Breeding Guppies (first Time)

[rossyboy]

Hi i'm pretty new to breeding. I've currently got an 80L tank with my main stock in and then a separate 30litre tank with 6 guppies in, with 2 shrimp friends lol.

I seem to have at least 3 pregnant females. I've also got an older tank which is a basic plastic tank... nothing special about it.



Now i've got two options, and i'd like you guys to tell me which is the best?

1. When a females around a week ready, I transfer her alone to the plastic tank with no substrate and just a heater (has no filter) then remove her once she's given birth.

2 Use a breeding trap that i bought in the small 30 litre tank, this tank has a sponge filter.


Advice please guys!



Forgot to add-

What about placing a divide in the 30litre tank? for the fry to stay in?

 

[kribensis12]

I would go with option 1. A divider wouldnt serperate the baby fry as they are so small they can swim through/under it.

 

[3ndl3r]

here is what i would do.

place the pregnant females in the plastic tank once you get some form of filtration they need filters (or daily water changes) . get hold of some spawning mops (got some going cheap if you're interested.) once they drop remove the adults and raise the fry in the plastic tank.

 

[rossyboy]

Whats a spawning mop?

 

[LauraFrog]

Guppy fry have a much better chance of not being eaten by the mother if they have shelter - thick plants ie. cabomba (had very good results with cabomba, phenomenal fry survival rate in tank with adults) or spawning mops. A spawning mop is basically a float with a heap of cloth or plastic tentacles attached that hang down into the water for the fry to shelter among. They're used with egglayers - many like to attach eggs on them (like killifish).

I have kept guppies (when I was clueless, eight years old) in a vastly overstocked tank with no filtration and no aeration, I fed them once a day, did not overfeed and changed the water once a week, every week, without fail. I did not lose a single guppy until I'd had them for a year and eight months. They are tough. If you're doing a partial daily water change, I would not worry about filtration in that tank. Pumps are very cheap, though, so it might be an idea to run an airstone.

I put my platies in a plastic container from Crazy Clarks, it's three or four litres (around one gallon) in capacity. It was sold as a vegetable steamer, and it has a plastic colander with small holes that sits inside it. As the fry are born, they drop through the slats and are safe from the mother. She WILL try to eat them.