Guppy Breeding Diary

[tropic_john]

OK, LETS Breed!

My tank;

48Litre Tank [Resun RM-400LV],
2 Plants,
2 White & Red Rocks,
1 Brown Wavey Texture Rock,
1 Dark Brown Rock,
Natural Coloured Gravel.

My Fish;

6 Female Guppies
2 Male Guppies [1 Rainbow Snakeskin W/ Red Finnage & 1 W/ Red Finnage, Black Back Half, Rainbow Front Half.]
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So, right now I have a double breeding trap and a single breeding trap.

In the single I have a bulging female guppy that is all clear except for red tail. With her I'm expecting 20-25 fry
In the double I have a Full female guppy that has a clear front half, dark blue back half and light blue finnage. With her I'm expecting 20-25 fry
I also have the other 4 females. 3 look pregnant [3 are about 80% through gestation and the last is not showing a gravid spot yet.]
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I have been feeding them Tetramin Tropical Flakes and sometimes Some frozen sinking tropical pellets.
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For a nursery tank, I have an identical 48litre tank that is bare bottomed [will get a silk plant or a live plant in some sand in there]. I plan to feed the fry about 3-5 times a day on crushed flake and sometimes frozen bbs [If I can get some]
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So that is all for now, Hopefully I will have some fry tommorow in the trap off of the bulging female to go into the nursery, I work on; Patience is the answer.


Comments/Constructive Criticism Only please.

John

 

[bagu]

nice little diary you are keeping!

just make sure you have some nice surface cover for the fry

 

[shelaghfishface]

yeah i agree nice diary, maybe you should ask a moderator to move it to the live bearers section tho so that the guys over there can take advantage and enjoy it
good luck with the babies

 

[tropic_john]

nice little diary you are keeping!

just make sure you have some nice surface cover for the fry

Yeah, the plants I have in their are weighted down into the gravel but I also use them to give a bit of shade/cover for thefry before moving them to the nursery.

yeah i agree nice diary, maybe you should ask a moderator to move it to the live bearers section tho so that the guys over there can take advantage and enjoy it
good luck with the babies

Thanks, will ask a moderator, I wasn't sre whether or not to put it here or their.

Thanks for the nice comments guys

 

[karigupi]

Good luck with it all, I think a breeding diary is a great idea, would be even better with pictures

 

[tropic_john]

Good luck with it all, I think a breeding diary is a great idea, would be even better with pictures

Yep, will have pics on by tommorow night guranteed [and probably some fry]
glad to see this diary is getting some decent traffic with hopefully some more when it is moved.

Also, I have PM'ed a mod to ask them to move the thread to the livebearers section.

 

[tropic_john]

YAY! First batch of guppy fry.

15th June 2009.

So, my biggest guppy [the bulging one] today gave birth to 19 fry. She ate 1, 2 had deformities [I fed them to the other guppies ] and the rest were all health [16 are now swimming about in the trap] Hopefully, I will move them to my nursery tank which now has a live plant [java fern] in it for them to nibble and hide in. I'm going to, in tank 1, keep all adult guppies and new-born fry in their traps for 2 days. Then, they will move to nursery tank 2, after about 4-6 weeks they will be moved to either another grow-out tank or the bigger one's back into the first tank. I will eventually have a new batch of guppies every 2-2.5 weeks and will be supplying my lfs with about 20-50 when I get the program up & running. Also, I will privately sell any show class or ''better than £2.00 at the lfs'' privately.

Comments pwease

Yay! One of the fry just did it's first poop xD

Also, pics to be on soon!

After all the hype about the fry, I forgot to tell you that I have bought 3 new female guppies. 1 had red finnage with black dots [a spanish/russian dancer?] and a lime female with black dots [Again, spanish/russian dancer. Finally, I have bought one more female that has bright red fins/tail, and at the start of its tail it slowly turns from black going towards the had and turning into a light grey.

 

[Hawkins]

Are these regular guppies or high quality ones?

 

[tropic_john]

Are these regular guppies or high quality ones?

I have started this breeding program using all-wild type guppies. However, 3 of them are show class. 2 russian dancers [red & blue] and a rainbow snakeskin.

 

[Platygirl11]

Nice! Fry are so adorable, aren't they?

 

[tropic_john]

Nice! Fry are so adorable, aren't they?

