First Time Breeder

[Yanu]

Hi, I've never bred guppies before. I have 3 females, that I sort of inherited. Happens to me a lot with fish....

I know they are fancy guppies, and I know that my pet store sells fancy male guppies. I also know that I should have more females than males.
So I am going to buy 2 males, and add them to my tank.

I just have a few questions.

1. Can I breed other types of guppies with my fancy ones?
My pet store seems to have a pretty large selection, especially males.

2. I use a 100W submersible heater, which is automatic. Should I get a different heater that I can specifically adjust the temperature? Or is that not entirely important.

3. If intend to try different crossbreeds between guppies (if it is possible),
does it matter what male-female species combination I use?

4. Is a diet of tropical flakes, spirulina, and frozen brine shrimp a complete enough diet for pregnant females?

5. The tank my guppies are in is a 10g, which they are soon to have all to themselves. When fry arrive, is 3g enough to hold them? It has a sponge filter, for tanks from 3-5gal. The adults I mean. It seems easiest to move the adults from the tank, not the fry, until they can't be eaten. How many adult guppies could I humanely keep in 3g with a decent filter?

6. How quickly do fry grow? Will they be ready to be with adults after a week or so?


Also any other tips that a person might have for me, would be appreciated.

Guppy fry might be a little off in the future, but a large pet store right across the street from my house is going out of business right now, so a list of equipment needed would be handy.
70% savings is ideal buying time. lol

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

1. You may breed other guppies if you want. Just make sure your male to female ratio is either 1:3, or 2:3.

2. One way you can promote breeding is raise the normal temp in your tank by anywhere from 2-4 degrees depending on normal temp. It would be suggest to get one you can change, but you don't need to.

3. It doesn't matter the sp. of guppy if your cross-breeding. Just make sure you have the male to female ratio with 1:3 or 2:3 like said above.

4. That is great for your guppies. A lot of people just feed flakes, so feeding all those different types of food will also promote breeding and make your guppies and guppy fry nice and healthy.

5. I wouldn't suggest keeping guppies in anything less then a 10, they need their swimming room. You can put the fry in as low as a 1G tank, aslong as they all get food and they all have enough room. Eventually you'll have to put them into something bigger so they can grow and not get stunned in growth.

6. Depends what you feed them, how often, and how big the tank see. Most suggest feeding fry 3 times a day until they grow older. Ofcourse bigger tank means faster growing compared to a smaller tank. Feeding them varity of foods that meet all of their nutrient needs will make them grow faster aswell.

If you don't have a plan right now for fry, I would let all your fry be eaten or just stay in the tank of the parents, you will have a ton of fry. As soon as you figure something out then you should get a breeder trap and keep all the fry you get so you get as much out of them as you can.

 

[joy13]

My first question are the females prehit (bred)? Once the female has been bred they can store the sperm for several months. So you may have guppy fry a lot sooner than you expect and even if you don't allow any males in the tank they can have several batches of fry.

Guppies will breed true only if the male and female is from the same strain. If you mix a Spanish dancer with a blue Moscow it is difficult to know what you are going to get but chances are most will have red in the tails, because red is dominate. I would wait until you had the females about a month before adding any males so if there is a chance they are a pure strain you will have all one strain and then add to it.

My first fry from my guppies started to show color after the first week, at about a month they are half the size of the adults. I have double dark purple Moscow guppies. If you have only guppies I wouldn't worry about taking out the fry or a breeding net.

Endlers breed with guppies and the fry will grow up and reproduce.
There is some accounts of mollies and guppies breeding but the fry are sterile so that is only one generation.

A 10 gallon tank is the minimum for guppies.

The 3 gallon would be a good hospital tank.

Something you will want to think about is culling, if there is a genetic defect you aren't going to want to breed that guppy.

Things to get at the sale probably everything but the tank for a set up. Tanks are really the cheapest part if you look at it. The heaters, filters, lights, and gravel all cost more than the tank.

 

[Yanu]

I've had these guppies for quite some time now.
I'd say maybe 2-3 months. None of them have been tanked with males at any point, to my knowledge anyways.
The 3g tank has a light, filter, gravel, heater, etc.
But if you think it's okay to leave them in my tank and have a few be eaten, I'm okay with that. I already have some well planted areas, but I will pick up some plants that float on the surface for extra insurance.

As for the culling part, what exactly do you mean?
If there are fry born that look abnormal, I should terminate them?
Or I should get a 2nd opinion that my guppies are healthy?
I've never had a disease in my tank, or mass unexplained fish deaths.

