Guppy

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Contributed by: Christy»1

On: August 22, 2006, 10:46 am

Hello, umm does anyone have contests for the prettiest guppy's?

Contributed by: Tammy»4

On: October 10, 2006, 11:39 am

I have 2 female guppies and 1 male guppy. The females keep having babies. I have about 30 babies now, just since July. How often do they have babies?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: October 10, 2006, 1:00 pm

If you’re a lucky aquarist and your fish do well, then Guppies have babies at least once per 2 months. Be careful, since the parents may eat the newborns.

Contributed by: Yake»1

On: November 1, 2006, 4:31 am

How many guppies are born when the parents breed?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: November 1, 2006, 9:54 am

Generally, there could be from 10 up to about 40 new guppies. It all depends on the female, if she’s capable to bear.

In my experience, there were about 25 new guppies each time they have been breeding.

Contributed by: Tim»2

On: January 4, 2007, 6:05 pm

I had a tank with only 3 male guppies in it and recently added a female, now one of the males seems to be chasing one of the other males away, is this normal and will it result in any deaths?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: January 5, 2007, 1:03 am

Hello Tim,

Yes, it is normal, you don’t have to worry. I had 12 males in one tank for about 2 years and they did well:). Males are flaunting towards each other, since everyone of them wants to look as the strongest one in the female’s eyes.

Contributed by: Stormy»3

On: February 17, 2007, 5:39 pm

I’ve been breeding guppies for years. They are addicting. I have 8 tanks!!! My fish are extremely tough. For example, they got ich a few days ago. It got really bad really fast. I didn’t have to do a thing and it was completely got a few days later! Just lucky, I guess.

Contributed by: Ben»6

On: March 14, 2007, 4:10 pm

We bought a pair of rainbow guppies, and one of them seems to have disappeared. All our other fish are supposedly friendly (neon tetras, black moor, black tetra, upside down catfish).

Is it possible one of the other fish ate him?

Contributed by: Ben»6

On: March 14, 2007, 10:11 pm

Nevermind... Apparently it was hiding REALLY well... I spent at least half an hour looking for it then it suddenly appeared. One of the fish was attacking it for sure, and it’s been removed from the rest of the fish.

Contributed by: Ajay»1

On: March 30, 2007, 12:22 pm

I am a newbie aquarium holder. I have 2 Black Guppies & 2 Orange & White Rainbow Guppies. I bought both pairs; male & female. The Black Guppy female is slow & fat and she stays mostly at the bottom. However, she looks to be healthy when watching her movements sometimes. My aquarium is medium round type with no plants or rocks. Do they need anything more or is it breeding?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: March 31, 2007, 12:41 am

Hi Ajay,

You should consider moving them to ordinary tank (not rounded one). It’s proven fact that rounded aquariums aren’t suitable for almost every fish species. Second, guppies are probably pregnant all the time if there is any male and female in the tank. They simply breed like rabbits. So if your guppy’s belly is big, you should await newborns in a few days, maybe weeks.

In order to help the fry surviving, you should put some plants (floating plants are good decision) into the tank, so that newborns will hide from always-hungry parents.

Please, check various articles on this site, so you’ll learn how to make your fish happy.

Contributed by: Bethany»4

On: April 14, 2007, 4:59 pm

We just bought 3 Taquilla Sunrise Guppies to add to our tank. They seemed to take to our sailfin molly right away and followed her around. When I watched closely, I noticed that they were nipping at her a bit. The next day, the molly lost a lot of the coloring in her tail and died later in the day. Could this have been caused by the guppies? If so, should I be concerned about the other fish in the tank. We still have one male sailfin and he is looknig pretty concerned. Any help is appreciated.

Contributed by: admin»783

On: April 15, 2007, 2:45 am

Guppies are known to harass on other long-finned and slow fish. I am nearly sure that your molly died because of them. If your three guppies let the sailfin swim his way, there’s no need to separate them.

My guppies try to catch tetras sometimes, btw. Unlike mollies, tetras are faster.

Contributed by: Bethany»4

On: April 15, 2007, 2:13 pm

Thanks for yuor comment. Unfortunantly, the other sailfin didn’t make it through the night. He was pretty traumatized when the female died. The guppies seem to leave our red wagtail platties alone. Is that because they are not long finnned? Or because they are fast? When we purchase new fish to add to our tank, do you recoment neon tetras? Any other recomendations for fish that the guppies will not bother? Also... How do you know is a guppy is pregnant? Thanks so much for your help!

Contributed by: admin»783

On: April 16, 2007, 2:11 am

Hi Bethany. You are right, guppies don’t care about fast and short finned fish. It’s because colourful fins are very attractive for them. There is no exact rule which says "Guppies won’t harass short finned fish", because they sometimes try to harass my tetras. But tetras are pretty fast, so it’s just a game in this case.

RE neon tetras: Yes, it will be a good decision. If you want to order other fish, you can choose other tetra species; they’re really colourful and you can select from various sizes. I keep black skirt tetras and glass bloodfish (Prionobrama filigera) along guppies. Ram cichlids (Microgeophagus ramirezi) could be great addition too. Basically, don’t put aggressive fish (gouramis, paradise fish, etc.) into the tank with guppies. Otherwise guppies would be eaten shortly.

And how to determine if guppy is pregnant? Her belly becomes big when she gets pregnant. In my experience, guppies are pregnant everytime if there is at least 1 male and 1 female in the tank. They can give birth each 28 days. Females are able to keep sperm inside of their bodies for 4 months or even more. So if you buy guppy female, she can give birth even if there is no male in the tank for months:).

Contributed by: Someone»2

On: April 26, 2007, 5:15 pm

I just got guppies. What other fish could I put with them? Which should I not?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: April 27, 2007, 3:39 am

Hi Someone;). Keep small peaceful fish with Guppies. This means almost every tetra species (Neon, Black, Black Skirt, etc... just search our database), Platies, Mollies, Cories, Bristlenose catfish, Yoyo loaches, and many more.

Avoid larger fish; Gouramis, Angelfish, Bettas (because of tail nipping), etc.

Basically, it’s very difficult to answer your questions shortly. It’d be better if you asked about exact species, Guppies vs. Mollies for instance.

Consider asking in forum, it’s good subject to talk about:).

Contributed by: Guppy Guy»4

On: June 23, 2007, 6:48 am

Hi everyone im 13 years old and live in Australia. Last year I had gained an interest in tropical fish, it started off when we bought goldfish and I saw a pretty male swordtail. They told me it can't go with goldfish and from that day on I studied tropical fish. I started with the fighting fish but I wanted to go further than keeping, I had the urge to BREED. My bettas didn’t work out but one day I got my guppies. After enough study I decided to breed them. It is now 4 weeks since my guppy fry were born. It is winter here and growth is slowing down. I want to know what are good fry foods besides BBS (baby brine shrimp) and all live foods since I have been looking for it for ages. Please help me make home made fry food from Guppy Guy!

P.S. If you want to hear my first hand view of me raising the fry just ask O.K.

moved here by admin from Guppy Guy's second post
Bettas are fine with guppies. They just have to be females, I tried it and it all worked out!

Contributed by: Jan»19

On: June 23, 2007, 1:37 pm

Hi Guppy Guy! I was using ordinary granules for my guppies. It was working well, 80% of newborns survived and reached adult age. As every fry, small guppies should like eggs too. Maybe they could eat flakes, but who knows;).

Contributed by: Guppy Guy»4

On: June 24, 2007, 3:06 am

How big should the fry tank be as me and my dad are starting to look for it, would airstones be OK for the fry to breath. Take into account there is only 8 guppy fry that I managed to save! And how long should it take for them to get to the stage were they get their colours?:)

Contributed by: admin»783

On: June 25, 2007, 12:15 am

The fry tank could be 10 Litres or even 50 Litres large. It really doesn’t matter, I bred guppies in many tanks. They just need floating plants because they hide there.

Airstones are OK, but you could use ordinary filter with aeration as well.

RE colours: 3 months at least. In some cases, you will wait up to 4 months. But this depends on how do you feed them. If you want to speed up the process, feed them live food 8-9 times a day. But I don’t recommend you to do this, since their lifespan will be very short.

Contributed by: Guppy Guy»4

On: July 2, 2007, 4:38 am

Can mollies and Guppys cross breed? Just curious!

Contributed by: binz»1

On: July 3, 2007, 4:05 am

Hey fish fans can any of you help?

I have recently restarted up my aquarium again after 2 years without it and have stocked my tank with 6 male guppy’s 2 male endlers guppy’s, 6 neons, 3 angelfish, 6 Zebra danio, a pleco, a clown loach, a red tailed shark, and some peppered cats (fish I have previously had and kept together fine) but wanted to try something new. On the advice of my local aquarium I have added 2 Dwarf Flag Cichlids curviceps (1 male and 1 female) supposedly a peaceful calm cichlid. However I now have 2 guppy’s with almost no tails, 2 dead neons and another dead Guppy. Any ideas who the culprit is I assume it is the cichlids but can find nothing anywhere which says that they are like this. This site says the redtail shark is aggressive but I’ve never experienced this could this be the culprit?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: July 3, 2007, 8:16 am

Guppy Guy:

Yes, they can cross-breed. I have read this fact in books. But don’t ask me how to achieve it:), because I don’t know. I think you will need a lot of luck or you need to be a scientist for this purpose.

binz:

Definitely red tail shark (in my opinion). This species shouldn't be kept with Guppies or Neons. A friend of mine approved my judgement. He has kept red tail sharks already.

