I bought some guppies - need advice

[guppymax]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

I have used three gallon square cat litter buckets ( they nest side to side well )as nusery tanks when I want to save as many fry as possible. I put a box fiilter and a lot of plastic plants with the expecting female in the nursery bucket. If I do not have calendar records the female can be in the bucket so long that I give up and put her back with the males. If I find that she has had the fry and I think she is finished I remove the plastic plants and put her back with the males, or in a resting tank for afew days ( another bucket ). I like to use real plants with the fry once the mother is removed and weekly almost total water changes are necessary if you feed often for maximum growth ( 5-8 times a day) I pour the water into the sink through a net. They are a bit of trouble to catch. 30-40 fry can stay in the bucket for at least a month. Larger drops I would seperate into two buckets.

If I find the fry while she is dropping them then I use the trap. I remove the plastic plants and put her in the trap in the bucket she came out of. My trap is a homemade vee bottom plexiglass trap like the ones you buy only the fry fall straight into the bucket. You might be able to modify the ones you buy with silicone rubber and a saw to be the same way. Anyway I think the trap is cruel and too confining to use for days but during the drop I want all the fry and the risk to them outweighs her discomfort for a few hours. My trap hangs on the side of the bucket and I adjust the water level so the water in the vee is about twice as deep as she is tall. This makes the fry fall through immediately and not stay in the trap to be eaten.

max

[daisymac]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

This box has a grid at the bottom so the fry fall into that to separate them from the mother. It is a rectangle box, about 8" x 4" and about 5" tall with 1" being the bottom fry trap. It is the cover that concerns me - there are no holes large enough to get food into.

So how would I know when to get her in the trap? I heard that they arch their back, and you can see the opening where they will come out, but being such a novice, I'm not sure I would recognize that.

That is amazing that you use buckets. What is a box filter? Could I use an air pump?

[guppymax]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

You could replace the box filter with a sponge filter and of coarse you would need a pump. Instead of the bacteria living in the sponge they live in some polyester quilt batting that I put in a plastic box of sorts with some gravel for weight to make it sink. Air moves water through the box to feed the bacteria just like a sponge filter.

http://www.kensfish.com/boxfilters.html

The only way to know when is 28 days after her last drop. Looking and guessing will not get me within a week of the due date.

The grid bottom trap is ok. I would not put her in it unless she has already started dropping the fry and has not finished. She would not be in there long enough to worry about eating more than once. She could be feed when she goes in.

max

[HFBfounder]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

This box has a grid at the bottom so the fry fall into that to separate them from the mother. It is a rectangle box, about 8" x 4" and about 5" tall with 1" being the bottom fry trap. It is the cover that concerns me - there are no holes large enough to get food into.

So how would I know when to get her in the trap? I heard that they arch their back, and you can see the opening where they will come out, but being such a novice, I'm not sure I would recognize that.

That is amazing that you use buckets. What is a box filter? Could I use an air pump?

I have used one like this. It should have to places on each side that catch air so it floats at the top. When you want to feed, just take the top off, feed, and replace the top. Care must be taken so that you don't accidentally sink the box while the lid is off. Also, it will get pretty dirty. All I did for this was to pick the box half-way out of the water and back down again several times(fast enough to flush the detrius, but not so fast that it sucks the fish to the side of the box). I did this once a day.

[daisymac]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

That is exactly what I bought, and the directions said to flush it out as you described. When I put the mommies in they were so freaked and I got freaked as well! When I took the top off it started to sink and I panicked. :uhoh:

I went back to Houston Aquatics, where I bought them, and he said it was more important to catch the fry and put them in the box. He is a guppy breeder - man, he has more varieties of guppies than I have ever seen before. I got to go to the back and see all his tanks! The place is a hodge podge of various pets and pet stuff, but mostly fish, and plants. But I will say that it has a very distinctive odor!

[SallyShellDweller]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

Boy am I glad I saw this thread.

I have a 29gal that my dwarf shell dwelling cichlids are in and since they live on the very bottom I bought 8 guppies to swim mid-top tank.

Then I noticed a little female (my guess since it's an ugly fish) getting chased by 3 males. So I've spent the day looking into guppy breeding (sounds easier than my shell dwellers!).

I have 10gal also setup that I've put all the females in just to see if they are already pregnant. I bought a breeding box, but didn't know whether to use it or not. I didn't want to let the females drop in the big tank because the bottom of the tank is covered in shells and it's a pain and almost impossible to catch babies down there.

Any other advice?

[eklikewhoa]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

Probably should have started your own thread so that it would get the appropriate attention.

From what the others have told me the babies swim upwards when born and then the mother eats them. You best bet is to get some sort of floating plant and just net them when they are born or set up another tank with floating plants.

Btw. I like you list of shellies and welcome to the box!

[Brownsnoutuk]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

Guppy breeding involves placing a female with a male in the same tank.

thats about it.

Some females can be pretty, but yes the males will all flock around a female and chase her all day long. They stop to eat but thats about it.

I used to collect the fry to raise seperately, but guppies are so prolific breeders that i soon got way too many to keep. i now leave the fry fend for themselves and i still have new babies everymonth that survive to full size.
they'll hide in the shells/gravel/plants etc

[eklikewhoa]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

I read that females can hold several packs of sperm so if the breed once the female can still have babies after the initial batch without a male being present.

[Brownsnoutuk]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

Yes, but after giving birth you can introduce the female to a different male, and if she mates within 24-48 hours(Im pretty sure but dont quote me on this time frame) his 'sperm' will replace the stored 'sperm'.

Ive had a female give birth 4 times after being removed from my males. The fourth batch was very low in numbers, i think i got maybe 7 fry.

[guppymax]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

The floating plants real or plastic are good advice. Like Brownsnoutuk says the babies will most likely but not necessarily come from the last breeding. I would be a little concerned about the cichlids bothering the guppies. After the guppies have babies once the babies are 28-30 days apart so you could remove a female if you can recognize her and let her have the babies where only she could eat them, less risk. Then if you happened to be around when she had them you could use the trap to keep her from eating them by putting her in the trap. If it is a V shaped trap I always modified the trap so the babies could fall all the way through into the tank. Otherwise sometimes they would swim back up into the part where she was and get eaten. Initially they tend to fall to the bottom. They will migrate to the top and stay there in an hour or so. If you are not arounf floating plants real or plastic are best. Staying in the trap seems cruel to me for long periods of time when you do not know when to expect the babies really.

max

[Mzungu]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

Guppy breeding involves placing a female with a male in the same tank.

thats about it.

So true! If they've been in a tank with males, your females are probably pregnant.  :wink:  What kind of decorations, etc. do you have in the 10 gallon? Like ek said, as long as the fry have something in which to hide, they should be okay. I have a 10 gallon with tons of guppies, and tons of anacharis and java moss, and the fry get along just fine. Recently a couple of the females have dropped fry, and the little guys are content to swim around in the open. In my experience, guppies aren't as bad as others as far as fry eating goes.