66 Litre- Guppies

[millionfish]

Hi everyone.
I have an old Clearseal 24” x 12” x 15” tank that holds around 66 litres (14.5 uk gal). I’ve used it for baby goldfish in the past, all of which went into a friend’s pond when grown on.
I wanted to try a tropical tank and so have been preparing it for tropical fish.
I have cycled the filter; the process was made easier by the donation of some mature filter media from a friend of my sister.
Ammonia is reading 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 5-10ppm
PH 8
(tested with an API masters kit)
Internal Filter Eheim Aquaball 2210
Air pump Rena 100
Heater Hagen Elite 100w
I was hoping to get some small, novice level, tropical fish. I like the look of guppies and would love to start a small breeding group. I have checked with my local fish shop and they are willing to buy fry and sub-adults from me if my fry numbers get too high.
I was just wondering about peoples opinions on stocking levels for a 66 litre tank and what would be the ideal ratio of male to female as I have read conflicting information on different caresheets.
It may be possible for me to start up a second tank of a similar size at a later date as this would allow me to either use it as a fry tank or to split the males and females. Again I’ve read different opinions on this, some say that it is the most successful way to selectively breed, others say that it stresses the males too much.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I would also love to see any pictures of peoples guppies

 

[cowboy507]

you might want to post this over in the liverbearers forum.
but i could put in my 2 cents
from my experience, guppies are easy to bred, they do it like rabbits.
but if you want a good breeding system, it is a little harder.
theres lots of genetics involved
many tanks are usually the way to go (for fry, breeding, for adults, different size of fry, ect)
i believe that the liverbearer forum has lots of info, check it out

 

[millionfish]

ok thanks very much for your help I shall re post in the livebearers section.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Millionfish.
The decision of which way to go about breeding guppies is really best answered by considering what you want to do. If your main aim is to develop and improve a guppy line that you really like, you will need several small tanks and separate male and female tanks so that you can control who breeds with who. If you are interested in just expanding the population of fish and just returning the fish to the pet shop when they get big enough, a single large tank with room for the fry to grow is all that you will need. I mostly breed rarer livebearers that recently were brought in from wild populations. Since my objective is to help the wild species survive, I place a different species in each tank but let the fish breed freely in that tank. By doing so I eliminate any influence that my selections might have on the population and am able to maintain some of the genetic diversity that existed in those wild fish. You are unlikely to encounter wild populations of guppies because they are only native to a small area in the Caribbean and in South America. On the other hand the guppy has been introduced into many other parts of the world for mosquito control and is feral in those locations. This means that you will be offered fish that are called wild and are not from any place that a guppy would naturally exist. Some of them are quite attractive fish but you should realize that they are not really a wild species that would be worth preserving in the sense that a wild fish might be. Of course that makes them no less attractive to people who like the look of wild fish.