Yeah, they are

Also, today, bought 4 more guppy females [3 are show class tank bred]
and 2 more male guppys [both are tank bred show class]
Have now moved the fry into the nursery. Have counted about 18 everytime but probably more hiding in the plant and behind rocks and they dart everywhere. Started to feed them on some ''Tropical First Bites Powder Food'' but I've forgotten the company name, will check. Also, 2 of my females instead of having black gravid spot they have a red one with about 5 black dots. Is this an albino batch or are the fry stil developing? Pictures, so annoying, will guranteed to be up by friday WHATEVER happens. So now in adult/maternity tank:

3 males [1 rainbow snakeskin, 1 half black half translucent and one has a jet black back half and translucent front half with bright white fins and on them rainbow stripes and black dots on the middle of every stripe.]

9 females [Will mention my favorite. White/grey scales with lime fins and tail with black dots on fins and tail

 

[OldMan47]

I feel that I must step in John. If you are buying show quality fish, you need to try to keep them separate from your other fish. Otherwise you are forfeiting the benefit of having show class fish in the first place. I am not a guppy breeder but, at least not the fancy kind, but if I spent good money on show quality fish, I would want to start with those and move forward to even better fish, not let them breed in a colony setting and lose all of the benefit that I had paid for. I love the look of the spanish dancers that I have seen but would not want to cross them with other guppies and lose the beauty of the parents to crosses.
What does all this rambling mean? Try to limit your stock to only those fish that can be kept separate from each other and that you want to breed with each other. That way the spanish dancers can produce more of the same or the lime colored fish can produce more lime colored fish. A cross of a lime colored female with a spanish dancer might happen to turn out OK once but how will you go about setting the line to produce the look that you like over and again? If you want to conduct the experimental cross, do not leave the fish of all different kinds in one tank expecting good results. Choose your breeders and monitor the results of each breeding. When you get done, you will know what worked out nicely and what was not worth doing but it will be you controlling the outcome after that.

 

[tropic_john]

I feel that I must step in John. If you are buying show quality fish, you need to try to keep them separate from your other fish. Otherwise you are forfeiting the benefit of having show class fish in the first place. I am not a guppy breeder but, at least not the fancy kind, but if I spent good money on show quality fish, I would want to start with those and move forward to even better fish, not let them breed in a colony setting and lose all of the benefit that I had paid for. I love the look of the spanish dancers that I have seen but would not want to cross them with other guppies and lose the beauty of the parents to crosses.
What does all this rambling mean? Try to limit your stock to only those fish that can be kept separate from each other and that you want to breed with each other. That way the spanish dancers can produce more of the same or the lime colored fish can produce more lime colored fish. A cross of a lime colored female with a spanish dancer might happen to turn out OK once but how will you go about setting the line to produce the look that you like over and again? If you want to conduct the experimental cross, do not leave the fish of all different kinds in one tank expecting good results. Choose your breeders and monitor the results of each breeding. When you get done, you will know what worked out nicely and what was not worth doing but it will be you controlling the outcome after that.

Hey, will use this info as I think that you are definetly right. I might buy another adult tank so That I have:
1 show class adult tank
1 normal adult tank
1 nursery tank
[possibly] 1 tank for about 0.75-1.00inch fry

Then, I could sell the normal guppys back to my lfs [they have agreed a deal already] and either let them put the show class guppies in a seperate tank for sale or sell the show classes online/sites etc etc and shows

 

[tropic_john]

I have moved the 5 neon tetras from my first tank into my nursery as people tell me they dont eat fry.

 

[karigupi]

I'm not sure I would trust the neons with the fry? I've found that my fry which are kept alone in a seperate tank away from any adult fish are growing so much faster as well, I guess its because they get more food.

It sounds like you have some lovely guppies, congrats on the fry too! Cant wait to see some piccies

I'm with Oldman on keeping the show guppies seperate, you will get a much better price for any fry & the fry will be healthier too.

Looking at doing some selective breeding of show class guppies myself, but not organised yet, I was thinking of keeping the males & females in seperate tanks, then choosing a male & female & putting them into a breeding tank, or divided section together to mate, then seperating them again. This way I will have total control over the fry I raise & can experiment a little with crosses to see what works, or taking the absolute best specimen from the males & females to get a really good quality batch.

I have no idea if this is the best way to do it, but I want a bit of control over the pairings, rather than getting crosses & then further crosses down the line.

Good luck & have fun, I will keep an eye on your diary