A Few Questions Please

[keesh121]

1) i have 3 pregnant guppies i have just ordered a breeding trap so i expect most of them to survive. How quickly do they grow to a sellable size?

2) my LFS sells guppies at £1.70 for a male and £1.40 for females they have said they will take them off my hands when they are at a suitable size how much should i reallistically expect from them per fish in cash or credit?

3) how can you tell if a mollie is pregnant?

4)how long does it take for a mollie fry to grow to a safe size?

 

[Annastasia]

1. It depends on what you feed, and how fast they just naturally grow. I'd say 6-10 months though. One breeder trap is not going to be sufficent for 3 Guppies' monthly batches. You can only keep about one batch in there, and that's only for a few weeks. I'd suggest you get a breeder tank, if you're really going to get into raising and selling them.

2. Mmmm...probably not much, if your LFS is anything like most of them.

3. Mostly they'll just be fat. Sometimes they'll have a visibly darker gravid spot, but not all Molly's gravid spots show through, since they have thicker skin then say...Guppies.

4. A safe size for what?

 

[nmonks]

Hello keesh121,

I'm not a guppy expert, but I do breed halfbeaks, and one thing not to imagine is that you will make a profit by the end of it. Even with "rare" livebearers like halfbeaks the money I get for a batch of fish at sellable size is less than the cost of the small air pump used in the breeding tank to raise them as fry!

A breeding trap is an extremely short term solution to raising fry. A week, maybe two, even three weeks at most. Guppy fry are very small, to be sure, but confining them to a breeding trap isn't going to work long term. If you're even half-serious, get a 10 gallon tank and equip it with a small heater and an air-powered filter.

Bear in mind that confining a pregant fish, let alone three of them, to a breeding trap will stress them. Stressed fish tend to miscarry, which obviously defeats the object of the exercise. I would suggest leaving the females where they are but making sure the tank is well planted. Floating plants like hornwort are ideal. Then check each day for babies, and remove the babies to the breeding trap. I don't net babies; I prefer to use a small plastic cup (the kind that come with aquarium medicines are ideal). Scoop the babies up and into the trap using the cup. Even a big spoon might work well.

I don't know about guppies or mollies, but halfbeaks take about 3-4 months to grow to a size worth selling them at. I don't actually sell them, just trade them in for more fish or plants. Stores tend to give much more credit than cash. For credit, I get about 1/4 to 1/2 what the store sells them for. That strikes me as being a fair price.

Pregnant livebearers often develop a "gravid spot" which is a patch close to the anal fin. Typically, the darker the spot, the closer they are to delivery. This isn't a hard-and-fast rule, though.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[keesh121]

a safe size for letting back into my tank

 

[nmonks]

Simple; when they're too big too be eaten.

At least two months, possibly longer if you have predatory fish (e.g. angels) in the community tank. If you keep the fry in a separate, well-filtered aquarium and feed them regularly (3-4 times a day) you will grow them at the fastest possible rate. Forget about raising them in a breeding trap for two months. Pointless. If you want to sell the baby fish, you want to maximise the numbers that survive. Invest in a 10 gallon tank, and raise the fry in there. It'll work out much more profitable over the long term.

Cheers,

Neale

a safe size for letting back into my tank

 

[keesh121]

Simple; when they're too big too be eaten.

At least two months, possibly longer if you have predatory fish (e.g. angels) in the community tank. If you keep the fry in a separate, well-filtered aquarium and feed them regularly (3-4 times a day) you will grow them at the fastest possible rate. Forget about raising them in a breeding trap for two months. Pointless. If you want to sell the baby fish, you want to maximise the numbers that survive. Invest in a 10 gallon tank, and raise the fry in there. It'll work out much more profitable over the long term.

Cheers,

Neale

a safe size for letting back into my tank

would i be able to keep baby guppies and mollies in a 10gal

 

[nmonks]

Yes. A 10 gallon tank is an ideal size for keeping baby fish up to around 2-3 cm in length, at which size, being about as big as a neon, they're safe to put back into a community tank. You don't need to spend much: you don't need a hood, or lights. The only "expensive" items are the heater and the filter. For the filter, use an air-powered design if you can (they don't suck up baby fish!).

I keep my tank in the kitchen close to a sunny window. That way I can dump in a bunch of hornwort and cabomba and let them grow by sunshine. Add a tiny bit of sand or gravel to the bottom of the tank; just enough to cut out reflections (fish hate shiny bottoms!) but not enough to get dirty.

You should be able to set up such a tank for around 30 UKP, perhaps less if you already have some of the bits and bobs. Sounds expensive, but since you'll be able to raise at least 30 fry per brood, and sell them for 50p a piece, you'll quickly recoup the cost.

Have fun! It's actually really rewarding growing on a tank of fish. In a community tank, you hardly see the babies, but in their own quarters they are much more settled and bold, so you watch these miniature marvels develop and grow. It's one of the nicest parts of the hobby, breeding fish, and definitely the mark of dedicated, experienced aquarists.

Cheers,

Neale

would i be able to keep baby guppies and mollies in a 10gal