More guppy breeding and fry questions

[wildroseofky]

I was at the local pet store yesterday and saw a lot of deformed guppies. The owners supplier mixed a lot of deformed grown fish in her order. I would have been really mad but she said she would give them away or keep them. I made a deal to sell or trade her my fry once I breed mine but they came from her store and now I am worried. I do not want to raise deformed stock. How should I cull any that come out deformed? I want to do it the least cruel way possible. Or should I just give or sell them as feeders only. She does keep a tank of feeder fish for her Oscars and to sell. The male and female I have started with look healthy but I wonder how inbred they are. I am planning on buying another female from a store 50 miles away so hopefully they will have a different supplier. Any tips for picking a healthy females? My current female was just a tiny dot when I got her. I got to more girls from the local store and have them in their own QT tank waiting to see if they are pregnant before I introduce my male I want fry from. How long before I can breed them and be sure it was not retained sperm they are pregnant from?

 

[Ian086]

I was at the local pet store yesterday and saw a lot of deformed guppies. The owners supplier mixed a lot of deformed grown fish in her order. I would have been really mad but she said she would give them away or keep them. I made a deal to sell or trade her my fry once I breed mine but they came from her store and now I am worried. I do not want to raise deformed stock. How should I cull any that come out deformed? I want to do it the least cruel way possible. Or should I just give or sell them as feeders only. She does keep a tank of feeder fish for her Oscars and to sell. The male and female I have started with look healthy but I wonder how inbred they are. I am planning on buying another female from a store 50 miles away so hopefully they will have a different supplier. Any tips for picking a healthy females? My current female was just a tiny dot when I got her. I got to more girls from the local store and have them in their own QT tank waiting to see if they are pregnant before I introduce my male I want fry from. How long before I can breed them and be sure it was not retained sperm they are pregnant from?

Hi. Because livebearers breed so easily, unless the store/supplier has a strict policy of separation, inbreeding is inevitable. Separating the females like you have will help reduce this issue. Probably the best way to ensure no inbreeding is to buy your stock from a professional breeder. This may cost a bit more but will be well worth it if you plan on breeding good, strong, healthy stock.
One way of culling fry is to place them in a bag/container of icy water. The low temp will instantly cull them. Deformed stock/fry can come from even a healthy set of parents but is more likely from inbred stock....
If you wait between 2-4wks, you will know for sure that they are not pregnant....

 

[wildroseofky]

Thanks for the reply. I am going to buy a few more males and females from another place to breed my existing ones with. I will keep my eye out for some in the classified ads and check with a few on line breeders. The one female I thought I had turned into a male overnight. LOL I swear up until yesterday it looked female and then this morning I checked and it had developed a gonopodium and started to get color. I did not realize they could change that fast. Hopefully the two I got yesterday will be female and not pregnant already. I will breed them to males I acquire somewhere else.

 

[Ian086]

Thanks for the reply. I am going to buy a few more males and females from another place to breed my existing ones with. I will keep my eye out for some in the classified ads and check with a few on line breeders. The one female I thought I had turned into a male overnight. LOL I swear up until yesterday it looked female and then this morning I checked and it had developed a gonopodium and started to get color. I did not realize they could change that fast. Hopefully the two I got yesterday will be female and not pregnant already. I will breed them to males I acquire somewhere else.

Seems like your on the right track. Good luck with it, I hope it works out for you

 

[Canary bird]

The one female I thought I had turned into a male overnight. LOL I swear up until yesterday it looked female and then this morning I checked and it had developed a gonopodium and started to get color. I did not realize they could change that fast. Hopefully the two I got yesterday will be female and not pregnant already. I will breed them to males I acquire somewhere else.

Mine did that so far I've only had male guppies who I could swear were females then bam ! Boys And female mollies ! At the moment lol

 

[wildroseofky]

I've got three female and three male mollies in my tank with male guppies. I had 8 other males in that tank that had just became mature. They went to the pet shop after I saw them kill my male guppies. The male guppies were chasing the girl mollies and I guess the boy mollies got mad. I woke up everyday to one less guppy until I saw what the boy mollies were doing. The other two young boys are going to the pet shop as soon as I can catch them. They are way to good at hiding when I get the net out. I do not want more mollies or muppies.