Temperature To Stop Guppies Breeding?

[nurglespuss]

Hi all, one of my friends has a small guppy tank and is at the risk of getting overrun with fry very quickly, I know the obvious answer is to seperate the males/females, but they aren't prepared to purchase a second small tank.

So, years abo, back in the day as it were, we used to keep guppies all year round, and reduce their temperature to 18'C over the inter months to preven breeding, and rest the stock, then increase the temp as daylight hours became longer for a 'breeding season'. however, after seeiing how delicate guppies seem to have become nowadays (from all the line breeding etc) I'm not so sure...

What temp would you recommend (from experience if possible, I don't want to kill her fish! ;p

Cheers!

 

[MBOU]

They are a tropical fish, they need to be kept at about 24-26 deg C for a reason...

A tropical fish is designed to live in warmer water, they need that warmer water to function. By lowering the temperature, you arent only stopping them breeding, but as they are a cold blooded fish with a need for a diet including a fair ammount of protein... they cant digest food when they are too cold. It can make them slower and more lethargic because they just arent getting the nutrients out of the food as they cant digest it properly...

They need to sperate them or rehome them.

 

[This Old Spouse]

+1 and very well explained. You could buy her a nice fish that would cull the herd.

 

[Akasha72]

I have male and female guppies and the females are on their 3rd pregnancy. I've only seen the odd fry and they don't live for long. Generally the fish eat them all. My Dad used to keep a pictus catfish in his tank to "hoover up" and that worked wonders. Failing that my lfs has said they will take any fry that do survive that I don't want so it's always worth asking your local store if they would do the same

 

[nurglespuss]

Cheers guys, I know they are tropical fish, I know guppies are fine down to 22'C/72'F (thats the lower end of their range), their mid range is the 24-26'C.

So we'll try that and see if it at leasts slows the breeding down, it probably won't stop it.

Unfortunately she is not willing to rehome the male and female (except asking to put them in my tank - which is fully stocked and has too strong a water flow).

Her tank is too small for anything to eat them, which is what I would normally try.

Thanks for the advice though

 

[smokeyjo]

I would say put 1 or 2 red eye tetras in there to deal with the fry but they would kill the parents too I lost 5 guppys before I realised what was killing them but if she isn't willing to get a new tank or rehome them she's fighting a losing battle as we all know guppys are known for their breeding habits

 

[the_lock_man]

You could try removing some plants, to give the fry less space to hide. ANother possibility is to feed them less, so the adults are more prone to eat the fry themselves.

 

[nurglespuss]

Ahhhh good tip

 

[fish48]

As long as you Don’t let them go below of 18'C i would recommend a temp of 20’C. it Won't prevent them from breeding at the low temp- fry broods will be preceded 7- 8 weeks.

 

[nurglespuss]

Thanks