Archived message board.
Guppies
HI...my name is Hope.. I am new to the fish thing and how
to keep them going, I used to have a tank but just didn't
care much about it, but now my boyfriend and I just started
in on it. We have many fish but we are trying to breed our
guppies. I guess the main question that I want to know for
all my fish is... How do you tell the difference between male
fish and female fish. Please help me... Thanks!!
- Hi Hope. This is what my books says on breeding of guppys
and million fish (Poecilia Reticulata) Breading: this prolific
fish is easy to breed The period of gestation is four to six
weeks. The 20-100 young grow grow quickly and reach maturity
in about six months. Breeding temperature 23-28c. The young
fish should be provided with good cover in dense vegetation.
Although easy to breed, the responsible amateur should only
breed those pairs that will preserve the particular color
pattern and fin shape he observes with the parents, and this
does involve a elementary knowledge of genetics and information
about the pedigree of the parents. There are now many Guppy
societies around the world and the interested amateur should
not only study the literature but also establish contact with
a society before breeding these fish otherwise he runs the
risk of encouraging poor strains. Female's are less vividly
colored and have a smaller dorsal fin then males. (The complete
aquarium encyclopedia of tropical freshwater fish 1995) As
far as I know from experience guppys breed really easily.
You can buy a guppy fry holder (available at any local pet
store) to hold the babys in once they are born. and the males
are alot more colored then the females.
- Please stay away from the fry holders. I raised two platies
that way and I am convinced that's why they were stunted.
They are great for a temporary holding area until you can
move them to a small 5 or 10 gal tank. I recently read some
information in I think the new Fish magazine that also supports
my contention that the breeding traps deter growth as well
as causing the parent some stress.
- I will tell you my experience with guppies. Leave them alone
in a tank that has some areas of dense vegetation and hiding
places for the fry, and you will have more guppies than you
know what to do with. A friend of mine moved leaving with
me her 7 guppies. I now have about 35 adults and 17 fry as
we speak. I feed them fry food most all the time as the fry
can get to this as easily as the adults. The difference between
the males and females. Males are smaller than the female,
more colorful and have streamlined bodies. The females' colors
are not as pronounced and they are fuller in the belly area.
When pregnant, you will see a dark area at the vent. My guppies
are young, and I rarely see more than 7 or 8 fry at a time,
however, you need to look every day as the more "pairs" you
have, the more fry you will have. The fry are really very
smart for being so tiny. I never separate mine, and I cannot
tell you for sure that "some" of them don't get eaten, but
generally I always have fry swimming with the adults or hanging
out in the plants away from the adults. Don't worry about
"trying" to breed them. When they are old enough, they will
do just fine without any help from anyone. My only question
is: You mentioned that you had "many fish". What else do you
have in the tank with the guppies. If there are other species
of fish, you probably will never see any babies as these fish
will "definitely" have the little ones for lunch. And it is
almost impossible to sit in front of the tank "watching" until
the babies are born so that you can retrieve them. For success,
I would move the guppies to their own tank. Good luck, and
let us know if we can help you further.
- Ditto with Kick. My platies escaped my hiding under driftwood
and plants. I should have just left them there and they may
have grown to a reasonable size. Just make sure you do have
lots of hiding areas for them and if you have any swords look
out they will really chow them down.
- I actually raised my fry in those breeder nets with great
success. Of course, I would move them out after three weeks
or so because of several reasons: 1. They were big enough
to look for food on their own instead of having it thrown
in front of their faces for easy finding 2. They were getting
too big and were crowding the net. 3. There was a new batch
of fry, which was small enough for their older brothers and
sisters to eat, which they did once, and from which I learned
my lesson. However, keeping fry in the net for long periods
like I did took some degrees of maintenance, such as having
the filter's outflowing current hitting the side so that newly
filtered freshly oxygenated moving water would flow through
the box. Stagnant water in the box would create bad water
conditions within the box. I would also occasionally wash
out the nets and parts because of the accumulating leftover
food and poo. Snails in the net actually helped keep it clean
though. Keep in mind that I am talking about the net breeder.
I would have to agree with Joyce the plastic "breeder" box
would cause growth problems and are best kept as temporary
containers. So for longer term isolation, I recommend using
the net breeder as long as you maintain it a little and allow
fresh water to flow into the box.
- Good point IBOY and yes I had the problem with the plastic
breeder box. The stunted platies did live for over a year
just looked really weird. I still think I would go with the
small 5 gal and sponge filter, but I guess if you are on a
limited budget the net breeder would help.
|
|
