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How to breed guppies

Guppies are categorized as viviparous livebearers, i.e. the embryo develops inside the mother and she then gives live birth. The gestation period for a pregnant female is about 22 to 33 days. Guppies are prolific breeders, and a small tank could get overpopulated within a few months. You can make decent profits trading guppies to your local fish store. Depending on the age of the mother, the expected no. of fry is 2 to 100. Guppies are well-known fry-eaters, so the the trick in successful breeding is to separate the fry from their parents.

Ideally, expected females needs to be kept in separate tanks, which is heavily planted. Or, you could introduce a couple in a separate tank, again heavily planted. In both cases, plants will protect the fry from being eaten by their parents. Floating plants are more successful.

A female can be pregnant even if a male is not present in the tank. Very often, you can have fry in the guppy bag on your way back home from your local fish store. This is due to her ability to store sperm for future fertilization, generally for 6 months after one mating.

Community Tanks

If you want to breed guppies in community tanks, make sure there is enough hiding places for the fry. Keep your female-male ratio to 2:1 since males fight a lot for partners. Guppies generally spawn at first light, so make sure to look carefully in the morning. For a better yield, remove the fry as soon as possible.

Breeder Box

A breeder box may be a nice alternative too. But one downfall is the female can start feeling lonely, becoming agitated and hurting herself. This will eventually delay delivery and in some cases lead to miscarriage.

Credits to & source taken from: http://www.aquaxen.org/

Guppy fry care

Tank

The fry tank can be a simple tank, and you will need to provide filtration, lighting and a minimum temperature of 24°C. As the fry mature and are separated(see later), place them in larger tanks for quicker growth.

Feeding

Feed them 5 times a day during the first four weeks. Grind any big food to powder before feeding the fry. This period of their lives go into building body and muscle tone. So, foods with high percentage protein are better. Baby brine shrimp are a great source of nutrition and enhance fry coloration.

Lighting

With the aquarium lamps on all the time, the fry will be more active and grow quicker. A 25 watt bulb is sufficient.

Sexing

At the end of the first four weeks, the fry begin to sexually develop into male or female guppies. At the age of 6 weeks, they become sexually active. So, between weeks 4 and 6, separate the fry into female, male groupings. Do this by taking one fish out at a time and placing in a small container with water from the tank and with a magnifying glass look for either the gonopodium or the gravid spot. More often it is better to see the gravid spot of a female.

Deformations

Between the ages of 6 weeks and 6 months, you’ll need to consider putting some of the fry to sleep or transfer them to a separate tank, due to deformities in some of the fry. This is a procedure called culling which means to take out the bad fish.

At six months of age the guppies are considered adults. Now, you can bring them their partners!