Breeding Feeder Guppies!

[Sarah E]

Hello All,

I'm looking into breeding my feeder guppies to feed to my Garter-snake. I've heard some places that it's a good idea to have a separate tank, and put a couple of females in with a male to spawn. I've also heard of having two separate tanks- one for males, one for females- and adding a couple males in with the females when I want to breed them. Is there an easier way to go about this?

Should I have a separate tank specifically for the fry so they aren't eaten? How many males-females should I have? I heard around 1m/2f? Can I keep them in the same tank? So many questions!

I'm brand-new to this (if you couldn't already tell! ), and I'm almost completely clueless. Researching this topic has brought a little clarity to the picture, but I'm hoping there might be a few more specific answers here.

Thank you!
Sarah E

 

[gabysapha]

Hi!
Well if you dont care about controlling the genetics, i'd get a 20g and stock with a ratio of 3 f: 1 m. Heavily plant it with java moss and hornwort. The fry will likely survive in the same tank as the parents that way. Or you can separate the fry and put them in a large rubbermaid container with a sponge filter, but that's more trouble.
I think that's the cheapest way to do it. You can also get a breeder container that hangs inside the tank and put fry in that. Saves space and keeps the fry safe until they grow a bit.
Sorry for assuming you want this cheap; i'm always cheap! You can plant your tank heavily with lots if species of plants depending on your light system

 

[Sarah E]

Okay!

Do I necessarily need a 20 gallon tank? I have a 10 gallon right now, and they had seemed to do well with 50 guppies swimming around in there....

 

[Mouth-Brooder-Fanatic]

heres an idea. get a 15 or 20 gallon tank, put grating or a holed sheet (plastic or net) so the fry swim through and parents are above happy as larry making babies but not able to eat them. in that case, id have a total of 3m 12f. to get the feeder fry just move the sheet/grating and scoop out the fry.
btw 50 is too much. even 25 in a ten is too many. if i were u id reduce the amount of adults so u get more fry (it does work!!).

 

[gabysapha]

Whoa whoa 50 guppies? That's much too much in a 10g, i wouldn't get more than 10. It can be difficult to know how well fish are doing without studying fish behavior when they are healthy, when they are sick, when they are stressed... With the amount of fish you have in an uncycled tank, i would not expect the fish to be "fine."

Feeder guppies are cheap, you could just buy them rather than breed them. But since you have a set up tank, CYCLE the tank first, THEN add fish slowly, and only stock as much as your tank can handle. In this case, I'd get 1 male and 4 females and let them have babies for you to play with.
There is a lot of info about cycling on this forum so make sure you take advantage of your resources! Folks put lots of time in making fish keeping guides for beginners, so look through them

 

[Mouth-Brooder-Fanatic]

cycling is easy. basically getting bacteria in the filter
i had an extremely over stocked tank a few years ago of guppies, none bred and the water was gross. but i had no idea back then and they were NOT happy. so maybe for the sake of the guppies would u reduce stock? x

 

[Sarah E]

Wow! Okay thank you! When I called up the fish-store that I bought my feeders from they said a regular 10 gallon tank, would be fine for 50 feeder guppies, as a minimum size...

To be honest? I'm now down to 15 guppies, because I had so many fishy deaths.

How would you go about reducing stock?

I'll look into maybe getting a 15-20 gallon tank like some of you suggested... I would need to cycle that tank as well, wouldn't I?

How long in general does it take to cycle a tank? I'm looking at the articles now.

 

[Mouth-Brooder-Fanatic]

sending them to lfs or feeding them as long as they are defo undiseased, but with the deaths uv had id say flush them all and start over with a cleaner tank and a cycled filter.
cycling takes from a week to a few months, but a 10 or 20 will be about 1.5 to 2 weeks. a test kit is recommended, but i just left mine to run for 2 weeks on its own in water and it was fine with the fish. this is NOT always the cose though! poisoning is quite common when a tank wont cycle properly. good job on researching
and yes the 15-20 would need to cycle.

