Guppies In Bulk And Breeding

[always4lora]

Hi'

I'm in need of guppies in bulk to feed my hydrolicus while it's small, does anyone know anywhere in the UK where i can get bulk orders? Also do you know how many i'd need to be able to breed enough to feed 4/5 a day without running out?

 

[Lyra0727]

Well I dont know where to get them in the UK since I'm in the US but guppies can have up to 70 fry if lucky.. average is around 30 if using a breeder trap. If the tank you keep them in are very well planted you may have a bigger outcome as well. When you say 4/5 do you mean 4 to 5 a day or 4, five times a day.. Sorry for asking but just have to make sure.

I would personally breed around maybe 5 females with a male or two. Depending on the size you want the fry to be when using them as feeder fish. But at least if you have around 5 then you can have them give birth around different times and you should be good.

 

[always4lora]

Hi'

I'd be feeding them a couple of times a day with a couple each time. so if i had like 50 adult guppy's to start with i'd be alright ?

 

[Lyra0727]

well if your feeding a couple times a day yeah that sounds about right. They say 2-3 females per male. So maybe 35 females and 15 males? Or maybe 40 females and 10 males? You dont need that many males.

But becareful not to get overwhlemed with trying to handel that many of guppies at one time.. unless your tank is very well planted the adult guppies will munch on the fry as well.

I hope your fish eat a lot.. guppies breed fast!

 

[always4lora]

well if your feeding a couple times a day yeah that sounds about right. They say 2-3 females per male. So maybe 35 females and 15 males? Or maybe 40 females and 10 males? You dont need that many males.

But becareful not to get overwhlemed with trying to handel that many of guppies at one time.. unless your tank is very well planted the adult guppies will munch on the fry as well.

I hope your fish eat a lot.. guppies breed fast!

Thanks for the advise, now just need to find somehwere to buy that many! my LFS charge around £1.50 a guppy!

 

[Lyra0727]

Yeah, you would probably be best off finding a breeder near you that just happens to be over stocked. Good luck! Hope everything works out well for you!

 

[always4lora]

got 10 today as theyve gone up to £2.40 each! put them ina poly box with a 24/7 water change system , some plants and gravel. Hopefully shold have multipying soon.

Any idea how long it takes to get going? Got 3 males and 7 females.

 

[Lyra0727]

It wont take long for the females to get pregnant(if they arent already). But it takes about 3-5 weeks until they give birth. If your going to have them give birth in the main take with the others you might want to have some extra plants floating at the top.. or have a breeders trap.

Here is a link to a forum explaining the stages of a guppy when pregnant:
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/200198-the-stages-of-a-guppy-pregnancy-and-more/

 

[OldMan47]

You can expect that each adult female guppy will produce about 1 fry per day on average. That means about 30 fry per drop at 30 day intervals. If you need to feed 5 adults per day, you need 5 reproductive adult females where the the fry are all successfully reared to adulthood. A better estimate would be about 7 adult females for each of the fish you are feeding. Since you want adult sized fish as fish food, you will need huge resources in terms of tank space and dry fish food for your feeder fish. The feeder fish must be given time and food resources to grow big enough to use as feeders.
As a livebearer breeder, my perspective is a bit different to yours. My own questions are more often around subjects like how many convict fry I would need to breed to satisfy the hunger of my livebearers. As is true of any fish, fry prey fish that will fit in the mouth of a predator is great fish food.

 

[always4lora]

You can expect that each adult female guppy will produce about 1 fry per day on average. That means about 30 fry per drop at 30 day intervals. If you need to feed 5 adults per day, you need 5 reproductive adult females where the the fry are all successfully reared to adulthood. A better estimate would be about 7 adult females for each of the fish you are feeding. Since you want adult sized fish as fish food, you will need huge resources in terms of tank space and dry fish food for your feeder fish. The feeder fish must be given time and food resources to grow big enough to use as feeders.
As a livebearer breeder, my perspective is a bit different to yours. My own questions are more often around subjects like how many convict fry I would need to breed to satisfy the hunger of my livebearers. As is true of any fish, fry prey fish that will fit in the mouth of a predator is great fish food.

Cheers I have enough tanks to house them in large numbers and loads of food stacked up from my last US import just not enough money to buy them at £2 odd each fish to start with so have to start with a small number, i believe hydrolicus can go a couple of weeks without food so can just nip to the shop and buy a couple every couple of weeks until have a colony going. In the mean time i'll continue to try and get the little blighter to eat something dead already!

 

[always4lora]

Had a quick look in the poly box they've been living in and a few do look pretty fat so seems to be a good size, i've put a couple of bits of my fluval fx5 sponge in there so the fry should have somewhere to hide along with the plants in there. I'm running a 24\7 water change on there so it's not got a filter in the tank for them to get sucked into and the hight of the overflow would be awkward for them to get in there.

I've just ordered a little sponge filter for my other tank , should i move the pregnant one's in there once the filter turns up or just move the fry once theyve appeared?

 

[OldMan47]

If you want to optimize fry count, a breeder box or tons of cover is your best bet. No fry should be expected to automatically survive in a tank that contains predators but you are faced with the need to preserve lots of fry from every female in your tank. That means a dense cover of something like java moss to get high fry survival rates and still removing most fry to another tank to grow bigger. Unless you have at least 100 gallons of tank space for each predator you are raising, you will have a hard time rearing enough guppies to satisfy daily adult guppy feedings.

 

[always4lora]

If you want to optimize fry count, a breeder box or tons of cover is your best bet. No fry should be expected to automatically survive in a tank that contains predators but you are faced with the need to preserve lots of fry from every female in your tank. That means a dense cover of something like java moss to get high fry survival rates and still removing most fry to another tank to grow bigger. Unless you have at least 100 gallons of tank space for each predator you are raising, you will have a hard time rearing enough guppies to satisfy daily adult guppy feedings.

It is only the hydrolicus that will not dead dead food or pellets, it'd be intresting to keep the guppies in a 100g with the hydrolicus, definatly add some colour to the tank

 

[rockieiscool23]

At the stre common guppies can go for 14 cents in the U.S I dont know about U.K.

 

[OldMan47]

The are a bit more than that in the US but feeder guppies are feeders. One of the local fish shops sells zebra danios as cheap feeders because they can be grown even faster than guppies. They sell them at about 3/4 inch length but anyone with room to breed guppies by the hundreds could easily grow those up for a couple of weeks before feeding them to a predator.