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  • #1

    Breeding guppies?

    Just a general question, and I hope it doesn't offend any guppy people out there!

    Do you have to get both sexes of guppies to have them be happy? My mother used to breed guppies, and it was a lot of work having to keep an eye on the females, because the males ate the babies. So she had a "nursery" aquarium. I like watching the fish and it's a hobby, but I really don't want to get into it that much at this point. Of course the males are so much prettier, and that's what I really want.

    So my real question is - if you get both sexes and don't keep an eye on things, is that cruel for the baby fish? Or is there some easy way to separate them without having to get a whole other aquarium? Or am I remembering something that was unique to her fishkeeping skills?

    Thanks

    Daisymac
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  • #2
    Re: Breeding guppies?

    Depends on what your defination is of a "happy fish".  

    Many of us raise some fish to provide live food for our other fish and we don't consider it cruel........

    If you want to keep some of you baby guppies alive, you will need to provide them with places to escape and evade (Java Moss)

    Once the males (and females) are getting plenty of food on a regular schedule and you have a comunity tank with guppies of all sizes, the babies seem to have a higer survival rate.
    'Dear Lord,' the minister began, with arms extended toward heaven and a rapturous look on his upturned face. 'Without you, we are but dust ...'
    He would have continued but at that moment my very obedient daughter who was listening leaned over to me and asked quite audibly in her shrill little four-year old girl voice, 'Mom, what is butt dust?'

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    • #3
      Re: Breeding guppies?

      The community tank approach that PhishPhreek describes is probably best.

      The all male tank develops "an all male behavior". The addition of a few virgin female mollies might be good. I saw this at Pet Smart once. I doubt if anything would come of that. If it does I would like to have some guppy/molly hybrids.

      max

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      • #4
        Re: Breeding guppies?

        Well that is very interesting. I mean, by happy fish, that I don't want any of them getting aggressive. I had a pair of male guppies and one was always chasing the other one.

        So The female mollies would pacify the male guppies? How in the world do you know if a fish is a virgin? LOL! (Never thought I'd be asking that question!)

        So I am guessing that "an all male behavior" is aggressive? Correct or not. Let me know.

        Daisymac

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        • #5
          Re: Breeding guppies?

          You need a female or two depending on how many males you have so the males don't fight with each other.  

          We started with 6 fance guppies ( 2 female and 4 males), now we have somewhere around 50 of them in a matter of 3-4 months.   As long as you have moss or plants (fake or not), rocks and things like that, the babies will have a good chance of not being eaten.  Ours have been together in one tank, currently a tall 30g.

          Raul
          Raul
          PokerFace

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          • #6
            Re: Breeding guppies?

            Male Guppies seem to prefer a harem.  They are always trying to  impregnate anyfish they can sneak up on.....   Male Bettas are normally peaceful fish but in a tank with male guppies, eventually they will get annoyed and turn on the male guppy.  

            To get virgin breeding stock, isolate all of the fry as soon as possible and once a week inspect the tank for young males and remove them to your male tank.   As long as you don't allow a young male to mature in your female tank, you'll have a tank full of virgin females.

            Then select the best male & female and move them to a spawning tank.
            'Dear Lord,' the minister began, with arms extended toward heaven and a rapturous look on his upturned face. 'Without you, we are but dust ...'
            He would have continued but at that moment my very obedient daughter who was listening leaned over to me and asked quite audibly in her shrill little four-year old girl voice, 'Mom, what is butt dust?'

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: Breeding guppies?

              I have been told that a single male Betta would be okay in a Guppy tank, but when I tried it, my Guppies chased and attacked my Betta, not the other way around.

              If you are going to have male and female Guppies together, it is a good idea to aim for two females for every male.  If you only have a few females, the males will chase them so much they can die from sheer exhaustion.

              When I was younger, we had Guppies, Mollies, and Swords in our tank.  At one point, I believe we had a female Guppy give birth to half-Swordtail babies.  I understand that this can happen with most of the live-bearers, including Guppies, Mollies, Platies, and Swordtails.  However, the babies, like mules, are sterile, incapable of having babies of their own.  Still, hybrids can be really pretty if you don't care about them not being able to breed.

              I don't think it's cruel to let "survival of the fittest" rule your tank.  That's how it is in the wild.  If you have some plants or grass, real or artificial, chances are you'll have some survivors.  If your fish drops fry, and none survive, they wouldn't have survived in the wild either.  The ones who do survive will be smart enough to hide, and they will pass that good gene down.
              Brandi K.  :-)

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              • #8
                Re: Breeding guppies?

                Oh, virgin stock is important because female Guppies can hold up to 6 "packages" of sperm at a time, allowing them to give birth 6 times without mating again.  If you don't keep a female virgin from birth, then in order to be sure the babies are from the male of your choice, you'll have to wait up to six months for her "supply" to run out.  I believe Guppies typically only live about 2 years, so this is a quarter of her entire life!  It is less of a pain to keep them virgin from the beginning.
                Brandi  :-)

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                • #9
                  Re: Breeding guppies?

                  Are the female hybrids sterile or only the males? Could 3/1000ths of the males be fertile? Here is a link but be warned its pretty heavy going:

                  http://meiosis.bionet.nsc.ru/fishhyb.html


                  If you want to know what it looks like:

                  http://forums.aquariumhobbyist.com/view.php?id=13667,13961


                  max

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