Guppy Incest? What To Do

[jimbooo]

hi there.

okay here's the basics 50G cube, 2 female guppies, 80 ish fry (various stages from 4 births) 2 males moved to another tank at first birth.

i now have about 20 teenage guppies (males just starting to show tail colours) among the 80 fry. soon the male babies will be at breeding age but can only breed with their mother or siblings. am i going to end up with mutants with lots of health problems?

what do you people do in this situation, leave them to it or seperate them? not sure what to do next.

the tank journal (with pics) is in my sig if your interested.

 

[Annastasia]

It depends how inbred they are already. Generally inbreeding defects don't show for some generations, but a lot of fish you get at the petstore already have been bred with their brothers and sisters. So you might. However, not all fry will have troubles, and since you are doing survival of the fittest, they defective ones should get weeded out...however cruel that sounds.

I, personally would seperate the males. Because if they breed, you're going to have a ton more fry.

Edit: Just looked through your journal. You have a lovely tank!! I'm sure the Guppies really enjoy it in there.

 

[jimbooo]

thanks anastasia. i think i'll move the more mature males into my 12G.

the only other inhabitants in there are harlequins, glowlight tetras and wcmm's oh and 2 yoyo loaches. i dont think any of them will cause any problems.

oh one more point does anyone know if WCMM (white cloud mountain minnows) will eat new born guppy fry. i want them in the cube but am currently waiting till all the really tiny fry have grown up a bit

 

[Squid]

Do any of them play the banjo..?

(sorry.. odd sense of humour.. my mum always said,"if you've nothing sensible to say, keep quiet!".. i should have listened!)

 

[Annastasia]

The Yoyos could be a bit nippy with the males...I'm not sure how nippy WCMMs are with males, but I'd keep an eye on them too. And yes, they'd probably eat Guppy fry, I know mine did.

 

[jimbooo]

lol. it counts for typing as well as speaking squid.

happy new year mate

thanks annastasia i'll give it a couple more weeks then go for it