Firt Time... Guppies

[blaxicanlatino]

Im about to purchas some guppies, what should I know about them? care? food? temperature? aggressive? salt? fin nippers?
1 male 2 female rule? I want to buy 1 male for a week then add 2 females later... can i do that? what kind of guppy should I buy? what are their breeding habbits?

 

[5teady_2012]

Im about to purchas some guppies, what should I know about them? care? food? temperature? aggressive? salt? fin nippers?
1 male 2 female rule? I want to buy 1 male for a week then add 2 females later... can i do that? what kind of guppy should I buy? what are their breeding habbits?

Food... good diet including, flake, live/frozen foods, high protein foods.

Temperature.... 24-28C (most keep them at 26C)

Males can be aggresive if no females present but very rare.

No salt is required (unles wanting to boost medications)

Guppy are not fin nippers

1 male to every 2-4 females

Guppys will breed usually every 4 weeks and have from 1-100 fry - (can be between 4-6 weeks though) - females hold sperm packets and can have fry for up to 6 months even if the male is removed..

Hope this answers most of what u needed to know.

Wayne

 

[pastabake]

I keep my guppies at 22C and if it wasn't for the other tank mates I'd have it at room temp. Temperature affects metabolism so its good for them to have a higher temp when fry and growing on and a lower temp when adult, and if you are having both M&F you'll be getting a near constant supply of fry - not that many will escape from being eaten unless you put them in a separate tank.

 

[DevUK]

Guppies eat their fry then? Bugger. I just got 2 pairs of lovely Red lace snakeskin guppies at the BLA auction yesterday. They look amazing! Both the females are gravid. Might have to figure out a second tank for them...

 

[lilfishie]

some do others don't depends on the fish itself, if well fed though they shouldn't bother fry much

 

[moll]

If you have plenty of ground cover plants you could keep a good few fry if you try something like a artificial moss ball- search eaby to see what I mean I have a dome of artificial grass it is hollow on the inside and the fry live under it. I will try to find a picture.

Here it is it's weighted down with a few marbles as no matter how many weights I add it still floats you can fold it in half to have a floating "ball"

 

[DevUK]

I have good plant cover, including a ball of Taiwan moss that I put in incase they "dropped". I figured more cover the better anyway. Its anoying, I think I saw one of the females give birth to a fry. I looked over to the tank and for a split second I saw something dart away from the mother and one of the males dart at it, but whatever it was got away. I spent ages looking for a fry in the undergrowth but didn't see anything. Typically I had to go to work then!

Do Guppies give birth to all their young in one go, or is it a drawn out thing, taking a few hours or something?

 

[rmanpf]

ussually it is spread out in an hour or two. sometimes longer.