Contributed by: Grace»8

On: July 10, 2007, 7:31 pm

How do you know when a female guppy is pregnant? I’m starting out with a trio, but I haven’t given any of them the chance to mate yet, but one I recently bought has a darkening gravid spot eats very little every day, and mostly just floats lazily around. Her tail is even slightly bent down. Do you think she is pregnant?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: July 11, 2007, 2:09 am

Female Guppies are known to keep sperm in their bodies for months. It’s how the nature secured them from losing males.

I would wait about a week, then you’ll be more wise if she is pregnant. Pregnant Guppies (see posts above) have large bellies. And as you can find in my previous comments, Guppies like to breed all the time. So the question is not "Is she pregnant?" but "When isn’t she pregnant?":).

I have seen Guppies giving birth 4 months after the last male died in the aquarium!

Contributed by: Katie»8

On: July 11, 2007, 11:27 am

Do you know of any pet stores that take in any unwanted guppy fry or adults?

Contributed by: Jan»19

On: July 12, 2007, 5:51 am

Hi Katie, I don’t know of any. Where are you from? Basically it depends on the location... If you can’t sell or give them to anyone, you can still buy some species which will control Guppies population naturally. Paradise fish, angelfish, gouramis, etc. It is too drastic, I know.

Even though I love nature and living beings, some kind of control must exist everywhere. What better control than natural?

I am not trying to offend you and don’t take it badly.

Contributed by: Katie»8

On: July 12, 2007, 10:51 am

I live in Grand Rapids MI. My friend Kristine told me that you can sell them to Pet Supplies "Plus" stores, so I think I’ll try that.

Contributed by: Kristine»3

On: July 14, 2007, 8:25 am

How big of a tank (at the minimum size) do you need for 6 adult guppies?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: July 14, 2007, 1:45 pm

Hi Kristine,

They will survive in 10 L aquarium, but I would choose 20 L at least. Basically they prefer swimming in groups and to play together. So even 10 L fish tank will be enough.

I keep Guppies, so you can trust me.

Contributed by: Mary»6

On: July 16, 2007, 8:11 am

What should I do to prepare for my guppy having her babies? I know what to feed them and have gotten a 2.5 gallon tank for them. Anything else?

Contributed by: Kristine»3

On: July 16, 2007, 8:22 am

Can you tell me how many gallons that is? Sorry....I didn’t listen in math class! ;)

Contributed by: Scorpion_»1

On: July 16, 2007, 11:53 am

Well people, I have been reading your stories, I had like 35 Neons and I have like 6 Guppies and the Guppies kept on biting the Neons, now theres no more Neons.... What now?

Is there a species of Guppies that can’t be kept in one tank with Neons? The guppies I have are the yellow ones.

Contributed by: admin»783

On: July 16, 2007, 1:08 pm

No problem Kristine.

10 Litres = 2.64 US Gallons;
10 Litres = 2.19 UK Gallons.

Here is a link to aqua-fish.net’s aquarium calculator: link. I am sure you could find it useful. :)

Mary's question:

1) Increase the temperature. 28°C would be good.
2) Remove fish which could eat the fry.
3) Also use floaring plants in the tank. They will help Guppies to hide.

That's all folks;).

Contributed by: BEAST 1987»1

On: July 19, 2007, 8:43 am

Hi, I read somewhere that guppies don't give birth to many males and if they do you're lucky at all. Also my guppies are having babies all the time. I feed them finely crushed flakes. Is that ok? Thanks.

Contributed by: admin»783

On: July 19, 2007, 10:12 am

RE Beast’s question: In my experience there are about 50% males and 50% females when a female Guppy gives birth.

However, your sources could be accurate. When my Bristlenose Catfish hatch, there are more males than females. Females are rare spoken strictly. It is believed that number of males vs. females in the tank, water conditions and chemistry are very important factors for breeding. I must agree. However, I must also say that I don’t know why it’s that way.

Contributed by: Isaac»2

On: July 25, 2007, 4:39 pm

When should I move the female into a box breeder?

Contributed by: Grace»8

On: July 25, 2007, 7:23 pm

I’m starting a community tank, and right now I have two small fantails, and am hoping to get 2 or 3 mollies, some dwarf cichlids, and neon tetras. Can you tell me what else could go in with them, and if they will all be okay together?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: July 26, 2007, 3:37 am

Grace, I am not sure about fantails. When they grow up, they’ll be much bigger than Guppies. Mollies and dwarf cichlids are OK:).

You can try these: African butterfly cichlid, Siamese fighting fish, Chain loach, Honey gourami, Corydoras species, many tetras.

Contributed by: admin»783

On: July 27, 2007, 4:40 am

Hi Isaac,

Breeder box isn’t very suitable for breeding because no-one can say when to use it. It’s primarily used for unexpected birth.

Although it’s being sold and used by many aquarists, you can easily breed Guppies without this accessory. Personally, I haven’t used it ever and my Guppies breed every month without any problem. The fry survives because I have many floating plants where they hide from parents.

Contributed by: Guppy Guy»4

On: July 27, 2007, 5:28 pm

My guppy had babies again and I noticed someting that I saw but never concerned about it. You can tell guppies are having babies when where the anal fin is, appears a small kind of tunnel and on once you spot it, you can be sure they will have babies! Apparently I wrote the same phrase which I said the first time "They are going to have babies this week" and later they had babies in the morning. Luckily it was during the holidays because it was 10 o’clock when it happened. I put my fry into a fry tank which was 5 gal. I know 2 died from stress but the next day I noticed that more of them were dying. After that I moved the survivors to the main tank. Do you know what the problem could be? The talk also had no filter. As well, the guppy fry were not eating. I put them in a small (smaller than a litre) compartment and none of them have died, note this is in my main tank!

Contributed by: admin»783

On: July 29, 2007, 12:10 am

Hi Guppy Guy, the problem with your fry was probably water chemistry. Old fish bowls have stable conditions, so the best thing for "fry tank" is, as you told us, "small compartment" within the aquarium where newborns were given birth.

One girl whom I know from old ages bred Bettas. She moved the fry into another tank as well, and they were joining the majority in shoals.

Tip for fry tank set-up:

1) Use the same water like in primary tank. This means that you move some amount of water from the primary tank to the fry aquarium on a regular basis.

2) Always have some living beings in the fry tank. Small catfish, amano shrimp, snails or small fishes. They help the conditions to be natural.

3) If it is possible, don’t move fry to new tank, but move parents somewhere else instead. Old fish acclimatize to new conditions easily, fry don’t.

Contributed by: Thangson»1

On: August 8, 2007, 10:26 am

Hi,

I'm going to buy a new small aquarium this coming saturday, how many guppies do I need to keep in it?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: August 8, 2007, 1:49 pm

You can always keep 2 Guppies alone. It doesn’t matter at all, they will breed if you decide for a pair.

I recommend you 5 litres for 1 Guppy.

Contributed by: Jofree»1

On: August 10, 2007, 8:38 am

Hello,

I found a great site to start off breeding fancy strains. River Wonders has a special of mixed Fancy Males (and Females), and you can get them shipped anywhere. Mine came in great and their variety really was amazing.

Contributed by: trill n phish»2

On: August 15, 2007, 4:28 pm

We have just started our 1st tank (4 weeks) and things have been fine until yesterday when we noticed a male guppie missing and one of our red honey gouramis was looking like it had a swollen stomach. A day later and a headless/tail-less guppie re-appeared and the gouramis swollen stomach has dissappeared am i correct in thinking the gourami ate the guppie whole and has regurgitated it? The said gourami also seems to be hiding alot and its getting dark colouring on its rear under-belly and the top of its head. We had 8 guppies and 2 red honey gouramis aswell as a pair of sailfin mollies 9 neon tetra’s and a borneo sucker but only 1 guppie has gone, your opinion would be greatly appreciated.

Contributed by: admin»783

On: August 15, 2007, 11:44 pm

Red Honey Gouramis shouldn’t eat other fishes unless they’re sick or already dead. You say that your tank is 4 weeks old and only 1 Guppy disappeared... This is not usual "eating" behaviour.

In my opinion the Guppy died of something and later he became the food for others.

RE dark colouring: This points to changes in feeding habitats and/or water conditions changes. I suppose that your fish was fed differently when it was bought than you feed it now. Also, buy a litmus-paper and measure water chemistry values. If the water is too soft or too hard do something with it. There are products which can help you to stabilise your aquarium.

Contributed by: trill n phish»2

On: August 16, 2007, 12:00 pm

Thanks for your response and there has been a serious developement, the next day I woke to find another male guppie had died and was completely untouched ! I have a API 5 in 1 test kit and the water nitrate level is slightly higher than I would like it to be but I’ve now found fungi on our black sailfin molly :-( . I’ve brought a breeding compartment and put him in there as the other fish knew he was suffering and were trying to eat him ! I’ve treated the water with interpet fungi treatment and I guess now I have to just sit and wait. Thanks again for your advise.

Contributed by: Grace»8

On: August 23, 2007, 10:22 am

One of my female guppies’ tail is bent down so that her whole body curves down. One of my other females died from this a week ago! They’re both very pretty and have had no health problems in the past. Can you teel me what’s wrong?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: August 24, 2007, 2:14 am

Hi Grace,

I am not 100% sure, however your fishes may have one of following diseases:

1) Bacterial skin infection
2) Guts bacterial infection
3) Skin worms

Or there is not enough minerals in the water.

Medicaments can be bought in shops without any problems. All sellers should help you with choosing the right products.

Also bear in mind that as fish gets older it’s immune system doesn’t work like when a fish is a juvenile. But I do not think that your Guppies are very old due to your previous posts regarding breeding.

