Guppy Colorations

[kribensis12]

Hey, i've had some baby guppies for a while. Probably 6 weeks now and they are just now starting to show color. I am thinking the majority is female but its hard to tell. I have most of them are grey with a little bit of color on thier tail, and 1 has a black body and a yellow tail and the other one is a mix of color. Should i expect the others to color up aswell, or do i only have 2 males? I havetn raised baby guppies for a while. I have them in a 20g flat hexagon with some 2 week old Jewel Cichlids ( if they survive to a threating size, i'll move them in a different tank), and the guppies are about a half inch.

 

[freddythefish]

I was convinced all of my guppies were female from my first ever batch and then some of them developed more colour!!!!
It will probably mix. I think the colouring after a few weeks depends on the parents and the patterns that are developing, it is not a reflection of their petterns that will develop at all really!!

 

[kribensis12]

I am aware that black develops at around 4 weeks and red adn other more complex colors take around 6 weeks. But the black is a very recent color development and i dont see much red. On one fish i see a little dot. Maybe i should start power feeding them spirulina( for color) and BBS( to make them grow bigger). But why is this batchs color so delayed?

 

[freddythefish]

hmmmmmm good one...i'm not sure.
Are they in a tank with large fish? they might be getting enough food to grow and survive but not enough to grow colouration really fast.
Whan I have fry I move them into my 48L tank (see signature) where possible and the ones in there grow faster than the fry with all my huge livebearers because they get more food.
Just a suggestion!

 

[lilfishie]

some it just takes a while longer, are the colourful ones larger by any chance? out of my 7 i have 2 near full grown 1 male 1 female both fully coloured then i have the other 5 at half the size just getting theres and there all the same age, i have seperated the 2 bigger ones to be sure there not eating all the food.

 

[kribensis12]

Before this they were in a breeder for most there lives, adn then in a 10g for a couple days. But i had a emergency where all my jewel babies got sucked int he filter, adn the mom thought the dad ate them so she beat the crap out of him. So i put the guppies in the 20g with thbe other babies and put the 2 jewels in the 10g and they havent been mean to eachother since. They have always gotten plenty of food.

^ lilfishie - the fully colored one is somewhat small the biggest ones are greyish, leading em to belive most are female. THere are only like 9 babies. All the others were born still born.

 

[freddythefish]

I'm sorry to hear about the dead ones
Well I don't know then to be honest!!!
Your chilid story made me laugh though!!!

 

[kribensis12]

lol, it wasnt funny for me. Becasue i had to leave for church when this happend so i was in a MAJOR HURRY. The mom was severly stressed, so what do you expect? She died a few days afterwards. She pooped out her insides. I will post pics of the guppies in a few days, the tank is alittle cloudy as i woke up this morning to find my filter was clogged. I used my moms panty hose to stop the fry getting sucked up, but the panty hose was sucked into the filter so it wasnt getting enough water to run. Im waiting for an ammonia or Nitrite spike but i havent seen anything yet. Ohh well, fingers crossed. The baby jewels are getting bullied by the guppies, but not , much, soo it may be the other way around =]

 

[sykogngsta]

Come of my guppy Fry developed their colors at different rates. Some of the males in my tank didnt get any of their colors until 2-3 weeks after some of teh first ones.

 

[kribensis12]

^ thanks.

 

[freddythefish]

Oh I am really sorry to hear about your chillid
I shouldn't have laughed!!! I didn't realise anything like that would have happened. I have never kept any sort of chilid you see!!!
Really sorry

 

[Thomas 2507]

i usually find that the males are the few that develop colour first.

 

[kribensis12]

^ well , that would make sense, becasue they are usually the only one that shows color.

Freddy: Its okay, i would have laughed aswell. Ohh, and it's spelled CICHLID ( SOrry, i cant help it when people spell it wrong =])