Breeding Duration

[Scott R Burton]

so. my female guppy gave birth 3 weeks friday ago. how long till she gives birth to the next batch? she is really big and and her bump isn't round no more, its become ages.. i imagine it'll be soon?

 

[fluttermoth]

Guppes give birth every 28-32 days (it varies slightly with temperature), so she'll probably drop in another week or so.

 

[Scott R Burton]

ok thank you! umm my two babies that are still in the breeding net at the moment are growing a lot and seem a pretty decent size after 3 weeks..when would you say its best to set them free into the main tank with my two other guppies and one dwarf gourami?

 

[fluttermoth]

Yes, they should be big enough now, but if you really want to breed guppies, you'll need, at some point, to set up a separate fry rearing tank of 10 or 20 g; breeding nets just don't have enough volume, and the water flow through them isn't good enough to keep the growth inhibiting hormones the fry produce to a low level.

 

[Scott R Burton]

i put the 2 baby guppies in the main tank last night and left them for a bit, they seemed to be doing pretty well! one chilling/relaxing in one of my live plants and the other on top/behind the filter now and then..but then now and then the heavily female guppy would chase them..whereas the dwarf gourami and my other female guppy was fine around them so to be on the safe side i put them back inthe breeding net. they are 3 weeks old tomorrow and are fairly big. shall i give it another go and put them in the main tank and leave them in there?

 

[Tizer]

its really up to you, you know your fish. its not like you wont have hundreds more fry to experiment with

 

[fluttermoth]

The adults will chase them a bit, but they're better off left in the main tank.

 

[Scott R Burton]

haha tizer you're right! i'll soon be landed with a load more fry, and until i experiment i'll never find out! Thanks