Contributed by: Grace»8

On: August 26, 2007, 10:51 am

I had 5 males in my 2.5 gallon a week ago. A cobra (which was new), a blonde tux, a blue green, a multicolor, and a 3 month old multicolor. The cobra died a few days after I bought him, and now my blue green died too. The blonde tux looks like he has little white dots on him, he sleeps a TON, and has the same thing my female got with his body curving. I put my two multis in my 5.5 gallon female tank, because they look just like when I bought them, but the tux is in isolation. Do you think my females will get contaminated? Do you have any idea what it is? I really want to know so I can treat them for it!

Contributed by: admin»783

On: August 27, 2007, 1:07 pm

Grace, white dots mean the white spot disease. Please, check this article (just ignore sponsored links there) in order to find what you should do.

BTW, the white spot disease is very adaptable and you should clean your aquariums very precisely.

Contributed by: Hanne»1

On: September 3, 2007, 5:59 pm

Hi there!

I recently bought some fish (2 male guppies, 3 female guppies, and 1 zebrafish) and they live in an 11 litre tank in my shed. They’re well looked after, but as I can’t find a suitable heater, I don’t know how to keep them warm as winter draws in. (At the moment I use warm blankets over the tank, and replace the cold water with warm water regularly). Any ideas??

Thanks,

Hanne xx

Contributed by: admin»783

On: September 3, 2007, 6:31 pm

Hanne, why don’t you set-up a larger aquarium? Just a thought.

I am not sure if the temperature lowers to 20°C or less during the Winter months. Your fish species will survive at 20°C without problems. Increasing the temperature can be done in several ways:

1) Place the fish tank near some radiator,
2) Use air condition (if you are not using any radiator),
3) Place the aquarium near window so the Sun will shine on it at least 5 hours a day.

Contributed by: Grace»8

On: September 4, 2007, 9:32 pm

The white spot cleared up well. :) Thanks.

My huge albino female just had her first drop. It was 13... I think. She ate 3 and 3 died. And she helped me figure out when to put a Guppy in the breeding trap. There was a tail sticking out of her, so I put her in it, and an hour later I had 10 babies in there. I watched her for a little bit, and to save the babies, what I had to is every time a baby popped out, I had to get her in the dipper, so she couldn't get to the babies before they got in the crack. Before, every time one came out she turned around and ate it! I was so mad. But it’s okay I guess. Now I’m gonna try to breed her with one of my mollies!

Contributed by: Natasha»9

On: September 6, 2007, 9:38 am

Hi,

I am new here, and found your website very informative. Glad to be amongst Guppy Lovers:o)

I have a fish bowl with 5 guppys - 2 females and 3 very pretty males. Have had them for over a month and a half now.

My Guppys are so very friendly-and responsive. They come clamouring together if I tap at the bowl. They even respond to my saying "goodmorning hellos" to them everyday. They are a complete delight. The most friendly pet fish I ever had!

Now to my queries -

The females seem pregnant - they have been hanging on the surface and have a dark gravid spots around the anal fin. I am just wondering how soon would they lay the eggs and what’s the gestation period for the frys to appear?

I read somewhere that frys don’t survive fish bowls - but since I live in Singapore the temperature in the bowl is apt for them to survive. I am really excited about them having "babies" so I went and bought some floating plants-but the bowl is just about medium size, so I am wondering is it OK to keep the floating plants there now, or only when the frys are born?

It’s not very practical for me to transfer them to a tank-so please tell me how I can go about this.

Thanks

Contributed by: admin»783

On: September 6, 2007, 6:03 pm

Hi Natasha, am glad that you found & like our web site :) .

First, you could await newborns in very short period. From 1 to 3 days. However, this depends on your situation. Check post from Guppy Guy (posted on July 27, 2007, 7:28 pm) as well.

Second, Guppies don’t lay eggs. They are so-called pseudo-livebearers (the egg exists in the female and it becomes a small fish before it’s given a birth). That means you will have small swimming fishes when they’re born.

Third, Guppies babies will survive in bowls in general. Just do everything possible in order to avoid the situation when parents eat the newborns. Floating plants will help small specimens to survive. You may also use a small divider (made from glass for instance).

BTW, if you don’t succeed for the first time, don’t give it up.

Contributed by: Debbie»3

On: September 6, 2007, 8:30 pm

Hi ;) I'm new to the tropical fish keeping and I'm loving it. I've had my aquarium set for 5 weeks now and I have 7 male guppys, 2 catfish, 1 quite a big boy sukka fish, 4 neons and 2 black widows. They are all getting on fine and all look very well. But the second day when I got home from work 1 guppy was dying. It keeps floating up and down the tank going upside down, and looks like it's struggling to breath, so often it opens it's mouth wide.

It's getting worse and worse every minute, will the fish die? Please, could you tell what is wrong with the poor thing? :( Thanks mate.

Contributed by: Carolynne»1

On: September 8, 2007, 4:06 pm

Hello, I just found this site and I think it’s wonderful! And since everyone is so helpful I wanted to ask some questsions.

-I know I read it somewhere up higher, that now I can’t find, but how many fish should I generally keep in a 10 liter tank?

-And also, right now I have two males but I’m thinking of getting some females maybe. What should the ratio of males to females be?

- The tank has a filter and a plastic plant with some rocks on the bottom and the fish seem happy. But recently the two fish have been sorta harassing each other. Is this normal?

-Also, is it possible that the current from the filter is too strong for them? I feel like they’re swimming too hard.

Thank you all so much for your time.

Contributed by: admin»783

On: September 9, 2007, 7:04 am

Hi Carolynne,

1) Here is a link to our calculator: link:). You should see a warning saying that 10 L tank is too small. Don’t take me badly, I would keep snails and plants in such small tank only. Or you may use that aquarium for newborns. On the other hand, if there is no chance to buy larger aquarium, keep there max. 2 fishes; 2 small Guppies.

2) Females vs. males ratio: In my experience you should keep more males than females. 2:1, 3:1 or even 5:1. It’s because females will be always pregnant (that’s how it goes with Guppies). Generally, less females you have, less troubles you solve. 1 male and 10 females may produce about 100+ newborns each month. 5 males and 1 female = less newborns. Basically, you’ll find it difficult to sell or give Guppies to other people.

3) Harassment isn’t anything unusual. If you keep them in a 10 L tank, then the size is the cause.

4) Again, if your fishes live in a 10 L tank, then there is no suitable filter for your situation. I had experiences with 12 L aquarium and it was looking like washing-machine. Buy larger one in this case.

Contributed by: Natasha»9

On: September 9, 2007, 9:57 am

Thanks so much for the information and prompt reply to my post dated: September 6, 2007, 11:38 am.

Was very very useful. My two females still haven’t given birth-I believe they will sometime soon-since the gestation period is about 22-28 days.

Thought I’d also tell you that I moved them to a small tub, from the fish bowl-as once I put the floating plants in the fish bowl, the plants seemed to occupy a lot of space, and left very little space for my guppies. I do intend getting an aquarium for them in the near future. I am also glad now, that once the frys are born, I’ll have a bowl to transfer them into.

Should I just feed the frys regular guppy food? I give them these tiny granules. Or should I get the special food for frys?

Am also wondering, is the ratio of 2 females:3 males OK?

Thanks, have a Sunny Sunday:).
Natasha

Contributed by: admin»783

On: September 10, 2007, 11:31 am

Hi Natasha:),

Fry food: Use Brine shrimp if you want to be successful as much as possible. If you want to let only the strongest to survive, then use ordinary food (crushed granules for instance).

Ratio 2:3 (f:m) is OK.

Good luck with your fishes and their reproduction;).

Contributed by: Natasha»9

On: September 10, 2007, 1:05 pm

Thanks so much :o), I can’t wait to see the frys pop out. :p

I also bought an aquarium today!!! And am Gung-ho!! :o)) My husband and daughter are setting it up now.

I picked up some frozen Daphnia too. Are they a good option? I felt adding variety to their food might help-they must be so tired of the mundane granules they eat everyday!

And am so glad to meet you (admin) here... and to have you answer all my queries. Thanks a big bunch.

Have a Marvy Monday!

Natasha

Contributed by: Grace (AGAIN!!!!)»1

On: September 10, 2007, 8:11 pm

I just had yet another disease go through my tank...dropsy. I now have 1 platy, 4 mollies, 4 guppies, and 1 swordtail. 6 of my now dead females died from dropsy....very sad. Some good news though...and bad-my HUGE albino female died! Poor baby. In november I am going to buy a 10-20 gal, and for christmas, my mom is buying a 55 gal as a family gift. I have 2 questions. Any suggestions for getting dropsy completely out of the tank? And lastly, I want a community tank with my 55 gal. What do you reccomend?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: September 11, 2007, 8:40 am

Natasha, it is my pleasure to get visitors just like you;).

Frozen Daphnia is good decision. In general, frozen food is always a good way how to diversify the ordinary days. Frozen bloodworms are appreciated as well.

Feel free to check this article which talks about vitamins and feeding habits.

Contributed by: admin»783

On: September 11, 2007, 9:08 am

Hi Grace,

Dropsy (or Ascites) can be cured with Sera Baktopur Direct. However, it is always better to avoid this disease. This can be achieved with proper nutriment + using quality water. In most cases the reason of this disease is low quality water. Dropsy is a bacterial disease.

So how to get rid of this illness?

1) Remove the sick fish and cure it if possible,
2) Change 50% of water in the tank,
3) Clean the filter,
4) Clean the gravel,
5) Buy more quality fish food (check the article linked from the comment above).

And suggestions for new community tank?

Angelfish (6 specimens), Bristlenose Catfish (3-4 specimens), Glass Bloodfish (30 specimens).

Plants and others: Vallisneria, Anubias, Cryptocorynae, rocks and caves. :) Just my opinion.