They have all their fins completely intact, and they have great color.
One has a silverish body, with hints of orangish, with a really neat bright orange tail, but spotted like a leopard. Her name is Nona.
The other has a silverish body, with hints of blue, and a tail that is almost translucent, that is so multicolored, I can't even begin to list them. Her name is Decima.
And the last one has a silver body, going black towards the back. and a pure black tail fin. Her name is Morta.
Yes they are named after the Parcae, otherwise known as The Fates.

I do have a plan for the fry, but there isn't really a deadline.

 

[Yanu]

I looked at some Endlers.
I'd like to find some in specific colors I saw pictures of.
Personally though, I would give it a try breeding them with guppies, but they are pretty spectacular on their own.

Also, if I have a female with a tailfin I love, what would be my best course of action in trying to get fry with those colors? Is it hit or miss?
Nona's tailfin is vibrant orange, with black spots all over it.
Would I end up with some fry with that tail, some like the father's, some a mix of the two, or a combination of all of these? Just not sure how it works with fish haha. Up until I was given these 3 fish, I basically had no idea wtf a guppy was.


My decision to breed guppies has prompted me to get more and larger tanks. I have right now..... A 10G, a 5G, a 3G (not using right now) and a 1G (also not using right now). Tomorrow I am picking up a 29G and a 20G.

So the question is, what would be the best possible use of these tanks?
I need 1 for fry, and 1 for breeding. How much space are the fry of 3 females, over the course of say..... 2-3 months going to require.
And that's the long end of it, I think most of them will be gone right away, except for ones I will be wanting to breed in the future.
I'd like to have the 20G or 29G for my pet fishies. I'm upgrading , and these are the fish I purchase because they please me to watch. I might as well do it in a bigger fancier tank. (These guys will go in my office, and the other tanks will be in the living room) It's not really necessary though, because maybe they really like their current home, and they would like it even more if some roommates gave notice. I think everybody gets that feeling at least once.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

You honestly don't need a tank for breeding if your breeding livebearers like you are. Just make sure when the female is pregant, that you put her in a breeder trap.

 

[darkmule27]

Since your current guppies' genetic history is unknown and the male's are likely to be to, it's basically impossible to say what you will get colorwise. There are so many genes at work that it's hard to say. It takes more than one gene to produce any trait, too. It's like breeding two mutt dogs...you know they'll be dogs, but you can't expect what the puppies will look like.

If you want a higher chance of success (but you'll never know how much higher, really), breed the female with a male similar to her. Even then, you are VERY likely to get some that look nothing like either. There's no fool proof way to get exactly the guppy you want.

 

[joy13]

Culling is when you don't allow a deformed guppy to breed. Either feeding it to a larger fish or putting it in a tank by itself. A lot of guppies are so inbred the genetic problems become a problem, usually bent spine but there is a lethal gene that is linked to color as well.

If you are just wanting a group of pretty guppies find a male that you like and use him. Red is dominate keep that in mind when picking a male.

 

[Yanu]

I have to thank you all so much for answering my questions.
It's been a huge help. As for tanks, I was out this morning with my sister, and she threw down a little bit of money, and I got a 33G and a 25G.
I also picked up two breeding traps, stocked up on frozen fish foods, and bought another test kit.

 

[Yanu]

Haha, I took the 25G out of the box and it had a huge crack down the side.
Another trip across the street, they replaced the tank for free.
I also picked up 2 new heaters, with dials, MORE frozen fish food, some valves and tubing, decorations, backgrounds, a variety of live plants (no idea which were best) and all that jazz.
Can I assume that when purchasing a starter kit, the equipment that comes with it isn't the greatest quality? Would there be anything in that kit that would be a good idea to replace while I can get everything super cheap?
This project is bordering on costing me a fortune here, but I don't really mind.
I think hobbies usually do....

 

[Yanu]

Um, how long is it supposed to take for the females to have babies?
On the date that I made my last post (March 30) I bought 2 male guppies, and added them to my tank. By all accounts I heard it takes 30ish days.
This morning I woke up to see babies. More correctly I woke up in time to see my babies being eaten, but that's irrelevant to me right now.
I wasn't quite prepared. Impatient guppies!!
Anyways, it's only been 19 days, is this normal?

As far as I can tell, there was 4 babies, no telling how many more there actually was though. I think there is still one kicking around in there, but he's not interested in being seen. And maybe he is new?
How long does it take the mothers to give birth to a whole batch?
Several minutes, or several hours?