Fancy Guppy?

[HOLLIEO]

I just picked up two Fancy Guppies. I was just looking at the fish (not planning to get any) and saw these strange colored fishies and just had to have them.
Does anyone know if Guppies are egg layers or live bearers? and how do I tell if I have a male or female?
I need to read up on this little fish, but I figured someone with experience with this type of fish is much more valuable.

[JeffNebraska]

I started with four of these little guys and turned them into about 40. They are live bearers and prodigious breeders. They are fairly easy to take care of, though they are utterly defenseless and need to be kept with other gentle community fish.

The males are much more colorful and have bigger, flowier tails. The males also have a pointed anal fin. The females are still pretty and tend to be fat most of the time, since they're usually pregnant.

I put my starting group of two males and two females into a 15 gallon tank. I let them breed for a while, then I separated the males and females to keep the numbers manageable. If you want the bulk of your fry to survive, it's best to use a floating breeding trap (keeps mom isolated and allows fry to fall away from mom's hungry reach as they are born). I usually didn't put the mother in the trap until I saw she was starting to give birth or until she looked like she was going to explode.

Another way to breed them is to have lots of plants and floating plants in the tank for the fry to hide in. Depending on the other inhabitants of your tank, however, that may not be sufficient.

Let me know if you have any other questions and good luck!

[HOLLIEO]

Wow!! Thanks for the info Jeffnebraska.. totally appreciated!!!

Let me know if you have any other questions and good luck!

Of course!!! ha, ha
Okay, I definitely have a boy with a very pretty yellow/black (kinda like a leopard) tail and a female with a little bluish (kinda plain) tail.
I would love to see them have little guppies :P
I have all community fish. Right now i have 4 Black Skirt tetra, 4 Zebra Danio, 2 sunset platys, 1 Chinese algae eater (about 1.5") and the two fancy guppies. Are these all okay to have together to be able to let the guppies mate?
I have a portion of my 20 gallon divided off because I was trying to breed my danios, but I think they keep eating the eggs. Should I move the guppy pair in there for a while? or just leave them with the rest of the community?
Oh, and do they like bubbles? or is the current too much for them.
I appreciate any info that can be given.

[JeffNebraska]

When you see the female get really fat, you should put her alone in the divided section of the tank. Are there plants in there? She probably won't eat all her own babies, but the more plants you have, the more of them that will get away. If she's in the main tank when she gives birth, I imagine the fry will become danio food rather promptly.

After she gets skinny again, take her out of the divided area and leave behind the fry until they're too big to be eaten (probably two to three months). You'll also want to buy baby food when you get to that point. I like the ultra-fine powder food from Tetra, but I think liquid foods work well too.

If you're really looking for more of these guys, I would recommend getting another male and another female. Remember that the anal fin is the only 100% certain gender indicator.

To see different varieties of fancy guppies follow this link

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/s...21&pCatId=1100

Note that, I believe, every one of the guppies pictured is a male.

[HOLLIEO]

Thank you for the advice. I will have to try this.
Do yo have any idea the approx gestation of the guppy? I am just not sure if or when the female guppy is prego and then when to move her.
Thanks for the link. Great pics!!
Here is a pic of how I have the tank seperated..

[JeffNebraska]

That's a great separator. I take it that's designed for protecting eggs and fry? I'm surprised that it didn't work for your danios. Are you sure they laid eggs in there?

Can water pass between the separated area and the rest of the tank? Where did you get it?

I don't know the length of the guppy gestation period. I would guess it's only a couple of months though. Once I had a little group of them, the adult females just seemed to always be pregnant.

Once your female is getting close to having a baby, there will be nothing ambiguous about her appearance. Wait till you can really tell before you isolate her. It looks lonely over there.

[HOLLIEO]

Thanks!
When i had the Danios in it, I didn't have the canvas bottom. I had Marbles on the bottom and those little buggers were able to get in between the marbles
Yes. Water passes through the divider. It is a plastic sheet with a million little holes in it. I bought it at Petsmart. Then i just (like last week) got some plastic canvas from the craft store (like $.25) and placed it on the bottom portion, so the eggs could fall through the holes. Not sure if it works, since the female danio hasen't laid eggs since I stuck them on that side.
and yes. It is lonly and not to mention bare on the divided part of the tank. When i stick the Danios over there they always look so bored
thanks for the info.

[JeffNebraska]

FYI, my breeding trap had two down-angled plastics plates with a thin slit between them. It looked like a V that was not connected at the bottom.

This way, when the fry were born, gravity would carry them down the plates and through the slit, after which, their mother who was too wide for the slit could not reach them any more.

I think such a setup might work very well for eggs, if you could find a way to accomplish it in your divided area.

[HOLLIEO]

Great idea. I was thinking of that when I saw how one of the floating breeders looked. Maybe I will have to try that as well. Thanks