Contributed by: Natasha»9

On: September 16, 2007, 12:44 pm

No luck with my pregnant female guppys yet :o((

I seperated them from the males-but they seem to be as pregnant as before-and my frys haven’t still appeared.

And I feel very sad for the males and the females as they constantly keep watching and communicating to each other via their glass walls (the female are in a bowl and the males in the aquarium) They seem so love sick :p

Am I being impatient?

Happy Sabbath!
Natasha

Contributed by: admin»783

On: September 17, 2007, 5:37 am

Hi again, Natasha:),

Am not sure if you’re impatient, but it is difficult to control when the newborns are ready to be given a birth.

I would wait another week and if nothing happens, then I’d move females back. Or you can move 1-2 males to the females tank for a while;).

And don’t worry, I am sure that your Guppies will breed sooner or later. It’s not a matter of "if", it’s a matter of "when":).

Contributed by: Natasha»9

On: September 17, 2007, 2:07 pm

Thanks, for all your help. You’re a sweetheart:)

Contributed by: Natasha»9

On: September 18, 2007, 9:02 am

Good Morning!!!

Guess what my guppy fry were born this afternoon-it’s evening here now for us, you see. And we are ecstatic - about 30-35 of them. :o))

Like I said earlier I have two females.

One has a very darkened gravid spot and seems she will give birth any moment. And the other one who gave birth (I am assuming) still looks pregnant - has the gravid spot - is it possible more frys are on the way for her?

Just now I moved the females into the aquarium with the males as they seem to be ready to gobble down the frys.

But I can’t do that for very long and I think I’ll have to transfer the females to another seperate tank/bowl. The reason being the males can’t seem to get there "hands off" them - as they’ve seen them after a while now :o)) And that seems to be disturbing element like before - for the fry to be born.

Anyways I just fed the fry - fry food - but the bowl where they are in doesn’t have a filter, just a bubbler. The bubbles are pretty rapid in that bubbler-will that be OK for the fry?

Am worried if I move them to the aquarium which has a filter, and no rapid bubbles - they might die of stress.

Do let me know... am off to buy some floating plants now...

Thanks a bunch-can’t wait to hear from you :o))

Have a Terrific Tuesday!

Natasha

Contributed by: admin»783

On: April 2, 2003, 2:14 am

Natasha,

1) Buying floating plants will be helpful and appreciated by the fry,

2) Moving them to another tank will be stressful and many of them would probably die (my own experience!),

3) Filter is not necessary during the first 1-2 weeks. Just change the water and remove dead bodies,

4) Yes, Guppies can give birth more than once during a relatively short time period (1 day). It's my personal experience.

Good luck with your Guppies;).

Contributed by: Natasha»9

On: September 19, 2007, 3:27 am

Hi again:)

Some news and quick queries as well:

1. I moved the mother guppy back with the males in the aqaurium, this morning as surprisingly she was getting very cannabilistic. I had let her be with the fry and the other pregnant female all of last night. She seems unwell-has been sticking to one place. I am assuming it’s all the hormonal changes etc. and she should be ok-I just hope she still isn’t going to give birth.

2. The new guppy fry seem to be doing great, and are now swimming all over the bowl, including the bottom. The good thing is the other pregnant female isn’t preying on them-at least what I have noticed till now. But she seems to be scurrying for cover everytime she sees me. Guess, it’s one of those phases.

Am glad I don’t need a filter for the fry. I am leaving the stone bubbler on for about 2-1/2 hours in the morning and will do so in the evening.

I just hope that’s OK?

Also am feeding the fry Liquifry a special fry food I bought from my pet store. Should I also supplement it with very little quantities of boiled and mashed egg yolk?

Thanks for all your advice and good luck wishes-they are doing me and our guppies wonders!!

God Bless...
N

Contributed by: admin»783

On: September 19, 2007, 3:32 pm

Regarding the stone bubbles: It is OK unless it doesn’t creates very unpredictable water stream.

Regarding egg yolk: This is not necessary. I used it about 1-2 times and it just made the water dirty. Moreover, fishes didn’t seem to be eating it at all. But it depends on your decision:).

Contributed by: Natasha»9

On: September 19, 2007, 10:55 pm

Thanks:)

Will skip the egg then-they seem content with the Lequifry. They seem to be growing rapidly-3 days now and are doing well. Touche’ :)

I bought a nice big broad bottomed bowl for the females and transferred them there for the time being-also to save them from harrasment. The 5 males made life difficult for the mother guppy.

Thanks again.

Goodnight!

Contributed by: admin»783

On: September 27, 2007, 1:43 am

Because it is related to the Upside-down catfish, Calie’s question was moved here.

Contributed by: Casi»8

On: September 27, 2007, 10:55 am

My daughter recently started a tank. All the fish she purchased were very young. We didn’t know anything about keeping fish, and bought 4 neon tetras, two male mickey mouse platies and two female platies. (didn’t know they would breed) She later bought two female guppies. They were purchased from an all female tank and were very tiny babies. My female platies tend to hide a lot and as of now, do not appear to be pregnant. One of the guppies does. She is twice the size of the other guppy and looks like she is going to explode. My question is, is the smaller guppy really a male or did one of the male platies get her pregnant? We never intended to breed fish and I have learned that the platies will breed non stop. No idea what to do with the babies. One more question, I have three catfish to keep the bottom clean. For the first month or so they were very active. Now they huddle in a corner together and wont go to the other side of the tank. If someone walks by the tank, they get spooked and seem to be afraid of even the neon tetras. Is something wrong with them? I read they would stay away if there was a dead fish, but we have not lost any of the fish in the tank.

Contributed by: admin»783

On: September 28, 2007, 1:39 pm

Hi Casi,

You can see the difference between the Guppy male and female at the "guppy3.jpg" picture above. Males are smaller than females and are coloured much more. In addition, Guppies (females) are able to keep the sperm for a few months inside their bodies.

Babies can become a food later and if there are no floating plants, they will become so very soon after the birth.

Regarding the problem with catfish, do the aquarium contain enough empty spaces? Please, visit this article (I think that you keep the Bristlenose Catfish) and learn about them. I keep these catfish personally for many years.

Contributed by: Casi»8

On: September 28, 2007, 2:39 pm

I have a 30 gallon tank. It has a lot of free space and a coliseum in the center where the female platies hide a lot. I have one bristlenose and 3 cories. The bristlenose is very active on the sides of the tank, but the cories only keep their corner clean and they spend most of the time in a huddle.

One of my guppies is smaller and slender. Both of the guppies have a lot of color, the pregnant one having the most color. I was told they were both females, but not so sure anymore unless the larger one mated with the platies. She really looks like she will explode any day now. She is very active and loves to have people close to the tank. The smaller one just follows her everywhere she goes.

Contributed by: admin»783

On: September 29, 2007, 2:14 am

Hi again, Casi.

Cories are fishes which do well in shoals. They are very social and I wouln’t keep less than 5 of them. Feel free to ask your questions on pages which list the species which you raise. You know, this is a Guppies page. :) I will answer you immediately since I raise Cories as well.

Regarding Guppies, I am nearly sure that the smaller is the male and the bigger one is female. I hope that you’ll see babies soon:). If you want to be 100% sure, send me a few pictures of them. I can’t help you without seeing the pictures.

Contributed by: admin»783

On: September 29, 2007, 2:29 am

Please, ask your questions which are not related to Guppies on other pages here at aqua-fish.net. That's why Kelsie’s question was moved here. It belongs to the Platy page.

Contributed by: Peter»6

On: October 8, 2007, 5:10 pm

Hi,

I'm new to guppy breeding and would like to know what it means if a fat, pregnant looking guppy is just floating and not moving? When should I place her into the breeder catch? its hard to tell with out a picture but she looks very chubby. And I'm guessing in about a week or so she will drop.

Contributed by: Antonio»1

On: October 9, 2007, 7:31 pm

I love guppies and every other fish. Keep the fish population increasing, fish breeders!

Bye, Antonio

Contributed by: admin»783

On: October 13, 2007, 6:10 am

Hi Peter,

A pregnant Guppy should be moving (swimming) of course, just it’s more difficult than usual.

Regadring placing her into the breeder catch, it is recommended to do it once she’s almost giving birth. I personally haven’t used it ever. I always bred them normally in a tank where she lived in.

Contributed by: Laura»5

On: October 18, 2007, 11:31 pm

My husband and I are fairly new to the aquarium thing. We have a ten gallon with a balloon-belly molly, a small plecostomus, and what we thought were two MALE guppies. A couple of weeks ago one of are "males" had a load of fry. We are pretty sure it was our bright yellow one. I had noticed a bulging belly. Is there any way to tell (besides color) if your guppy is male or female? What should we do with the female? We wouldn’t mind keeping a couple of the fry, but we can’t handle all 11 that survived. We don’t want to breed fish, so we’d only want the males, but from what I’ve read the colors don’t show up for awhile and color is apparantly not a reliable way of deciphering guppy gender. Is there a way to tell them apart at a young age? And what do I do with all the females? Thanks for any advice you can give. We really got more than we bargained for with these guppies.

Contributed by: admin»783

On: October 19, 2007, 4:15 am

Hi Laura,

1) Sexing

Females are quite bigger than males. Look above at the pictures (guppy3.jpg). The bigger one and the less coloured one is a female. Other pictures here show males.

2) What should you do with newborns?

Guppies aren’t very demanding about empty space. If I were you I’d visit two-three aquatic shops and would give them the newborns. Even for free.

3) Sexing at a young age?

No, this is not possible. You should be able to determine which one is male or female when they’re 2 months old at least.

Contributed by: perl»1

On: October 31, 2007, 3:11 pm

How do guppies have sex? Just curious.

