tanks that I can set up as birthing tanks, so unless they all decide to go at once I should be ok to remove the female completely. Will she eat her own fry? Or is it ok to allow her to recover in the same tank as the newly born fry?

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Good luck with the Guppies :) I breed all of mine "A La Naturale"; that is quite often have a pair or a trio (1M2F) in a tank and I do not remove the fry until they are 2-3 weeks old. That is quite often just before females give birth again. With this method I turn over a few hundred guppies a month :) I find the guppies when well fed do not eat their young... most of the time :) I find sometimes they need a bit of training. So if a pair or a trio is eating their fry I put in 3or4 four week old babies in there so that they get used to having smaller fish with them in the tank. Usually by the time they drop another lot they leave most of them alone and touch almost non of the fry in subsequent births; even if they are starving. I do not like the hatchery container thingies. They stress out the female too much. And it is not a good idea to move a female that is due. It is easy to damage the young. I believe some of the bent spines etc some people get is due to them moving the females when they are too close to delivery. I use salt only as medicine. Non of my tanks have it (apart from my Notho tank :) ) Have fun,

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If you are going to use a hatchery, look at the PennPlax ones that are air driven and whisk the fry away from the mother. I had rotten luck once where I left the female too long and the bubs swam back up and got eaten. They are hard to find, but Aquamail has them i think. It looks like the mother's area is pretty big too. I used the RootScapers to get the fry in normal tanks, as the larger guppies can't fit between them :) perfect place for young fry to hide :)

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