Guppies have beautiful colors, funny faces, and are easy to care for. What more could you want from fish? If you want your aquarium to be filled with these beautiful fish, you will need to learn how to raise them and take care of their chicks.
Step
Part 1 of 2: Breeding Guppy Fish
Step 1. Select the fish you want to breed
Pay attention to the number of fish you are breeding, the color of each fish, and the shape of the tail. If you choose two fish with the same color pattern to breed, the chicks will also have the same color pattern. The same principle applies to the shape of the fin.
- Number of fish: In general you will need one male and two or three female guppies for breeding. When the ratio is one to one, the male fish often becomes aggressive, and chases the female fish around the tank. At a ratio of one to three, the attention of the male fish is divided among the three females, making breeding a less stressful process for the female fish.
- Color patterns: There are several basic color patterns of guppies. These include Wild (grey or olive green), Albino (light color or white with red eyes,) Blond (light color with black pigment,) and Blue (shimmering blue color.)
- Tail shape: The tail shape of the guppies includes the rounded to sword-shaped hind fins. There are many shapes and sizes of guppy tails, but the most common are Delta (large triangular shape,) Fantail (fan-shaped,) and Round tail (small round shape.)
Step 2. Select a breeding tank
You should choose a 30 to 60 liter tank with a gentle heater and filter. You need a soft filter because with a strong filter the baby guppies (also known as fry) will be sucked into the filter and die. If you think the filter is too strong. Close the filter suction with a thin material. This will allow the water to filter out but also protect the fry.
Step 3. Prepare the tank
Sadly, guppies can be cannibals, so you'll need to prepare a hiding place for your fry after they're born. Fries also tend to sink easily, so use low-floating plants to guard them. Tall plants are also needed when healthy fry begin to swim upwards.
- Do not use any substrate. Substrate is rock or imitation stone used to cover the bottom of the fish tank. An empty bottom tank is good for frying because it's easy to clean and you can keep track of how many fry live or how much they eat.
- Java moss or fish laying mats provide a good hiding place for baby guppies.
Step 4. Adjust the state of the tank according to the needs of the fish
Set the temperature between 25 and 26.11 C when the male and female fish are in the same tank. Before you put fish into the breeding tank, buy feeds with high nutritional value to produce healthy breeders.
Step 5. Put the guppies into the breeding tank
At this point, all you can do is wait for your fish to breed. Transfer the male fish to a regular tank when you see that your female fish are pregnant. You can see if a female fish is pregnant or not if there are dark marks on her belly. This mark is called a gravid spot. All female fish will reach this stage when pregnant, and will then become darker when the eggs have been fertilized.
Step 6. Know when your fish will give birth
Generally the gestation period is about 26 to 31 days. When your female guppy is ready to give birth, her belly will be very large and her gravid spot will be very dark (or dark maroon if you have an albino or blond guppy.) Her belly will also be like a cardboard box instead of getting rounder. Be prepared, guppies will give birth, not lay eggs. You should pay close attention to pregnant female fish so that you are there when they give birth and you can remove the mother from the tank immediately after giving birth (otherwise the mother will eat the babies.)
Signs that a fish is about to give birth are: being very quiet and detached, shaking (contractions), circulating near a heater, or changing appetite (not wanting to eat, or throwing up food.)
Part 2 of 2: Keeping Fry
Step 1. Remove the female fish from the breeding tank when the fry are born
This seems like a bad move, but the baby guppies at birth can already take care of themselves. Also as already mentioned, the mother guppies sometimes become cannibals and eat their own babies.
If you can't be ready when the female gives birth, make sure you have plenty of hiding places in the form of aquarium plants for the fry
Step 2. Keep the tank clean and at a healthy temperature
Fry can live in a tank temperature of about 25.5 degrees Celsius. Keep the tank at this temperature until the fry grow large. The tank also needs frequent cleaning. Suck the tank carefully whenever it gets too dirty and change 40% of the water every few days to keep the water clean.
Step 3. Feed the fry the correct feed
Baby guppies eat brine shrimp, silk worms or flake food. They should be fed twice a day. Guppies love meat and vegetables. You should also feed your guppies vegetable flakes as well, in addition to regular flake feed. Remember that fry are very small and if you put too much food in the tank, the excess food will spoil in the water and make the fry sick or even die.
Newborn fry should be fed brine shrimp so they reach their best growth potential. If you want to give your guppies a snack, put a small pinch of boiled spinach in their tank
Step 4. Take steps to make sure your fry are healthy
This means removing the dead fry. Dead fry will float to the top of the tank, making them easy to pick up. Record how many fry died. If you notice that too many fry are dying, you can check what may have killed them. Change the water and change the food. Too much litter will be bad for the guppy's health.
Step 5. Transfer the fry to a normal tank when they are large enough
When the fry are a good size, or about a month and a half to two and a half months old, they are ready to fend for themselves outside the breeding tank. You can put them in a normal tank with non-aggressive fish, sell them to a pet store, or give them to friends as gifts.
How to Make Feed for Fry from Fish Feed
- Put the flakes/pellets in a closed plastic bag
- Crush food to a fine powder
- Give it to the fry as needed
- Include a variety of high-protein foods in your meal mix
- If the powder is too big the fry won't eat it. For that you have to buy special food for fry.
- Take a toothpick and dip it in the water. Then dip it in the food powder, and then dip it again in the water.
Tips
- If the male fish does not get the female fish pregnant, try putting the male in a jar and placing the jar in the breeding tank, this will encourage the male to impregnate the female, once he notices competition. If this doesn't work either, you may have to choose a different breed of guppies to breed.
- Do not include other types of fish with the guppies, they will stress the guppy mate and eat all the fry in sight.
- Try pairing males and females with specific color patterns or fins to make sure your fry turn out the way you want them to.
- Give or sell baby guppies when you have too many in your tank otherwise they won't grow and they will eat each other's tails.