Contributed by: admin»783

On: November 2, 2007, 2:56 am

Good question, Perl:). Males are using gonopodium for this purpose. The gonopodium is a gential organ. This organ is designed to transfer sperm to a female.

Contributed by: Amy»6

On: November 20, 2007, 2:30 pm

Hi!
I just found this site while searching for guppy life spans! Well your site answered my question.
I also was curious if it is common for giving birth to be stressful on the females. I have a large tank with many guppies in it, and for some reason 2 females have recently died after giving birth. Water tests came out normal and the temp is well within range. The males seem fine and there are no other types of fish to give them problems. Any ideas?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: November 21, 2007, 1:40 am

@Amy: Yes, giving the birth is always stressful. If it repeats every month, then such female will probably die sooner than a female which is "lazy" in this matter. I’d take it as a natural process, nothing bad in your fish tank.

Contributed by: Shawn»4

On: December 3, 2007, 9:40 pm

Hi I was wondering if you could help me out...a female guppy dissapeared one day, I couldn’t find her though I searched the whole tank. I keep a small chinese algae eater in there, was it because it ate her up?

Contributed by: Fabian »5

On: December 4, 2007, 12:47 pm

Hi,

I found this site after starting my tank. It is a 54 L tank. I have 4 guppies (2 male and 2 female) and 2 red eye tetras (1 male and 1 female). I'd like to breed them and it seems that guppies are the easiest. What is the best ratio between males and females for breeding?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: December 4, 2007, 12:55 pm

@Shawn: Yeah, Chinese Algae Eaters prefer live food; Guppies fit this criteria. Please, search our database for species which go well together with the Chinese AE species. You will avoid situations when your fish disappear. The Chinese Algae Eater’s profile is here.

Contributed by: admin»783

On: December 4, 2007, 1:16 pm

@Fabian: The ratio is not important at all. If you have 2 males and 2 females (as you have already mentioned), then they should breed soon. You can speed up this process by buying another 3 females for example, but soon you will have too many juveniles and you will not know what to do with them.

BTW, I’d buy another Tetras if I were you; they are species which musy be kept in groups of 6 at least.

Contributed by: Fabian »5

On: December 4, 2007, 11:53 pm

Thanks for the info. Must it did red eye Tetras or will any Tetras do?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: December 5, 2007, 1:34 pm

@Fabian: I definitely recommend the same species as you already keep.

Contributed by: Fabian »5

On: December 12, 2007, 10:52 am

Hi,

I have added two more female guppies and 5 more tetras, but tetras has started to nip the fins of the white cloud fish. The white cloud was 10 now I have 7 left.

Is it the tank too small?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: December 14, 2007, 12:28 pm

The tank is small, of course. However, it’s capacity could be enough if fish didn’t see each other. So it all depends on plants. If there are enough plants, fish should be very peaceful. This is my experience.

Contributed by: admin»783

On: December 17, 2007, 12:59 pm

Hayder’s questions was moved to another page since it’s related to other species. This one!

Contributed by: JCM»1

On: December 19, 2007, 12:24 pm

All of my baby fancy guppies seem to have no color at all, except for dark grey tails. Will they get more colorful as they grow? It looks like we have 50/50 males to females. Thanks.

Contributed by: admin»783

On: December 22, 2007, 12:56 pm

@JCM: Yes, don’t worry about colours. When they’re 2-3 months old, you should note first colours on their bodies for sure.

Contributed by: Casi»8

On: January 2, 2008, 3:52 pm

Hi again. I haven't posted in a long time. I have a few updates. The two female guppies that I have had since July have always looked pregnant. Three months ago, I added two more tiny female guppies. Four weeks ago I found three fry. I have no idea who they belong to. At first I thought they could be platy because I have a male an female, but they are guppies for sure. All four of my guppies are fat with the dark spot. They have always looked like this. I have read everything I could find on telling the males from females, but just can't figure it out. At first I thought one of my first ones was male, but it is big and fat with the dark spot. Do I have to wait to see the dark spot on the fry to see if they are male? I want to give the males away before I have more fry? How long until I can tell if they are male or female and do you think I will ever be able to tell the difference :)?

Contributed by: Joanna»1

On: January 3, 2008, 12:17 am

I just found your site. It sure answers many of my questions! I have a 90 gallon tank with about 20 guppies, 6 mollies, 9 platys , 2 swordtails, a coupe of corys and 2 zebra danios. My guppies just started having babies and I have lots of floating plants on one side but I notice the zebras hanging around that area alot. Are they wanting to eat the fry? They haven’t eaten any yet (3 days) They don’t seem big enough to eat them, less than 1 inch long with pretty small mouths.

The mollies would eat them if they were fast enough. But they havent eaten any either. I’m letting the fry grow up in the tank, but I don’t wnat any fish that "hunt" them.
Thanks in advance :)

Contributed by: admin»783

On: January 4, 2008, 4:02 am

@Casi: Please, check the comment left on October 19, 2007, 12:15 pm.

In my experience it is always too difficult to sex guppies when they’re not old enough. Maybe you could send me a few pictures so that I’ll be able to help you much better;).

Contributed by: admin»783

On: January 6, 2008, 1:54 pm

@Joanna:

Naturally, fish (guppies, mollies, swordtails and basically every species) want to eat the fry once they are "available" in the tank. Even their own parents want to eat the fry if they’re not overfed.

Floating plants are very good for the purpose of hiding the fry. About 60%-80% of the fry may reach the maturity with proper protection (plants, etc.).

Contributed by: Tina»4

On: January 24, 2008, 5:23 pm

OK, so I'm really new to this and I have lots of questions!

1) I've had my male guppy since he was born about 4-5 months ago. I bought my female as an adult and I've had her a month. I know that females are normally bigger than males, but my male is really small compared to her. I was wondering if he was still a juvenile or if he’s ready to breed?

2) My female has had a dark gravid spot since I got her last month. Just recently I put her in her own tank and within 20 minutes, the spot wasn't dark any more. I looked for the fry but there was none in any of the plants. I don’t have a heater in either tank so I thought maybe that was it. Since I’ve had her, she’s had an insatiable appetite and has been very active. I'm so confused!

3) I've been reading past comments (and found them very helpful by the way) and you keep talking about floating plants. I was wondering if you could explain what they are, and if you can simply get them at a pet store.

Contributed by: admin»783

On: January 25, 2008, 12:41 am

@Tina:

1) Please check the pictures at the top of this page. It’s called guppy3.jpg (the first line, the first from right). There you can see an adult pair of Guppies. If your Guppy is still juvenile, then he should be ready to breed very soon.

2) If her belly is of the same size as before, then she didn’t give birth. Otherwise she probably ate the fry.

3) Floating plants are these for example: Azolla caroliniana, Hygroryza aristata, Lemna minor, Nymphaea pubescens, Phyllanthus fluitans, Pistia stratiotes. I am not sure if you can buy them in every shop, but they’re usually available.

Contributed by: Jodi Cafritz»1

On: January 30, 2008, 7:14 am

The last few batches of baby guppies have all started to die. Many of their tails became pointy for some reason and we think this is the beginning of the problem. I’ve seen several people on various sites asking about the same situation but no one has been able to give the answer. Any ideas? Thanks for your help! Jodi

Contributed by: guppy owner»1

On: February 4, 2008, 7:52 pm

HI, I breed guppies (first time). And after I found babies the next day a female guppy died. Do you know what might be causing this? Also I firstly started with 5 guppies but all the males died which left me with 2 females, they are the only ones surviving! Also a male dissappeared in my 5 gallon tank, I haven’t found him for 2 weeks now!

Contributed by: Kevin Fulcher»1

On: February 5, 2008, 5:27 am

Hey guys, I have had a female guppy for about half a year now and once I got her, she was already pregnant. She had around 50 fry and half of them was eaten by her, I have 6 left; they are all in their 10 gallon tank and they are all getting bigger with some really nice colours. I've been feeding them flakes 3 times a day and now my female is already pregnant again. She has been for about a month now, I've kept her in my main tank with the male because I read some where that the male helps intimacy and helps the birthing go along much better, so do you think it's a good time to take her out and put her into the breeding tank? And is there anything else I'm doing wrong like feeding them flakes?

Contributed by: Elaine»2

On: February 5, 2008, 9:21 am

My fancytail guppies have swollen bellies. What causes this? They are males I believe. I've had them for 2 years. The females had 2 sets of babies. Also the swollen ones have a large red circle in middle of belly.

Contributed by: admin»783

On: February 6, 2008, 12:45 pm

@guppy owner: You should test your water. If every aspect is within acceptable interval, then there could be something wrong about stress maybe. Usually fishes don’t die. Basically, in aquarium fish should die when they get old.

@Kevin: Moving a female into the breeding tank is a good idea only if the fry don’t have any chance to survive (for instance, there are no plants where they can hide). 2 weeks ago I visited a guy who keeps Guppies with their babies all together and they’re happy. He hasn’t experienced any problems yet. Regarding flakes: As far they accept flakes, you don’t have to change anything. I’d personally try blood worms because they’re usually welcomed by many species.

@Elaine: Without pictures it is very difficult to tell the cause. It can be dropsy disease or other illnesses. Anyway, a 2 years old Guppy specimen is rarity for many aquarists. As fish get older, diseases attack them much intensively.

Contributed by: Natalie»3

On: February 8, 2008, 5:20 am

Guppy fry is 2 days old and doing well, but no matter how little I feed them there is always waste. They are being fed on liquifry no 2 and crushed flake food as well as finely chopped up bloodworm at different times of course.

Contributed by: Fabian»5

On: February 12, 2008, 2:10 pm

Hi,

Maybe this was answered before, but how often do the female have fry?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: February 14, 2008, 1:56 pm

@Fabian: A Guppy female can give birth every month once. When placing your further questions, read what has been written already, please:). It makes a lot of things easier.

