Guppies

[Girlingtrudy]

Hi,

I have a large 4ft tank, and have been over run with guppies. Is there any way of stopping them breeding, without going through the tank and sorting males and females. I have loads of babies in the tank, and will find it hard trying to catch the very small fish. I have a few Cardinals in there and a clown loach, but want to put other things in there, without being swamped with Guppies.

 

[*pete*]

Hi Girlingtrudy, There is no way to stop them other than seperating the males and females, even then the females will drop fry for months after. I have found with my colony that it gets to critical mass and they control their own numbers. The older and wiser females can become positively preditory with new born fry !

Edit...spelling again...I really must get in to the habit of using spellcheck

 

[Girlingtrudy]

Thanks Pete, I did think that, but what would happen if i put a more other species of community fish, will that not control them?

 

[PrairieSunflower]

Get some fish that eat guppy fry... or rehome all your females.

 

[Girlingtrudy]

I did look at sharks, but the red tail sharks, seem to forever jump out of the tank. But might get a silver shark, but then at about 4 inches they will eat the parents as well. I was looking for a humane way of dealing with the problem.

 

[*pete*]

Thanks Pete, I did think that, but what would happen if i put a more other species of community fish, will that not control them?

For sure, even Neons and Harlequins are partial to fry.

Edit...Spelling !

 

[mickeymygrey1]

i have this problem as well and my tank has lots of neons and 2 red tailed shark - used to have silver sharks but were too aggressive and one killed the other then bashed itself into the tank side killing him as well!

 

[7F3WI4M]

i have this problem as well and my tank has lots of neons and 2 red tailed shark - used to have silver sharks but were too aggressive and one killed the other then bashed itself into the tank side killing him as well!

Really? I find that hard to believe! Haha, my two silvers are angels to each other!

Guess it depends on the personality

 

[PrairieSunflower]

People warned me that neons would eat fry... my last two guppy drops were huge so I didn't protect them from the neons... and they didn't eat a single fry!! One of the female guppies eats one now and then but not enough to make a dent in the numbers!

 

[phurn]

Neons I've found aren't big fry eaters, bit too small. The larger tetra however....

 

[Girlingtrudy]

So,there seems that the only choice is to take, all the females out. But that then would leave the males to fight.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I have a male tank and female tank. My males don't fight. They do endlessly chase and display for each other, but nothing more.

If you prefer females, you could always re-home the adults and keep all the fry, then weed out the males as you find them allowing you to raise virgin females.

 

[saffholly]

My males dont fight, but was just talking to someone else who has problems with males fighting (probably due to too many in a tank), i keep females in one tank and males in another and then breed when i need to. At the moment i have several people waiting for babbies and my females are taking for ever to drop.

Pet shops will sometimes take fry (to feed to bigger fish).

 

[*pete*]

Oh Lordy... I was'nt suggesting that Girlingtrudy stocks up with neons for crowd control, in any Community set up big fish will eat little fish, it's a question of balance. Tetras, Barbs, danios, Rasboras or dwarf Cichlids will gobble up any fry...take your pick...thats it I'm off to the pub

 

[Fish12345]

Gouramis eat fry