Fry Control For A 20 Gal?

[KrystaK]

So I have a 20 gal, black sand, live plants, well established, it's lovely.

I haven't really planned my stock, I was hoping for 5-6 Peppered Cory's OR a BNP as bottom feeders. I still haven't decided yet.

Anyways. I was really hoping to get a few Guppies and trying some selective breeding.
The only problem I have is that, I don't want to keep ALL the fry that will be produced, only certain ones.
I don't want to cull perfectly healthy fry, but I have no problem using them as food for my other fish.

I have a 30 gal with a 3 inch Gourami in it whom I'm sure would be of some use in fry control, but I wouldn't mind getting a center piece fish for this 20 gal that would be extra control.
I was wondering if anyone has any ideas? I was thinking Dwarf Gourami possibly, but I'm not sure on it.

I wasn't sure where to post this, but any suggestions would be appreciated

 

[Crossfire]

Dwarf Gouramis would work. Even the adult guppies eat the babies. Just don't provide the babies with cover, and when there are babies, cut down on feeding as to make the gourami hungry.

 

[snazy]

How are you going to do selective breeding if your centerpiece gourami and adult guppies eat most the fry? You'll just end up with whatever stays alive and it does take a few months for guppies to show their colours, so your "culls" can be quite big by the time that happens and I doubt it your 3" gourami would eat them at the size you need to grow them to before you cull, at least most of them. I would rather figure how to give them away to an LFS or just advertise the excess amount for free on a local website of some sort.

Also, how are you gonna make sure the female has mated with the male you want her to if all you are going to have for the guppies is just one 20G tank. You may end up with 20-30 fry the first time and the 20 gallon will be overstocked with the fry once they grow to a colourful size. You also need to separate males/females as early as you can distinguish to prevent them from breeding randomly if you are going to do selective breeding, so in general, several tanks are needed to breed selectively.