Contributed by: The Chosen»1

On: February 19, 2008, 1:48 pm

I just started having an aquarium. I started with guppies, because it's an easy fish. But what sickness should I beware? What do I need to prevent sickness in my aquarium. Where do the sickness come from?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: February 21, 2008, 1:41 pm

@The Chosen: Usually the white spot disease is what kills newbies’ fish. Diseases can be caused by two main reasons. Firstly, it’s low quality of water. This means very low or high pH (when the crowd require neutral pH for example), insufficient water hardness, often changes of temperature, and so on.

Secondly, stress or feeding your fish contaminated foods (live or frozen food usually) can result in fatal scenario as well.

Create stable conditions and keep watching your fish especially during feeding. Weak or sick specimens eat less or they don’t eat at all.

Contributed by: finatic4fish»1

On: February 27, 2008, 10:13 pm

I’ve recently found your website and am very impressed by the quality and diversity of aquarium information available. I’ve kept many freshwater varieties since I was a child. It’s been one of those life-long interests that nobody in my family could understand or share with me. So, I read and read, and learned all I could. 30 years later, I’m still learning. Over the years I’ve kept and even bred many freshwater species (mostly Cichlids). But, in the past month I bought my 1st guppies. I never even considered them before. I always thought they were "boring beginner’s fish". To my surprise, they are everything except boring. I started with 4 males & 4 females in a well planted 20 gallon tank. I added 2 small black Koolie loaches to "clean-up". I had to replace some of the female guppies that died within the first 2 weeks. I think they were sick from the start. Since then it’s been aquatic bliss. No deaths in a few weeks, 4 babies were born and are 2 weeks old now. A couple of females have looked pregnant forever! I keep expecting to see new babies but, I’m still waiting. I feed them all a few times a day (flakes & frozen baby brine). Everyone’s eating. I know they ate some of the 1st babies (2 weeks ago). So, I try to keep them well fed. I keep good lighting for about 18 hours a day (for the plants mostly). Do the females tend to give birth in certain lighting conditions?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: February 27, 2008, 11:44 pm

@finatic4fish: Thanks for your feedback:).

Regarding your question: Guppies can give birth anytime in any lighting conditions. Of course, light must not cause stress (if the light is too intensive). I have seen Guppies giving birth in the morning, in the evening and light wasn’t any problem for them.

I’d personally lower the "daytime" to max. 13 hours (18 is too much in my opinion). Such conditions will shorten your fish’ life.

Contributed by: NewBee»1

On: March 9, 2008, 10:17 pm

I just recently got some fish, a Neon Tetra, Fantail Guppy (female), Sunset Platy and an algae eater (don’t know it’s real name)...

My female Guppy has that black spot on her lower abdomen, and I know she’s about to give birth soon. Will my other fish eat the fry? I have a few fake plants in the tank, should I put a real floating plant in there too?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: March 10, 2008, 3:44 am

@NewBee: No-one can give you 100% answer if the fry is going to be eaten. However, there is a small chance that some specimens will survive in my experience.

Floating plants are necessary if you want the fry to survive. Pistia plants are very good, however they must have at least 4cm diameter in order to become a real hiding place.

Contributed by: sarah»10

On: March 19, 2008, 12:27 am

Hi, I came home from work this afternoon and found my guppy had baby’s (10). I rang the pet shop because I did not have 2 guppy’s and then found out she was pregnant when I brought her. They told me to separate the baby’s from the mum but they are so tiny I don’t want to kill them. When should I remove them from the normal tank? And will they live in a container?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: March 19, 2008, 2:18 pm

@sarah: The fry can live in a container easily, however the water must be of the same quality as the water where they live currently in.

RE "When should I remove them from the normal tank?": When you decide. You’ll risk, but it’s the same always.

Contributed by: jan»19

On: March 31, 2008, 3:11 pm

When our guppies started having babies we used a plastic tank divider and sectioned off part of the tank for the babies. That worked too well, we’re now a 3- tank family.

However, in our larger tank (29 gallon) I’ve noticed that the tails are either being eaten by other fish, or maybe they’ve picked up a disease. How do I tell the difference, and what, if anything, can we do? The only fish in there are guppies (long finned), a plecostomus (sp?) and a catfish.

Contributed by: admin»783

On: April 1, 2008, 11:43 pm

@jan: As catfish and Plecostomus don’t nip fins, the problem can be a disease or Guppies which nip fins of the other Guppies.

If the fins aren’t so small that fishes are dying, then I wouldn’t worry at all. On the other hand, make sure that pH level is stable and neutral. pH should be about 7, although 6.5 is acceptable. Lower pH levels may cause decomposition of fins. This could be the reason.

If the pH level is OK, then you should watch your fishes if they really nip others’ fins. If they don’t do so and if fins don’t regrow, then it can be a disease only. In such case you should add some salt into the tank and increase the temperature. If it doesn’t get back to normal, visit the nearest aquatic store and ask for help there (as this website doesn’t sell products, etc.).

Contributed by: Ali»4

On: April 18, 2008, 3:56 pm

Hi, great website.

I got my first guppy tank a week ago today. I bought two female guppies from the tank at the pet store and inherited 5 (one adult female, one adult male and three fry) from my neighbor. I lost one of the store bought ones the first night and now the second store bought one doesn’t look so good. Firstly, I think she may be a he. There is no gravid spot, and she has male like pectoral fins. However, about two days ago her stomach swelled up HUGE. She also got a greyish stripe on her side (she is naturally silver with orange fins) and has stopped eating and spends most of the time sitting on the bottom. What could have caused this? The rest of the tank seems fine, the fry seems to be growing and the other two adults swim around happily and eat just fine. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Contributed by: jay»5

On: April 23, 2008, 4:16 pm

I have a tank of guppies and neon tetras. We watched the guppy giving birth a couple of months ago and the surviving babies are showing signs of being a cross between guppy and tetra (it has neon tinge and red stripe with fan tail). Do these types of fish breed together? Thanks.

Contributed by: Anonymous»157

On: April 25, 2008, 9:22 pm

Hi, I’m only a kid and I have 3 guppies; 1 male 2 females. 1 of them is orange. Will the black spot still show up? I have 2 tanks but only 1 air pump; how long can guppies have no air pump?

Contributed by: Amanda»7

On: April 28, 2008, 7:14 am

I have a fantail guppy in a 10 gal tank. Not sure if it’s a female or male, but it’s the lone survivor since day one a little over a year ago. The last fish that died was over 6 months ago, so I don't think she is pregnant, but my question is, the guppy looks like it has a double chin, I don't over feed AT ALL, is this common in guppies? Or is there something wrong with my fish? The belly is HUGE, and it’s just kind of sitting on one of the plants. This is the first fish that we got and is the lone survivor. Oh and it's mostly orange, how do I tell the sex (question modified by admin)?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: May 6, 2008, 4:11 am

@jay: Actually this looks weird since Guppies are livebearers and Tetras are egg-layers. I don’t think that it is the reason.

Guppies are of various colours in general and genetic mutations can produce a lot of rare combinations. I personally kept Guppies which were neon. They weren’t cross-bred.

@anonymous: The black spot should be visible, but it's not always the same. Regarding air pumps: Bear in mind that fishes are live beings, thus you must give them enough of care. I recommend you to read all articles devoted to beginners on this site. For example, this one.

@Amanda: This seems to be a disease. I'd say the dropsy disease as the fish is old. Regarding sexing: This has been answered a few times on this page. The males have slimmer body and are more coloured han females. See the pictures at the top, please.

Contributed by: Ali»4

On: May 6, 2008, 3:19 pm

Alas, the orange and silver guppy died. For awhile my tank seemed to be doing well, but one of the fish took a bite out of two of the others tails (a male and a female) and the female died. I think the male will be okay except that I’m afraid he’s contracted fin rot, its tearing in more places and is duller in colors and the edges are rough. Also, my baby guppies seemed to be doing fine but now they’re getting pointed tadpole like tails. Is there something wrong with my water? My fish seem to have all sorts of problems. Could it be the ornament I have in my tank? I bought it from the fish ornament section at the fish store. Also, my fish seem to be eating less and the two store bought males have black edging on their tails. I’m very worried. Please advise!

Contributed by: admin»783

On: May 8, 2008, 10:58 am

@Ali: Ornaments aren’t usually the cause of any problem. It’s because they’re made of fish-friendly materials. However, this is not guaranteed! There may be some metal contained in that ornament. Move it away from the tank, of course and monitor the situation.

You should also measure all important factors of the water; pH, hardness and ammonia. Then you’ll be able to get precise answers to your questions.

The problems you described may be caused by ammonia. Higher levels of ammonia are causing continuous problems and many diseases as ammonia doesn’t do any good to fish’ immune system.

Contributed by: crisAnonymous»1

On: September 2, 2008, 11:03 am

My guppys had about 20 babies a week ago. When will they be full grown?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: September 3, 2008, 7:03 am

@crisAnonymous: About 4 months if fed properly and normally. Bear in mind that fish grow continuously during their life.

Contributed by: TM»1

On: October 12, 2008, 11:48 pm

I have recently set up a simple 5 gallon tank (gravel, in-water filter, heater, java moss & xmas moss on rocks) & cycled it for 3 weeks. Upon completion of cycling, I’ve added 1 male guppy (I aim to have 3 in my 5g tank in the long-run).

Now, ...
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0.25 ppm
Nitrate: 10 ppm
pH: 8
Temperature: 26 degrees celsius

For the first day, my temperature was slightly higher (27 C) and I had the bubble jet attachment on my filter. He stayed towards the surface of the water, not gasping for air (as far as I could see), and only ventured down for a couple of seconds, then he’d return to the surface.

