Guppies!! And even more guppies...and more...

[youronlysin]

So there I was....at the fish store looking at the fancy guppies. I had always passed them up as "less desireable", but this time I thought that they might be a fun change of pace. I bought 7 fancy males for a nice splash of color in the community tank. They really looked good in there. Several days later I decided to buy several females just for kicks. I was aware that guppies were easy to breed but I didnt think that I was really interested in breeding them. It was during a major tank cleaning (after an incident with rubbing alcohol) that I noticed the first fry. There was only one and it ended up disappearing within a few days. Once the tank was cleaned and all of the inhabitants had returned to their home, I noticed the females had almost immediately started finding hiding places. a week later I found two fry in the tank...who knows how many more had succumbed to "natural selection". I cleaned up my small 5 gallon tank and decided that I would put the suspected pregnant female in the breeding tank just to see how she did. Well, less than 24 hours later I have on the order of 30 fry. They are sure cute, but now Im left with the task of figuring out what to do with them all. Its neat to see fish breeding and bearing live young, but when they shoot out 30-50 fry at a time I can see where I'll quickly become over absorbed in caring for them. I dont have the tnk space or extra tanks to keep this many fish! I was thinking maybe I should just leave the females in the community tank and let nature take its course; if a few survived so be it. But now I just feel guilty about even making the decision to keep guppies at all! Im debating whether or not to get rid of the females and just keep the fancy males. I dont think I have the time or money to go all out trying to breed these things. Anyone know how much it costs to ship small amounts of fish anywhere in the US? I thought I could try to sell them real cheap, but I dont really need this to start costing me money if I dont get anything in return. Anyone want some guppies?

[TankGirl]

Well, what I do in the case of livebearers is just let the females drop the fry in the community tank once I get to the point of not knowing what to do with them. Unsavory as it is, the fry will be a very good source of healthy, parasite free live food for your other tank inhabitants. Sometimes, though even that does not control the population.

The LFS may take them off your hands to be used as feeders, but they will likely not give you trade-in on them because so many people are in the same boat.

You can also just trade back the females and stick with males. If you have more males than females these girls are going to stay gravid all of the time and it will literally wear them out.

[jenpc]

I want some..ha ha..just too far away to get them!! I think it would be neat to see though..got pics?

[unknown_7]

First of all, I have to congrat you on your fry. I have been trying to breed my feeder guppies for about like 6 months now and I only managed to get like 4 batches of like 5 fry from about 9 pregnant females. If you have any carnivorous fish, you could use them as treats for them. Also, good luck!

[FishLover14]

Congrats On The Guppy Fry! What other fish do you have in your aqauruim? If you have some carnivorous fish they will keepp the populatoion in check! You also could take back the femals and jsut keep the males and then you wouldnt have nay fry problems-The males are prettier anyway.

JMHO

[Psyhampster]

Originally Posted by FishLover14

The males are prettier anyway.

Actually, I personally think both M and F are beautiful...

Anyways, as said above, healthy feeders, or if there is an aquarium society in your area, you could take some there and try to find them good homes.

[Frank_the_Tank]

I helped a friend set up a guppy tank, within a week she saw a fry one morning...and that was the last we saw of them...lol. I heavily planted the tank and got her a small tank to put preg females/fry in, hopefully we can get a few to stick around.