Breeding Mop

[deaver]

So I traded a couple common pleco's for 20 fancy guppies, which i've temporarily placed in a 15ga quaratine tank. I'm wondering if they start spittin out fry, can i leave them with the adult guppies. I bought some fake plants that i plan to place horizontal on the tank bottom as a hiding place along with some upright plants. i gather the more places to hide the better. Also is it a good idea to place a mop head (new of course) hanging in the tank. or do i need to buy wool and make one like i've seen on youtube. also these plants from dollarama, i was planing to soak them over night, should i do anything else? Thank-you.

 

[Cazgar]

If your tank has plenty of hiding places then a lot of fry will survive.
I don't know your male to female ratio, but if you have a lot of females you're soon going to be over run with fry, as they drop every 4/5 weeks, & can have 20/30 fry each time
Not all will survive, but even if only 10 from every female do, then you see the problem
You don't need a spawning mop for guppies as they give birth to live young

 

[OldMan47]

W@wlcome to the forum deaver.
Breeding mops, the kind we seem to all make using yarn, are for breeding killies that are considered "mop breeders", as opposed to the ones that lay their eggs in the mud. I am sure a livebearer fry would use one if it was available but a floating mop is a bit too loose for much cover and a sinking mop would be too tight for the fry to use them effectively.
I have no idea whether a safe mop can be made from a real cleaning type mop head. It is because I have no idea what material that mop head would be made from. The polyester acrylic yarn in a home made mop is basically inert in our water so it is safe to use.

 

[deaver]

cool, thanks. I've had guppies before but only as feeders for my blood parrots. I'm not worried about being overrun with guppies as i'm only using them as feeders again. When i feel i'm getting overrun i'll just place the less colorful adults into the blood parrot tank. i purchased a bunch of plants from dollarama yesterday and currently soaking them in water to see if any residue or oil is released. i was just lookin at my guppy tank and i have a fry hiding behind the heater. there are some plants in the tank already (made for aquarium) so we'll see how long he makes it.

Thanks for the welcome.

I've had fish tanks since 97' today i have 4 on the go. A 77ga with blood parrots and clown loaches. 20ga with juvi angels, 15ga for guppies, and a 30ga with 4 firemouths and 20 convicts. My fish room is started but no tanks in there yet. I have 3-30ga, 1-20ga and 1-5ga in my garage waiting for my build. Plus i'm soon getting a 180ga for my show tank (family room). Once my comvicts become adults most will be given away. The firemouths will have there own tank. the guppies will be moved to a 30ga, as will the angels after being divided and sold, plus i'll be getting kribs and apistogramma's.

 

[OldMan47]

If you want to optimize guppy survival, a nice big clump of java moss works great. Most guppies do not pursue their fry very strongly and java moss inhibits their movement just enough to prevent most predation. If you are just using the fry and adults as food, I am not too crazy to help you improve predation survival from the species itself. After all there is no good justification for feeding guppies to those abominations caklled parrot cichlids. But that is the opinion of a livebearer breeder. In our own club, there is an arowana enthusiast who has found that feeding live fish as food is totally unnecessary. He raises tiny 3 or 4 inch long arowanas to well over 2 feet long with nothing but artificial foods. He happens to also be a doctor of veterinary medicine, a vet who works as an instructor at the university, and publishes his own research results in one of the major fish keeper magazines every month. I will trust his results when it comes to reputed fish nutrition needs. His present opinion is that "feeder fish" are totally unnecessary.