thankyou so much,
the reason i asked you was because i have two tanks one which is a community tank and the other which i used for breeding. The reson i say used is because it got cracked and i had to go and buy a new one and i'm now waiting for it to cycle.
in the breeding tank i had four female guppies and a couple of female platties, and sadly as my stock of male guppies slowly started to pass away because of their short lifespan, i would put one male in withthe females and waited until they showed signs of pregnancy and then put him back. this way i controlled the amount and variety that i bred, the males that i liked were then put into my main tank as show when the numbers got low, the rest of the males and females would then be either given away to friends or swapped with my local suppliers for either new fish,food, etc....
when my tank is ready i'm going to introduce some new females again but this time only breed guppies and go for the more rarest breeds such as moscows, albinos and if lucky try and create a pink line.
i know that its great to have both sexes together but its taking control of the situation and less stressful to deal with by seperating them.
females can grow upto 3" and are not as energetic as the males and they only get hounded all day long from horny males, this can be a cause of death in females, either being hounded or bred far too much so they need time to rest and stay healthy.
my males love being in the large tank together and spend all day playing tag and dancing and dont miss the presence of females.
i was thinking that because you have a strong desire to breed them, then this would be good idea for you try so that your original problem would not happen again.
one note is that i always leave my females to drop their fry in the tank rather the breeding trap, that way the amount that survive before i can catch them and put into a breeding trap to grow in safety is controlled and i dont end up with loads of unwanted fish and its also less stressful for the expectant mothers.
Darren
At least I have more chances of the fry staying alive long enough for me to move them to another tank. I just started with guppies but I chose them mainly because they were so easy to breed.
will leave that decition to you.
just click on my name in the forum and click add as friend. I will be getting pictures of my guppies soon hpefully...