On the 2nd day:
I did some research & found perhaps the water temperature was too high (thus reducing oxygen levels) so I turned the heater down to 25-26 C. I also took off the bubble jet attachment on my filter, thinking perhaps the current was too strong for him, and now it is just blowing out a gentler stream of water.

I did a 20% water change also, with hopes of increasing oxygen in the water.

For the next 30 min or so following these changes, he seemed improved, swimming around the tank more - and near the heater and the filter (which he had avoided previously).

Now, 1-2 hours later, he is hiding in the nook between my filter and the gravel. He’s breathing and his fins are moving, but why is he hiding there? He comes out for a swim very occasionally.

(Also, he hasn’t eaten in 2 days) Any ideas?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: November 14, 2008, 5:39 am

@TM: In my experience Guppies are a community fish, so more than 1 specimen is needed in a tank. Secondly, a 5 G aquarium is too small. I suppose that it’s an internal filter which filters the water. Internal filters usually cause fast water flow. This can be very disappointing for a fish that has been left alone...

Contributed by: Anonymous»157

On: December 22, 2008, 9:41 pm

Hi! I have a small fish bowl (around 6-7 litres). How many guppies can I keep in it? Right now I have 3 guppies and 1 molly in it. Is that OK or should I move them to a larger bowl?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: December 28, 2008, 9:28 pm

@Anonymous: In fact, you should buy a bigger aquarium. Not a bigger bowl. There are articles on this site in which authors (including me) warn people that fish bowls aren’t good for raising fish seriously. Fish bowls are good if only they are big enough (say 50+ litres) and if they’re well equipped.

Although Guppies need space, they don’t need as much space as other species usually do. In a 10 litres aquarium you can keep 2-3 Guppies easily. On the other hand, I always recommend more space.

Buy an aquarium that’s at least 40 litres big; Your fish will appreciate this kind of investment!

Contributed by: Majesty264»1

On: February 1, 2009, 11:42 am

I got a Pregnant Guppy about 3 weeks ago from a friend and her belly was really black and full. After a week or so her belly got smaller and still is. It is still black and I see no babies. Is everything OK?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: February 4, 2009, 2:45 am

@Majesty264: Everything is all right; The babies were born and were eaten. If you don’t grow floating plants in the tank, the fry cannot hide from hungry parents. And to be honest... Which Guppy doesn’t like to eat?

Contributed by: Amber»7

On: February 15, 2009, 5:41 am

Hi, I’m 17 and about 3-4 months ago, I bought a male guppy, 3 female guppies, and 2 tetra from a petco location. I already had 1 tetra, and I thought that it looked lonely in its one gallon. I had had him for about 6 months and he was big, and fine and dandy. I bought a 3 gallon aquarium that’s taller than it is wider. I got it all set up and put the new fish in it. It had a 5-10 gallon filter that the tank actually came with, but i didnt think anything of it.

I waited a week then added my lonely tetra. A week later, the tetra I already had had died, as well as the other tetra, two females and one of the males, leaving me with just 1 male and 1 female guppy. I think that the filter killed that one male guppy, because I found him caught in it and shortly after he died. That day, I noticed that their waste looked a little weird.

After a bit of research, I came to the conclusion that they had an internal worm. I switched them both over to the one gallon and did a complete water and gravel change on the three gallon. I got kind of worried, because I only had an external parasite killer. But I kept adding that to the water, just to kill the ones already in the water (which the one female kept eating).

After a month to make sure that no more dying was going to take place, I went ahead and bought 2 more females, and set them all up in the 3 gallon. That was when I realized that my original female guppy was pregnant, even though one of the ones I bought was too.

She looks about ready to pop, and yesterday I realized that the little shiny dots in her gravid spot were the babies eyes. I put her in a breeder box, though I really don't like it, I know they’ll get eaten otherwise. I’m worried that the parasite might have effected the babies, or the medication I was using.

Contributed by: Marica»1

On: February 16, 2009, 6:54 am

I am new to owning fish - I need some help. I got 3 tiny sunrise guppies from Meijer (kinda like walmart). I have a 3 gallon tank and a filter and a heater. I put some tetra aqua safe in the tank. Two of the guppies huddle in the corner and won’t leave unless they eat. They huddle in the corner near the top but they aren’t surfacing. What is wrong with them?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: February 18, 2009, 5:42 am

@Marica: The problem is that your aquarium is too SMALL. I can’t imagine how it looks with a filter and a heater inside of it. The filter probably creates very strong water flow, thus fish feel very uncomfortable.

Buy bigger tank.

BTW, your second comment has been deleted by mistake. If it was different from the above-shown one, resubmit it, please. It looked very similar to your first comment.

Contributed by: grace»8

On: February 19, 2009, 11:06 am

I have a ten gallon tank with four guppies in it (1 male, 3 females) which was recently treated with ick. The treatment directed to take out filter carbon for the whole time I’d be using the medication. So, I did that, and now a lot of my tank is covered in algae. I bought a pleco to help get rid of it, but its not that much help. Any recommendations?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: February 23, 2009, 7:44 pm

@grace: To get rid of algae you should manage the pH level to raise. Guppies won’t have any problems living in a higher pH water (say pH up to 8-8.2).

In order to raise the pH level it’s necessary to do water changes, eventually add some products that do this. You can also add some rocks or sea shells into the tank, but this will require more time to affect the algae.

Lastly, you can buy Apple Snails.

Contributed by: james»10

On: March 1, 2009, 6:10 am

How can you get more baby guppies out of one brood? I have a female that is 4.5 cm long, is fed on flake food and is kept in a tank which has daily water changes. She also has had 2 broods already and is pregnant now; 1st brood she gave birth to 18 and her 2nd she gave birth to 13. So how can I get more out of her? What special conditions do I need to give her?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: March 6, 2009, 7:12 am

@james: You should separate her from the males for a while. Also bear in mind that you cannot expect a guppy to give birth to too many newborns all the time, month by month. 1 female isn’t a factory.

If you’re looking for ways to increase number of newborns, buy more females (preferably from different aquarists).

Contributed by: james»10

On: March 7, 2009, 4:18 am

Thanks for your reply. It is true that guppies broods go up month by month, it's sort of happening to me; reminder: 1st 18, 2nd 13, and a new batch which she gave birth to just 27 days after the last; 28.

Contributed by: Anonymous»157

On: March 10, 2009, 7:55 am

I have a male guppy whose belly is so fat. What could it be? I have never seen anything like it before.

Contributed by: admin»783

On: March 12, 2009, 4:19 am

@Anonymous: It is some disease for sure. It can be the dropsy disease, but it can be also cancer. If there are no other symptoms (open cuts for instance), then it is not likely any parasite.

Many diseases caused by parasites can be cured, however it’s hard to cure other diseases (not mentioned as usual fish diseases).

Contributed by: james»10

On: March 13, 2009, 1:47 am

I just got 43 baby guppies out of my other female! This is her second brood, she gave birth to 21 babies 22 days ago.

Contributed by: james»10

On: March 17, 2009, 7:06 am

Does anyone want to get rid of some of their baby guppies? Send me an email at [jameshatton AT sky DOT com].

Contributed by: Anonymous»157

On: March 21, 2009, 7:26 am

If one wants to purchase around 4 guppies at first, and then breed them, how large of a tank should he/she purchase? 10 Gallons? 20?

Contributed by: admin»783

On: March 24, 2009, 6:30 am

@Anonymous: 10 G fish tank will be OK. However, in order to avoid high ammonia levels (and related problems), it’d be better to buy as big tank as possible. The surface matters; The bigger, the better. Newborns will hide easier than in a small tank.

Contributed by: michellexX»1

On: March 28, 2009, 2:54 am

Hey everyone! I have a question.... My guppy had babies one week ago on March 21, 2009. I cleaned my tank that day and after I put my fish back in, I came back in to check on them and I saw babies swimming everywhere. I frantically got all of them ( there were 8 ) out with a net and put them in my breeding tank that floats in my big tank. But since then, all of my fish have been dying! I’ve gone from about 15 to 7. But luckily, all of my babies are still alive and healthy ( crossing my fingers!! ). But now I need to clean my tank and treat the water probably. But would it be okay to clean my tank when I have babies in there? I’m scared that new water will kill them or something. please help!! I VERY greatly appreciate your help!! A million times thank you!!

P.S.- my tank is about 20 gallons

Thanks again!

Contributed by: admin»783

On: March 29, 2009, 5:43 am

@michellexX: You shouldn’t use any medicaments while newborns are in the tank. Two reasons:

1) The newborns are sensitive,
2) All nitrification bacteria would be killed - bad for newborns too as high ammonia level could kill them too.

You should partially change water; maybe 3-4 G per day instead. Never move the newborns, and never use medicaments in a tank with them swimming in it; You’ll usually lose more than without treatment.

You should check the Carbonate hardness in your aquarium. If it’s too low (3 or less), then you should consider adding sodium bicarbonate into the water too (after making water change). Recommended increase of KH (Carbonate hardness) per day is 1. If it’s done too fast, it can kill some weaker fishes too.

Contributed by: Erica»4

On: April 27, 2009, 10:06 am

Hi there, I had 4 guppies (3 female and 1 male) in my 10 gallon tank with 2 black skirt tetras and a gold algae eater. Two weekends ago, my largest female was dead in the tank. I removed the body from the tank. After that fish died I bought another female guppy to replace the one that died. This past weekend, I found my only male guppy fish dead as well. When I remove the body I noticed that all of the tail fins were gone. I have been thinking about why this would be, and just tonight I noticed that my gold algae eater seems to chase the remaining fish around the tank. I have done some researching and came across your site. Would the algae eater be the reason that my 2 guppies died? I haven’t changed any water conditions for quite a few weeks, no tempereature change, no water change, etc. I did add the algae eater about a month and a half after I set up the tank, but everything has been ok until these past couple weeks. Any suggestions?

