Guppies

[crystalcavies]

Hi all

I have breed a number of guppies babies, mother goes in breeder trap if I catch her in time when she looks as if she is looking for somewhere to hide to give birth. and then transfers carefully to a larger trap that hasn't got any dividers, they get put in the main tank once they are bigger than the biggest mouthed fish, at present platies, normally when a slight faint colour to tail begins to appear. some grow slower than others, but seem to catch up quickly

I have removed the first lot a few weeks back, but was rather dissappointed cause all but one of the babies are males. as I'm sure I need not say need more than one female to one male, so will have to contact friends and see if they fancy some male guppies I think. in the past I had often more females or evens.

they all appear female at first and then males start to get more colour and their fin modifies.

the question is 'are baby guppies sex determined by some outside factor? like in crocodiles and some lizards, where enviroment temp. is warm they are all one sex or cooler they are the other. so wondering if water temp, water condition (last test all the nasties levels were zero or almost zero, only the not so problematic one, (the one that causes algae growth) was a bit high, but it equalled the tap water! as I had done a water change day before), type of filters used i have 2 fluvals (one is the old brown one, works <touch wood> perfectly still). or like with humans, furred and feathered critters determined by the father at conception?

if it is water condition/temp.food or whatever, anyone know how to get 8 out of 10 females at least?

Thanks in advance. you can email me private if you wish with more details at crystalcavies@yahoo.co.uk

Crystal Cavies

 

[Lateral Line]

Found this on Mod queue in the Fish Index.

 

[Clairel]

I would be interested to know too, as i am also currently caring for 7 guppy fry....

C x

 

[fishykisses]

me too, i'm caring for 75!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Hope this info helps;

a. you need at least 2-3females per male, male guppys harrass the females alot especially when they are about to give birth or have recently given birth which is not good- the more females you have the less likely one female is going to get harassed too much and the less the males will pick on each other.
b. Temperature as far as i know is not a deciding factor on guppys, its down in the genes...But guppys do prefer a temp between 24 and 26degrees.
c. Avoid inbreeding in your guppys as this will result in poorer and smaller batchs of fry with weaker imune systems and survival rates- having good bloodlines in your gene pool and introducing new genes into it i.e new females or males is always a good thing.
d. Avoid over crowding/over stocking, its easy to get over stocked with guppys due to their ability to breed on a regular basis. If i were you, i'd just put a bunch of densely planted areas in the tank with lots of hiding places once you have more females and let the females give birth and breed on their own accord- you should only put pregnant female guppys in breeding nets if they are being badly harrassed by the males or other fish leading up to their labor as breeding nets themselves are stressful things and should only realy be used for raising very small quantitys of fry in their first few weeks of life to give them a head start. Fry will instinctively hide in densely planted areas and stay out of other fishs way, some may die in the first couple of weeks but at least the surviving fry will be the fittest and most strongest, which is natures way.