Guppies

[LuLuhasguppies]

Hey My name is Lucinda... Im a very new fish owner! 3 weeks. I have started with guppies.. 1 male 3 females in a approx 3L tank. (I know its small..)
Just wanted to have someone else to talk to about my guppies. My flat mate has done the "fish thing" and is sick of me asking questions

 

[Rhiannon]

Well I am a guppy keeper. Had alot more but they died. So only got 2 now, my big male and my 4 week old baby (he was born NYE). But I do have 13 guppy fry as well.

They are beautiful.

One tip, if you dont want up to 100 guppy fry (babies), then dont buy females. As cute as it can be, and as tempting as it is thinking wow I will have babies, its not, unless you have the room to keep them, as lots of fish shops will not take on your babies. So stick to males (unless you wants bubs of course).

Just giving you some advice, because I am in this predicament at the moment.

 

[lilfishie]

welcome to the forum and good luck with your guppies, just don't end up with loads like me lol

 

[MHunt]

Guppies are great fish, i have two males in my community tank who are really colourful, and they are not as weak as people make out, certainly in my experience anyway. I really want to try breeding them at some point but don't have the space at the moment.

 

[rjsmith]

rhiannon, good advice. Do you reckon fish shops always sex the guppies right? My mollies have bread which is a good excuse to get a new tank but obviously I can't just get bigger and bigger. I'd like a couple of guppies and the fish shop has tanks of males and tanks of females but do you reckon they are 100% correctly sexed?

 

[MHunt]

You can quite easily tell yourself with live bearers, males have a gonopodia which is a modified anal fin designed for reproduction, basically like a penis. The females have a normal anal fin. Normally the other giveaway sign is males are more colourful.

Don't be afraid to tell the shop that you don't want a particular fish, if you think it is female and you want all males.

 

[rjsmith]

cheers MHunt. Thanks for the advice.

 

[MHunt]

I've on occasion had to tell the person in the fish shop what the difference is because they didn't know!

 

[Rhiannon]

rhiannon, good advice. Do you reckon fish shops always sex the guppies right? My mollies have bread which is a good excuse to get a new tank but obviously I can't just get bigger and bigger. I'd like a couple of guppies and the fish shop has tanks of males and tanks of females but do you reckon they are 100% correctly sexed?

Thanks.

Well, its very easy to tell a male because of that extra fin thing they have under their belly, but I have heard alot of stories of people getting home thinking they have males, but infact got females.

Personally, I always pick out the one I want, and then when in the bag, I make sure they are DEFINITLY males.

Never again will I buy females. My male has terrorised them to death wanting sex all the time, and once they have babies they always die on me, its like the suffer from birth trauma.

Plus, you never know when you get a female guppy, how many litters she has actually had in the pasT.

Rhiannon

 

[cuan]

Hi I`m Nora and havej ust returned to keeping fish as a hobby.
I had a female guppy which became extremely vicious as she got older.My entire tank of peaceful neon tetras and other male guppies were killed by this one manic female .I don`t want want to include them in my new set up of community fish as a result of this unpleasant experience in the past.Has anyone else had a similar experience with very aggressive territorial females? The tank was very well planted and large with plenty of room and hiding places.