 

[tarpon]

My gfs moms 10gallon tank sustains a population of 30 guppies.
Id go a little under, like 20 max but i say theyd do fine, and theyre going to get eaten soon anyways. Have lots of baby hiding spots like plants etc.

 

[Mouth-Brooder-Fanatic]

they were sorta right about having 50 in there cos they assumed they would be immediate feeders and wouldnt basically be that large a population in a couple of weeks. so stocking wouldnt have been a big issue as that isnt the tank for permanent residency, only a food storage container basically.

 

[gabysapha]

sending them to lfs or feeding them as long as they are defo undiseased, but with the deaths uv had id say flush them all and start over with a cleaner tank and a cycled filter.
cycling takes from a week to a few months, but a 10 or 20 will be about 1.5 to 2 weeks. a test kit is recommended, but i just left mine to run for 2 weeks on its own in water and it was fine with the fish. this is NOT always the cose though! poisoning is quite common when a tank wont cycle properly. good job on researching
and yes the 15-20 would need to cycle.

Please dont flush dead or live fish.
A method for euthanasia is a shock-freezing method. Ice cubes in really cold water i think, but dont quote me on that

 

[tarpon]

....dont flush a dead fish????

 

[Sarah E]

Hmm.... she talked about 50 in the tank to breed them, just let them all be there and they would 'work things out' basically.... but maybe she did mean to feed some right away also.... hmm....

and don't flush dead fish?

I'm trying to cope with killing the fish for anything beside feeding! It's hard enough to feed them... LOL

It's amazing how much work and effort it takes.... especially to be started by saving a little snake... :O

 

[LyndaB]

There is a school of thought that if you flush a sick fish or one that has died from illness, you are now introducing that disease to your local water system.

Don't shoot the messenger. I'm just saying.

 

[gabysapha]

Hmm.... she talked about 50 in the tank to breed them, just let them all be there and they would 'work things out' basically.... but maybe she did mean to feed some right away also.... hmm....

and don't flush dead fish?

I'm trying to cope with killing the fish for anything beside feeding! It's hard enough to feed them... LOL

It's amazing how much work and effort it takes.... especially to be started by saving a little snake... :O

It's hard to take care of animals, isn't it?
You dont HAVE to feed guppies. Im sure the snake can learn to eat other things. They eat invertrbrates and whatever else they can find in the wild. Have you tried earthworms?

Why flush a diseased non-native fish? Don't let it enter the water system, just put it in the trash.

 

[davePM]

It is (mostly) illegal to flush a fish in the UK.

 

[Sarah E]

Hmm, yes it can be hard to take care of animals, but once you get the hang of it, and understand it, it's quite easy!

I've done a bunch of research on snakes, and they eat Night-crawlers, which is another thing that my snake eats. But in order to have a well-rounded diet, baby snakes eat feeder guppies and night-crawlers with mineral supplements now every month or so.

 

[gabysapha]

Hmm, yes it can be hard to take care of animals, but once you get the hang of it, and understand it, it's quite easy!

I've done a bunch of research on snakes, and they eat Night-crawlers, which is another thing that my snake eats. But in order to have a well-rounded diet, baby snakes eat feeder guppies and night-crawlers with mineral supplements now every month or so.

Oh cool. Garter snakes are pretty

 

[Sarah E]

Yes, he's a pretty snake. He's already hand-tame... practically! He slurps up the guppies like spaghetti! Same as the worms. It was funny though, the first time he tried a worm, he spit it out and refused to eat it, turning his nose up.... That's when we tried guppies, and he LOVED them! Now he's eating both. ^_^


So in general, how would I keep the fry safe? Because I do have a couple (i believe I do at least) pregnant females. I have 3 plants right now and I can go buy more... how would I go about putting them into my already-filled tank? Just put them in, in the gravel?

And from what I'm hearing, should I get a 15 gallon tank? If so, are my fish able to stay in my 10 gallon until the 15 gallon is fully cycled?

They have little fish-nets that go in the tank and can hold the babies, do you put the pregnant female in there and let them birth, then take them out?

 

[Mouth-Brooder-Fanatic]

illegal to flush a fish are you kidding??