What is required to breed guppies and how long would it take to see results?

Question

Im looking to breed some fish to feed my bigger fish and heard guppies were the easiest to breed. What supplies would be needed and how long would it take to get some success?

Answer 1

Get a 20 gal breeder tank & lots of bushy hiding places for the babies to hide on the top of the water and at the bottom. Try and get a long tank, since they don't swim much up & down & it will add more surface area for them to hide. The more bushy frilly cover that seperates them from the mothers, the more babies you will have live. Get about 6 females and 2-3 males. Within a month to a month & a half you will have too many babies.

Ideal filtration is a cheap hang on the back filter with a hydro sponge over its input to keep it from sucking up babies.

One ugly trick that can help is keeping a plastic needlepoint mat above the gravel a cm or so. They're about $0.80 at walmart & It makes a good barrier between the parents & fry tank wide for when they're born. It gives the babies a quick escape when they're first born to a safe area and the holes are too small for the parents to get inside. It looks retarded & grows algae, but it works.

You can use real plants, but they tend to be a pain in the butt. Its ideal to just find a good collection of fake breeding plants / breeding mats for guppies. that are bushy & have lots of tiny nooks & crannies.

The more cover the better.

I fed my guppies tetra color flakes, and I dropped wardley shrimp pellets for the females every once and a while. They also appreciate the occasional live brine shrimp. The wardley pellets will bulk up the females pretty quicikly. Each time they birth, they will spit out more babies. So young females might only shoot out 10 babies, while well fed adults can shoot out 40.

I fed my babies Hikari First Bites with good success. It lasted forever for the tiny green pouch they sell for like $3.

Guppies prefer a little bit of salt in the water and they don't like the lights too bright. 30 watts of light is probably the max I would reccommend without live floating plants before they start to become shy. Keeping them from approaching the top layers of the tank by bright lighting is a bad idea.

Ideal temperature is about 79 degrees. They come from pretty warm waters naturally, so 78-80 is good for breeding. Temperatures below 76 may slow their metabolism and breeding habits.

Good luck, even though you will probably not need it. (oh, and it can be done in a 15 gal breeder also)... The bigger the tank, the more output you can support.

Also, don't add any fish to the tank for decoration... Keep it guppies only. Anything that eats junk from the tank will also eat babies.

Answer 2

GOOD LUCK

1)To start breeding guppies, you need at least a ten gallon tank (the larger the tank, the easier it is to cycle and maintain)
2) some kind of air pump,
3) guppy food,
4) some type of sponge filter,
5) heater, thermometer, and last but not least guppies.
***You should buy a male and two females (what we call a trio).
6) Before you buy your trio, you should have had your tank filled with water; your air pump and the sponge filter running for at least twenty-four hours though it is best to wait until the tank is cycled before adding your fish.

7)You will need a water conditioner for when you need to do a partial water change. Water conditioners typically take the chlorine and chloramines (chemicals the water company uses to kill bacteria in tap water) out of the water to make it fish safe.
8) bring your trio into your tank. Take your time as fast changes in water condition causes stress for your guppies, and then they are not in a good mood to breed...When breeding guppies it is preferable to slowly raise the water temperature to 23-28°C (74-82°F). When guppies mate the male will approach the female from below and extend his gonopodium.

9)The gestation period is often about 28 days, but it can range from 21 to roughly 40, however guppies can carry sperm for up to three months. **This is dependent on a number of factors such as temperature and genetics. The female can give birth to between 20-200 fry at a time. The pregnant female has a round belly and also a dark pregnancy mark behind the anal fin (this is called the gravid spot). Take care not to move the pregnant female too near her due date as the stress can cause her to absorb the developing babies or to give birth prematurely. It's a good idea to isolate the pregnant female in a breeding tank, as the female (or other fishes in a community tank) may eat the new born babies. A breeding tank should be heavily planted with live or fake plants to allow the fry to escape from their mother. A breeding trap is a small plastic container that has a plate with small openings (too small for the mother to swim through) separates mother and babies. Breeding traps are debatable on effectiveness and may stress your fish too much. A separate breeding tank is recommended.

A few hours after being born the young fry will eat everything they can manage. You can feed the young fry hatched brine shrimp, powdered or liquid food. The food given must be tiny enough. If not it will be wasted and pollute the tank. You can give live food or freeze dried food.

Answer 3

Platys, mollys, swortails and guppies are all live, rapid breeders and all will eat the fry.
May I suggest since you are planning them for food, that you start with a 20 gallon tank with several mating pairs and a 5-10 gallon tank to transfer the fry into when they are born. Feed fry on either finely crushed flake food or spend a little extra and get tubed fry food, which is a more liquid state and easy for fry to find and eat. The fry will still require plants (plastic is fine) to hide in. Good luck and happy breeding!

Answer 4

well, i bought 2 guppies. a male and a female. they werent even in my 10-gallon fish tank before they were "getting fish friendly". I had them maybe 4 days before the female was noticably pregnant. When the babies are born you either need to take them out of the main tank or keep a VERY close watch on them because the adult fish with eat them as a mistake for food. Well, good luck!

Answer 5

A 10 gallon tank would be a great size, they will also need a heater and filter. I would start off with 1 male and 2 females and in about 28 days, it could be sooner if they are already pregnant when you buy them, you will have babies then in another 28 or so you will have more babies and it will go on like that forever. Since you want the babies to live so they can grow enough for you to feed you will either want lots of plants for them to hid in or use a breeding box to put the female in when she is in labor.

Answer 6

All i ever did was just have a fish tank and places for the babies to hide. Guppies reproduce really quick, within a couple weeks I had babies everywhere. Sometimes at the fish store the fish might already be pregnant.

Answer 7

Get a ten gallon tank that is set up. Then go to Walmart and get 1 or 2 net breeders, 4 female guppies, and 2 male guppies. Throw them in the tank and when one of the females is pregnant set up the breeder net and put her in. When she has babies, you leave them in and take her out. When they are big enough put them in with the larger guppies.

Answer 8

All you need is male guppy and female guppy, then add plants and stuff the fry can hide in and wait. Guppies breed like mad.

Answer 9

Try platies, they breed just as quickly and their fry are larger. They also don't seem to eat the babies as much.