Guppies have beautiful colors, a cute appearance, and are easy to care for. What more do you want from a fish? If you try to keep your aquarium full of these little beauties, you will need to learn how to breed them and care for their fry.
Steps
Part 1 of 2: Raising Guppies
Step 1. Choose the type of fish you want to keep
Evaluate how many you want to keep, choose the color and shape of their tails. If you decide to get two that have the same color schemes for them to breed, know that the fry will be the same too. The same principle applies to the shape of the fin.
- Number of fish: Typically, you should get one male and two or three females for breeding. If the ratio is 1: 1 usually the male becomes aggressive, chasing the female throughout the aquarium. With a ratio of 1: 3 the male's focus is on three females, thus creating a less stressful breeding.
- Color scheme: There are several varieties of guppies that differ in the pattern of colors. Among these are the Wild (gray or olive color), Albino (light or white colors with red eyes,) Blond (light colors with black pigment) and Blue (bright blue color).
- Tail shape: The shape of the rear fin can vary from rounded to a sword-like pointed shape. There are many different varieties of varying sizes, but the most common are the Delta (which is a large triangular shape), the Fantail (which has the shape of a fan) and the Round tail (which is small, round in shape).
Step 2. Choose the breeding tank
You need to find a 40 or 80 liter container with a heater and a delicate filter. The filter should not be too strong otherwise the baby fish (called fry) could be sucked into the filter and killed. If you think your filter is too powerful, cover the opening with a nylon stocking. This allows the water to be filtered, but at the same time protects the fry.
Step 3. Set up the aquarium
Unfortunately, adult guppies eat fry, so you need to set up a separate tank for when they are born. Since the fry tend to sink, use floating plants with low leaves to provide them with protection. Also have a lid on the tank, as healthy little guppies tend to swim upwards.
- Do not use any type of substrate. The substrate is made up of rocks or fake rocks that are used to cover the bottom of the fish tanks. A bare bottom aquarium is the ideal solution for raising fry because it cleans up easily and you can record how many live ones and how much they eat.
- Java moss or rag moss is ideal for hiding small fry.
Step 4. Adjust the tank to the needs of your fish
Set the temperature to around 25-26 ° C when the females and males are together. Before placing guppies in the breeding tank, get food with a higher nutritional value to ensure healthy fish growth.
Step 5. Place the guppies in the breeding tank
At this point, all you have to do is wait for them to reproduce. Move the male to the normal tank when you notice the female (or females) is pregnant. You can tell if she has babies by looking to see if she has a dark mark on her abdomen. This is called the pregnancy mark. All females have one, but it becomes visibly darker when the eggs have been fertilized.
Step 6. Know when females are about to give birth
In general, the gestation period lasts from 26 to 31 days. When the female is ready to give birth, the abdomen is very dilated and the pregnancy mark is a deep black (or dark brown if it is the Albino or Blond breed). In addition, the abdomen loses its round shape to take on a more square shape, like a cardboard box. Be prepared for guppies to give birth to baby fish, not eggs. You must constantly monitor the pregnant female so that you are present when she gives birth and immediately remove the fry from the tank (otherwise she could eat them).
Some signs that she is giving birth are: she is standing still and hiding, having tremors (twitching), swimming near the heater, or showing a change in appetite (including refusal to eat, or spitting food)
Part 2 of 2: Caring for the Fry
Step 1. Remove the female from the breeding tank when the fry are born
Although it may seem a cruel practice, in reality guppy babies are able to survive on their own from birth. Also, as already mentioned, the adult female can sometimes eat them.
If you can't be there when the female gives birth, be sure to provide the fry with plenty of aquarium plants where they can hide
Step 2. Keep the tank clean and at a suitable temperature
The ideal for the little ones is around 25.5 ° C. Maintain this temperature until they are fully grown. Also be sure to clean the tub often. Vacuum the aquarium carefully whenever it gets too dirty and change 40% water every 2 or 3 days to keep it clean.
Step 3. Feed the fry the right nutrients
Their ideal foods are artemias, microworms or flake feed. The little ones need to be fed twice a day, they eat both meat and vegetables. You can feed them with vegetable flakes, in addition to the standard ones. Remember that they are really fish very small and if you put too much food in the tank, the excess rots in the water making the fry sick or even killing them.
Puppies should be fed freshly hatched brine shrimp so they can reach their maximum growth potential. If you want to give them some treats, put a small amount of boiled spinach in the tub
Step 4. Take precautions to ensure that the fry grow up healthy
This means removing any dead fish. Since these float on the surface, it is easy to pick them up with a scoop. Pay attention to how many die. If you notice that the amount is high, you need to understand what is killing them. Change the water and switch to a different type of food. The accumulated waste is harmful to their health.
Step 5. Move the fry to the normal aquarium when they get large enough
When they reach a good size, or when they are about a month and a half or two, they are able to fend for themselves outside the breeding tank. You can put them in the aquarium with other non-aggressive fish, sell them at your local pet store or give them to friends.
wikiHow Video: How to Raise Guppies
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How to Prepare Food for the Fry
- Place a few flakes / feed pellets in a resealable plastic bag.
- Crush the food until it turns into a fine powder.
- Feed the little ones sparingly.
- Add different types of high protein food to the feed.
- If the powder is too large, the fry will not eat it. In this case, you should purchase specific food for them.
- Take a toothpick and dip it into the aquarium. Then put it in the powder and put it back in the water.
Advice
- If a male does not impregnate a female, try placing another in a separate tank near the breeding tank. This should stimulate the chosen male to fertilize the female when he realizes that there is competition. If that doesn't work, you may need to choose a different guppy for breeding.
- Do not put different species of fish together with guppies, they could stress the breeding pair and eat all visible fry.
- Try mating females and males that have a particular color or decorative pattern that you like, so you will have cute fry.
- Give or sell baby guppies if you have too many in the tank, otherwise they won't grow and eat each other's tails.