Contributed by: Erica»4

On: April 27, 2009, 10:27 am

Hello everyone, I love this site, a lot of very useful information. I do have a couple questions though.

I currently have a 10 gallon tank with 2 female guppies, 2 black skirt tetras and 1 gold algae eater. Over this past weekend (April 24-26) my one and only male guppy died. I noticed that its tail fin was missing completely. I’m not sure about the side or dorsal fins, I didn’t look too hard.

About a week before, I bought one of my existing female guppies because the previous weekend, my largest female guppy had died. I didn’t look too hard at her, but I’m sure that her tail fins were still in tact. I didn’t really think anything of it, I thought that maybe she was just sick, though she didn’t seem to be when I had last saw her.

I’m wondering if my gold algae eater is killing my fish. The reason that I think this is because I noticed tonight that it seems to chase the other fish around from time to time and it looks like it is nibbling on the fins and bodies. I added the algae eater about the end of March and everything seemed to be ok until just recently. I would like to get some more replacement fish for the ones that I have lost, but I am afraid for the well-being of them when I bring them home because they will be smaller than the 2 guppies and 2 black skirt tetras.

I was told at the Doogan’s pet store where I bought all the fish that the gold algae eaters were compatible with the guppies and the black skirt tetras because I didn’t want to run into any issues. Were they maybe telling me this to make a sale?

Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks!

Contributed by: admin»783

On: April 30, 2009, 2:07 am

@Erica: Yes, the Chinese algae eater may be aggressive toward smaller fishes! You should give them to someone else or move him to another fish tank.

Contributed by: Jonathan»27

On: May 3, 2009, 6:43 am

I just got a male and female and put them in my community tank but should I be concerned about my male cause he is a very beautiful male. His fins are really long and his whole body is jet black. I am concerned cause of his tank mates are 4 3-inch Albino Giant Danios, 1 2-inch Rosy barb, 3 1-ich cherry barb, and 2 2-inch corydoras. I don’t want my male to die, help, I am just worried.

Thanks,
Jonathan

Contributed by: james»10

On: May 4, 2009, 5:24 am

It's a miracle!

I had a batch of 40 fry and I gained a deformed one. I didn't do anything to it because it was swimming well (and it was another fish to sell). But as a month went by it had completely grown out of its deformity! Guppy legend!!

Contributed by: admin»783

On: May 4, 2009, 3:50 pm

@Jonathan: Except for Giant Danios and Rosy Barbs, the tank mates are OK. When the already mentioned species reach full length, they may nip your Guppy’s fins. Anyway... this doesn’t have to happen. You should monitor your fish’ behaviour and if they harass the Guppy, put a divider into the tank.

Plenty of plants help to avoid such situations.

Contributed by: amy»6

On: May 7, 2009, 6:03 pm

How compatible are guppies and betta imbellis? Should I use general information about other betta's that they may fight? Just how peaceful are the imbellis, to guppies and vice versa? I've read lots of contradictory information so anything you can tell me would be great. I'm due to pick up 2 pairs over the weekend, so just wanted to know which fish I need to set-up in my other tank.

I have 2 males and 4 females, and have sold about 120 fry in the last 6 months so far. I've found so far that any deaths/ diseases are down to water quality. And once you've got that sorted they breed like rabbits.

Can guppy females do internal damage to themselves when pregnant? As I had a HUGE female, that after labour was still bloated and was dead 24 hours later.

Contributed by: admin»783

On: May 13, 2009, 8:47 pm

@amy: These species should get along well. Don’t combine too many specimens in one tank, of course.

Guppy females shouldn’t cause any damage to themselves when pregnant, or any time at all.

Contributed by: Geoff Anonymous»1

On: June 7, 2009, 3:18 pm

Hi! I have a question. I bought a guppy a month ago and she gave birth tice already. How many times can she give birth before running out of sperm? Thank you!

Contributed by: admin»783

On: June 13, 2009, 3:47 am

@Geoff Anonymous: Please, see the answer written on April 16, 2007, 2:11 am. The females may store sperm in their bodies for a long time period, sometimes even 6 months, although it isn’t usual.

Contributed by: vousie»1

On: July 17, 2009, 12:09 am

My female guppy has had babies 3 times now. The second batch lost many of their tails and many of them have already died. She just had the 3rd batch a day ago and already I can see that the new ones are also losing their tails. I keep them in my 40litre / 10gallon tank - filter, air and heater - in a breeding box to protect them from the other fish.

The breeding box is small too.

Contributed by: Cat»1

On: July 19, 2009, 10:00 pm

I have kept guppies with molly, platy, cardinal tetra, neon tetra and some corydoras. My guppies keep dying but my other fishes survived. Why it is so ironic? I think it's not the water problem, because other fishes did not die even one, but my guppies keep dying. Until now I only left two guppies inside my tank. As opposed to 11.

Contributed by: Catty»1

On: July 19, 2009, 10:09 pm

I saw in an aquarium shop that they keep 4 guppies in a small tank, just I think approximately 13 Litres! It's heavily planted and decorated beautifully, so I was fascinated with the tank too. So can I keep them like that without causing any harm to my guppy? If yes, I will be happy because it is easy and convenient to keep and clean!

Contributed by: admin»783

On: July 24, 2009, 3:59 am

@Catty: You could start with a 13 L fish tank, but sooner or later you will find out that a bigger aquarium equals better aquarium. Also bear in mind that most likely your Guppies will breed and thus there won’t be enough space in the tank sooner or later.

Also, water is more stable in say a 100 L aquarium than in a 13 L fish tank.

Contributed by: admin»783

On: July 30, 2009, 10:48 pm

@Cat: Maybe you bought specimens which were weak. Also other fish such as mollies or platies could have been harassing Guppies.

Contributed by: Juan Gallegos»1

On: September 3, 2009, 10:48 am

Hi, I’ve always been fascinated by guppies but just recently I started a new tank with the sole purpose of breeding them. All went fine at first, bought 3 males and 7 females, I had several corys and an algae eater for about a week before in the tank to help with the cycling. Everything went fine at first but then females started dying one after the other, they seemed fine and did frequent water changes to avoid ammonia poisoning or something like that.

About 3 of them did have fry and they had like 9-12 each birth. Most of the fry survived and there were few losses. The adults that died stopped eating 1 or 2 days before they died, they became really thin and hid around plants most of the time.

I was hoping everything would be fixed but it didn't, I got a couple of females to keep the male to female ratio balanced, but then I noticed some of them having a patch with lifted scales that they lost later, appearing around the dorsal fin or in the middle of the body. I treated them with melafix thinking it was some kind of bacterial or fungal infection, but most adults and fry died later, they seemed healthy and with an strong appetite just a day before dying, so I have no idea what can I do. Right now I just got 2 adults (male/female) and only 7 fry have survived and are about 1" long now. 2 females had fry a couple of weeks ago but all of them died.

I was hoping you could tell me what could be wrong with my tank, I'm afraid to buy any new fish fearing they might die as well.

Contributed by: Natasha»9

On: January 11, 2010, 8:48 am

We just recently purchased 8 new guppies and 5 were pregnant females, we were curious if there was any male to female ratios for a guppies fry come their birth. We are wanting to try and keep the 1:3 ratio as far as the male and females once they are grown.

Thanks for your help!

Natasha

Contributed by: lee chip»1

On: February 10, 2010, 7:48 am

Hi, can you help? I have a 55 gallon tank with 10 guppies, all males but various types. And for the last few hours they are all huddling in the bottom corner of the tank? The water temp, pH, etc. all seem OK, I've looked for signs of diseases and that seems OK too. So I am stumped to what's wrong.

Contributed by: didi»1

On: April 5, 2010, 12:41 pm

I just got three guppy fish. They are in a fish bowl. But every time I come into the room they go to the other side of the bowl where I can’t see them. What do you think is wrong with them?

Contributed by: chelle»1

On: April 9, 2010, 7:32 am

Can someone help me? I have just got some guppies from a friend, I have five but one seems to be harassing the others. It is always banging into the other under their tummies. Is this normal? Thanks in advance!

Contributed by: admin»783

On: April 10, 2010, 7:29 pm

@chelle: Yes, it is normal. This behaviour can be eliminated by adding more plants into the aquarium or moving the fish into bigger fish tank.

@didi: It has been mentioned already on this website, and surely on other websites too. A fish bowl is NOT a suitable place for fish! They are scared, because most likely they feel very uncomfortable in the fish bowl. Try buying a big fish bowl, or simply buy normally shaped aquarium with 4 corners, buy plants including floating ones, use normal filtration. This will fix the problem for sure!

@Natasha: The ratio is just random.

@Juan Gallegos: In such cases I recommend one very simple thing. Change all water, buy nitrification bacteria (or get some water from other aquarist) and start everything from zero.

Contributed by: San»1

On: July 16, 2010, 10:54 pm

Hey Fish lovers,

Who are the best friends for Guppies... I have following:

1 pair red carp
1 pair koi
1 pair Black Moor

Can I buy 1 pair of Guppies? I just love them!

Contributed by: admin»783

On: August 28, 2010, 7:04 pm

@San: I would not risk adding Guppies with the fish you already have, they will see the Guppies as food and harass them, you would be much better off buying another tank and using that just for your Guppies, if you wanted to breed them add one make with a few females and you will soon have lots of fry to enlarge the group in time. [answered by Mick; fishtankforum.co.uk]

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