what can you do to stimulate guppies to breed?

Question

Other than putting them in a trio (two females and a male)

what can you do??? raise temp ? add some salt ?? what can i do ??

Answer 1

They really don't require any particular stimulation. Male guppies are like freshman guys at a sorority party. Here's a method of breeding guppies that has always served me very well.

Breeding guppies really is just as simple as most people say it is but if you really want to be serious about it there are a few considerations.

Tank requirements: You need to have two tanks at least 10 gallons in size. The first one should be cycled and all settled ready for your new guppies. The second should be filled with water and have a sponge filter running. It should also gave a heater and lots of hiding places for the babies. Set up both tanks and keep the temperature in both about 74-78 F, guppies will do well in that range. pH, hardness and other water conditions are not very important to guppies. They tolerant a very wide range of parameters.

Feeding: For the adults you need to feed a good basic flake food as well as the occasional treat of frozen foods. Buy a couple of them to swap between, blood wroms, mosquito larvae, brine shrimp are all good. For the babies you need baby brine shrimo to feed for the first few days and some cruches flake to start mixing in after that. Yes, you can just crush the flake you use for the adults.

The Fish: Get 1 male for every 2-3 females. No need to get many, after all you expect to breed plenty! Most you find at pet stores will already be pregnant so if you are really serious about getting just the right color you will need to by from a serious breeder or be prepared to work at it a while.

The mating: Just put them together and they will do the rest.

Once the female is very gravid (pregnant) move her to the empty tank and leave her there until she has the babies. Once she has them you can more her back to the main tank. Feed the babies fairly often, 4-5 times a day isn't too often and change 40 - 50% of the tank water every 2-3 days. The larger the babies get the more often you will have to change water until the babies are adults.

Raising the babies: Feed the babies fairly often, 4-5 times a day isn't too often and change 40 - 50% of the tank water every 2-3 days. The larger the babies get the more often you will have to change water until the babies are adults. Install a tank divider in the baby tank as soon as possible and once you can tell males from females start to seperate them. Most serious breeders end up using two tanks, so you might want to plan on that in the future. Seperate them as soon as possible! Also do not give up on the water changes! They are critical for proper growth! I cannot stress this enough!

Culling: Culling is removing undesirable fish from your stock. Remove any deformed fish you see as soon as you see them. It's not uncommon to have a few deformed fish. Humanely kill these as you certainly don't want them breeding. Once the babies are nearly grown you will be able to pick out the best looking male and best lookig females. This is where color choice comes in. You will most likely have fish of two or three different colors. Return you original fish and the extra babies to the pet store or donate them to another fish keeper, to a school, whatever. Place your best male and three best females in the now empty main tank. and let them do what come naturally. Then you will start the whole process over.

While you are raising the babies, you will have babies from one of the other females too if not both of them. You will have to choose, set up another tank for them or leave them with the adults to do as well as they can. Your call. As you can see, you could end up with tanks all over the house in no time at all, so be aware you can't keep them all! LOL

After a few generations you will need to add fresh breeding stock to your line. Try to find a really good looking male that fits your colors and breed him to some of your females for fresh genes in the line. Doing this every so often will improve your fish and prevent problems from too much inbreeding. Inbreeding fixes traits in the line, both good traits and bad traits, so bring in new stock from time to time.

If you really fall in love with guppy breeding you will really want to be a member of the IFGA (International Fancy Guppy Association). They can teach you so much more than this basic over view and the members are a great source of really superior breeding stock. You can find their website online.

Hope this helps a little and good luck with your breeding efforts!

MM

Answer 2

It's natural to breed, put females and males together. The more the better because there will be a larger chance of one liking another. After you get some to breed, seperate them again because then the have fry like crazy.

Answer 3

LOL! I like that Magic! Freshman at a sorority party! But, it's true. Why would you want to stimulate guppies anyway? They certainly do well enough all on their own. They put a proud rabbit to shame. Don't worry about your guppies. You will find yourself with more guppies than you know what to do with soon enough!

Answer 4

put them together, feed them, keep the temp about 70. the harder question is probably how to keep them from breeding...guppies and mollies are very prolific...kinda like rabbits.

Answer 5

slip some fish Viagra in the tank

Answer 6

Be patient-mine always did it on their own when the time was right.

Answer 7

condition them wth frozen foods and you'll get them really ready

Answer 8

well your first ansewr is probably the best way to get them to mate.

Answer 9

rub their bellies......lol