Fancy & Blue Lyrletail Guppies - To Breed Or Not To Breed?

[savethefishes]

Im new here everyone! My name is Amber and this is my first question/post! Okay ..... my setup is pretty simple I have a 10 gallon with 4 male guppies - there are 2 Fancy Guppies and 2 Blue Lyrletail Guppies. They are starting to nip at one another and bullying. I think they are just "ready" for females? I would love to add females and make them happy BUT the last time I had an aquarium with a mixture of male/female fish it got out of hand! I had nowhere to take the fry and the breeding kept continuing. I have no problem in getting another aquarium for the fry to "grow up" in, but what would I do with the fish once they are grown? I dont think my LFS would buy any from me either. They are VERY particular! And nobody I know has a tank. I want all of my male guppies to be happy and live a long fishy life, but then again I dont want history to repeat itself and there to be fish and fry EVERYWHERE, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

 

[lilfishie]

i'd say if your not ready for loads of tanks or have somewhere for the fry to go then stay clear of breeding, i started with a trio now have 4 tanks full

if the males are nipping get a few more to help spread the aggression

 

[savethefishes]

Its not that Im not ready. I just dont know what to do with the babies if there because 100+ like before! Im sure I would choose a few and keep out of each breed and put them into the 10 gallon that I have now and then put the 4 male guppies that I have now into a 20+ gallon tank. What do you all do with your fry? Sell them to LFS? Donate them? Keep them? Re-breed them?

i'd say if your not ready for loads of tanks or have somewhere for the fry to go then stay clear of breeding, i started with a trio now have 4 tanks full

if the males are nipping get a few more to help spread the aggression

 

[lilfishie]

At the minute my breeding has slowed down a lot, also i don't seperate females to give birth so only get the 2/3 i see out of the tank, i do tend to keep the best males and females for myself the others go to friends or the lfs

 

[savethefishes]

Sorry I am still getting used to this forum.
I am not comfortable adding any more fish because I also have 2 other fish with the 4 male guppies - a Bumblebee Catfish and a Green Cory Catfish. They are bottom feeders and nocturnal. They could care less as long as theyre water is clean and warm! Those catfish will be taking the majoriy of the room up in that tank for the next few months until I start them up their own then they will be moved. (So, in the meanwhile my 4 guppies wont be getting anymore friends unless its females of course! ) I also thought it would help if I added more fish, that is how I ended up with the Lyrletails! They are actually veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy territorial and nippy! It made the aggressive problems worse. My fancy guppies were bored with one another and inseperable, now they just have company they want to GO AWAY!

 

[lilfishie]

if you add females you'll need 8, the general ratio is 2 females to every one male,

i have lyretails too, they just appeared from a red male and plain female, now the main breeding male is a lyretail so get quite a few, get the odd red now and then too

 

[savethefishes]

WOAH! Thats a lot of loving! Wouldnt that max out my tank, especially with the 2 catfish in there temporarily?

Did you say your 2 guppies created lyrletail guppies?

 

[lilfishie]

Yep they just sprung up, however i do know that the dad of the red was lyretail so it was in the genes already

i didn't actuall create them, i just got some in my breeding

 

[savethefishes]

Well, one of my lyrletails just died!