Pet fish Guppies and More: My Guppy breeding program

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My guppy breeding program.

I started breeding guppies in 2007. I already had a good number of fish in my 5

tanks, so I just got 2 to start.

The male guppy I bought had a dark blue tail. He looked very nice. The female

was kept in a different tank at the store. Many of the females had plain tails

with no color on them. I selected a small female with a red tail. If I had to

do it again, I would have selected the largest female in the tank. But in the

back of my mind, I was thinking if I mix red and blue, I'd get purple. It didn't

happen.

I've heard that most females from the store are already pregnant when they are

bought. And once the female is pregnant, she can store the sperm to use for

several pregnancies. I don't think my female was pregnant because of the results

I got.

The female, let's call her Rose, gave birth twice in 2007. One litter in

November and one in December. Just before she gave birth I placed her in a

breeding container. This was the type with a V. The mother is held inside the V

and when the babies come out, they are supposed to swim or fall down through the

bottom of the V.

Rose had two small litters of only 8 fry. I was a little disappointed because I

thought she would have a larger litter. Guppies can have 50 to 100 babies at a

time. How would you like to carry 50 babies in your stomach?

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It is a little hard to know when a guppy is about to give birth. There were

several times I moved Rose to the birthing chamber which I am sure was stressful

to her. There is a gravid spot that gets darker when she is about to give birth.

Also her belly would expand quite a bit. A third way of knowing if she'll soon

give birth is she will rest on the bottom more. For the most part, I kept

guessing. Once I knew she was pregnant I removed the male. Otherwise he would

keep chasing her and drive her crazy. I read an article that the female will do

anything to get away. That is why it is good to have more than one female. It

diversifies the stress.

After she had the babies, I put her back in the big tank, and I gave the babies a

small 3 gallon tank to grow up in. I cut some nylons my daughter had, (she was

mad, but she out grew them) and I put the nylons on the end of the filter so the

fish wouldn't get sucked up. I changed out a little water daily and I ground up

flakes for them to eat twice a day. They are hungry little fish.

About 30 days later, Rose had another litter. They can have babies every 28

days. She had some complications during the second birth. I think she ripped

her abdomen and got an infection. So she passed away.

The babies grew up quickly. I separated the boys and girls and put them in

separate tanks. Most of the boys had dark red tails and they looked beautiful.

There was one boy with a blue tail like the father. I put, what I thought was

the best looking, red tailed male in with the females. Yes, brother with all

those sisters.

5 months later about 4 females were pregnant. I gave away most of the boys for

free and kept the original father and the new father to be. I tried to put two

females in the breeding trap, and they died. I think those traps are just too

small. The female doesn't like being in there. And 2 was way too stressful.

Then a third female died. So I was down to just 3 guppies. In May 2008, I moved the female to

the breeding chamber. She gave birth to 20 babies. I thought she was done so I put her back

in the 10 gallon tank. After my dinner I found babies swimming all over the

place. She had a lot more. It was exciting. I tried to count them, but there

were just too many. At the same time there was also a nasty bug infection. So I

took my net and caught one baby at a time. It was kind of hard because of all

the bugs. I counted 63 young total. Wow. Guppies will eat the young if they

get a chance.

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Afer the young were in a safe place, I took my vacuum tube and tried to suck up

the bugs. Then I put a bleeding heart tetra in the tank and hoped he would stop

the bug problem.

The new young grew and ended up with strange colors. The females grew some half

spotted tails like a cobra guppy. They had black, white, red, blue and yellow.

Two fish looked golden at first with black eyes. One was a male and he grew what

looks like a florecent blue and white tail with one stripe of red. Another male

grew a red tail with black spots.

Not all the young lived. Some just died because they weren't strong enough.

Some were deformed, probably from the inbreeding. And I know it sounds cruel,

but the weak one's became food for my Jack Dempsey Cichlid. In the wild they

would have become food anyway.

There are about 15 of the May batch left. I moved them to a 30 gallon tank.

Since there are many I decided a different approach to babies. I bought some

artificial plants and covered half the tank. The plants were actually on a flat

piece of plastic and stuck closely together to look thick. And it was only a few

inches high. But that is high enough for babies to hide.

I didn't block the filter. I remember when I was 12 I had a see through filter.

Every once in a while I would see baby mollies or guppies swimming in it and

actually growing in there.

In August, a new generation was born. I couldn't tell, but one or two mothers

gave birth. The babies were hiding in or just above the plants. So I think that

plan worked. I caught 9 babies. They all look to be in good shape. Right now

they live in the breeding chamber. Soon I will put them in the 10 gallon tank.

I plan on mating that strange golden floresent male with the new group of babies.

I'd like to get my own color strain and I think I am on the right track. I also

just bought two yellow cobra guppies. I will throw them into the mix. I might

need some new small tanks to develop my own strains. I'm just beginning, but

it's fun.