more guppy info needed?

Question

what items should I purchase when breeding guppies? (i've never owned any fish before)
tank, what kind of heater? filter? aquarium salt? food (type of flakes)? lighting? heat lamp? gravel? etc. and any other info i need to know.
oh, and if anyone knows, will petco take fry?

Answer 1

You would probably need three tanks for this purpose. One 15 gallon long tank for your breeding guppies with a good filter, florescent lights on a timer and a submersible heater. A second tank of similar size and equipment as a grow-out tank and a third 5.5 gallon tank with lights, heater and a sponge filter as a fry tank. For fast growing vibrant guppies with large batches of fry you should feed a variety of feeds. Flakes being the staple, but earthworm flakes and pureed beef heart every couple of days will increase the number of fry and frozen brine shrimp is a good idea. Fry will eat finely ground flakes and frozen baby brine shrimp. Each tank will need at least three inches of gravel (for plants to root in) and lots of plants. You may need to supplement with the occasional CO2 for the health of the plants. Most pet stores will take semi-mature guppies from you but they will not buy them from you (you may be able to get some store credit). You should keep some salt for freshwater aquariums on hand as well. Do some research on cycling new tanks before you buy any fish, and check out these sites.
http://www.guppies.com/forums/
http://www.guppylabs.info/january2004/default.htm
A

Answer 2

Livebearers
Livebearers are generally very easy to breed. Like most other fish, the hard part is raising the fry. Generally the parents and other fish in the tank become predators to newly hatched fry but there are several solutions to this problem.
The easiest solution is to provide good cover and hiding places for the fry in the form of plant cover like anacharis* and hornwort*. This will help but some will still get eaten. Another solution is to buy a breeding net, which provides a separate compartment in the aquarium for the mother before she drops the fry. After dropping the fry the mother can be removed so the fry are separated from the rest of the tank by the breeding net. Along the same lines the mother and fry can be placed in a separate aquarium so the mother can be separated from the fry when they are born. Breeding traps are also utilized which keep the mother confined with a grating that the fry can pass through.

The fry can be fed baby brine shrimp, which is usually purchased frozen, or can be hatched from brine shrimp eggs. Also pulverized flake food, which is sold as baby fish food, and hardboiled egg yolk strained through a cloth.

Answer 3

I would buy a guppy breeder. They have a couple different types. It can be a pain to try and catch all of those little suckers. Make sure you put her in there when you know for sure she is going to have them. Otherwise she can get stressed out and it will take her longer to have the babies. I have a ten gallon to put all my babies in and a divided ten gallon for the adults. Otherwise they breed out of control. I just got a normal heater for a ten gallon for both tanks. For the adults you can have any filter but for the babies you may want to use a sponge filter. That way the babies wont get sucked up. The best part is you just take them out one a month and rinse them off so no cartridges. I never used salt except to kill some parasites in my tank. For food I just crushed up normal fish flakes so they were small enough for the little babies to eat. I also mixed up some blood worms and baby brine shrimp in it. They seemed to really like it. You can pretty much have normal lighting. Guppies don't seem to care. I never used a heat lamp since I just had a heater. I wouldn't use gravel for the baby tank but make sure you have lots of plants around for them to hide in and feel safe. Petland buys my fry. I would call Petco and ask because I am not so sure about them.

Answer 4

Easier not to have gravel if your just raising babies. You'll need a tank, heater and a filter. NO aquarium salt, because guppies are not salt water fish. No heat lamp for an aquarium that is why you buy the heater. And most takes comes with a lid that has a light built in.

Answer 5

10 gallon Aquarium with hood and light(some come with filters also for about $29),water,start right,flake food,gravel. I don't know about Petco but our local pet store will take them but will not pay anything for them.

Answer 6

Ohhhhhh,,, you dont need much dear, just start out with 5 guppies in a 20 gallon aquarium,I bought the whole set up aquarium @ Wal-Mart, before long you will have 60 guppie's like me, I have had to but 2 more 20 gallon aquariums up. Them guppies are also known as millions fish, once they are bred, they are for life, no need for them to remate to be pregnant again.
Now you do have to watch out for the parents, they WILL eat their young, Just @ the time you think she's fixing to pop with her youngins put her in a breeder net, or the plastic one, once she has them, let mama out.