Guppy Tank

[TomCrouch]

Hello,
I currently have started making a guppy tank, and would like to try to see if I could maybe breed anything interesting but currently somewhat new to the process. It is a 10g tank and I currently have 8 female guppies and 7 males. It is sparsely decorated at this point, I want to get some more of the smaller plants for fry hiding locations. My question relates to the numbers that are currently in this tank, I want to make sure that it is not going to be overcrowded, or if the ratio of males to females is OK. If there is anything that i should watch out for with this tank with its numbers as it is, as there's no where else to put them at the moment. I worry mostly about cleanliness, but don't want to add anything drastic to the tank for cleanup just yet. Would there be any problems with aggression between the males with the lower ratio?
Thanks for any advice!

 

[fish48]

A ratio of 8 female guppies and 7 males should be fine The Larger the group of guppy’s the les aggression between them

 

[Min8040]

Hello,
I currently have started making a guppy tank, and would like to try to see if I could maybe breed anything interesting but currently somewhat new to the process. It is a 10g tank and I currently have 8 female guppies and 7 males. It is sparsely decorated at this point, I want to get some more of the smaller plants for fry hiding locations. My question relates to the numbers that are currently in this tank, I want to make sure that it is not going to be overcrowded, or if the ratio of males to females is OK. If there is anything that i should watch out for with this tank with its numbers as it is, as there's no where else to put them at the moment. I worry mostly about cleanliness, but don't want to add anything drastic to the tank for cleanup just yet. Would there be any problems with aggression between the males with the lower ratio?
Thanks for any advice!

A good ratio will be around 1 male to 2-3 maybe even 4 females. I`m not sure if your tank is over crowded atm, but once fry start happening im sure it will get over crowded in no time. If all 8 females drop fry I thinks you will have a full tank.

 

[Mothi]

Heya TomCrouch,

As for the stocking I think it's fine long as you keep up with the water changes. Though some people might say it's overcrowded already. I recently pulled out 77 guppies from my 45 litre and 85 litre tank and gave them to my LFS. I didn't realise I had that many guppies in there until I counted them as I was taking them out. Also there were no problems with any of the guppies. But then again I do 2 water changes in all my tanks every week.

When there's a large group of guppies I found that there isn't a big problem with aggression or harassment so you should be quite safe with your current stocking.

I woudn't worry too much about fry survival in your tank. With 8 females in the tank, you will soon have too many guppies to handle. But adding live plants is always a good thing.

What were you thinking of adding to the tank for cleanup?

 

[fluttermoth]

It would be better to clean the tank yourself; you'll very, very overstocked if you try and add anything else. There isn't really any fish that helps clean up anyway.

They may help by eating any food that falls to the bottom, but they'll need proper food of their own and make as much mess with poo as any other fish.

 

[This Old Spouse]

If you don't overfeed, you should be all right. Guppies will forage after the initial feeding, and if there's not a lot of places for the food to get lost you should be fine. If you don't already have a sand substrate, you should switch, because once you start getting fry they can get stuck in the gravel and die, and most of the time you can't see it happen and then your water quality is compromised. Sand is also easier for foraging.

Live plants are a good idea, and the denser the foliage, the better hiding places for the fry.

You should invest in a separate tank for rearing the fry if you want to go down that route, but only if you have an LFS that's willing to buy them up.

Good luck! It's a fun and exciting road, these guppies!

 

[TomCrouch]

Thanks very much for the replies,I'm glad that the ratio is safe for the tank and for the aggression level, really did not want to move any out its much nicer to have them all together I think. I will think more seriously about cleaning it more consistently myself, I had talked to the owners at the fish store near here about here to help with cleaning, I cannot remember the name but it was only about 2 inches fully grown and he said it would be safe for fry, or a mystery snail of some kind. Any suggestions on what the best type of food to go for with only guppies? I have been using flakes and they seem to be happy with it so far.

Is there any type of sand that is best to use in a tank? I had never even looked into it I thought that gravel was always best.

 

[This Old Spouse]

Thanks very much for the replies,I'm glad that the ratio is safe for the tank and for the aggression level, really did not want to move any out its much nicer to have them all together I think. I will think more seriously about cleaning it more consistently myself, I had talked to the owners at the fish store near here about here to help with cleaning, I cannot remember the name but it was only about 2 inches fully grown and he said it would be safe for fry, or a mystery snail of some kind. Any suggestions on what the best type of food to go for with only guppies? I have been using flakes and they seem to be happy with it so far.

Is there any type of sand that is best to use in a tank? I had never even looked into it I thought that gravel was always best.

I think any of the smaller plecos would be fine. Do NOT get a common pleco, as they can reach 12" long in a short time. Also, do NOT get a Chinese algae eater (and probably not a Siamese algae eater either. The two can be confused) as they will become vicious when they mature.

You can feed them high quality flakes and when you get fry, baby brine shrimp is fine. Mine all are very healthy and well developed. I haven't had any diseases affect them.

You can get aquarium sand, but it's expensive. Most of us on the forum use simple play sand from the home improvement store. Just be sure to rinse it well.

Where are you located?

 

[TomCrouch]

I didn't want to get the common Pleco as I know that they get rather huge with enough time and my tanks cant hold that. I had no idea about the algae eaters would do that later on but its good to know.

For the future purposes, what is best to care for fry with respect to the PH and temperature in the tank and is it best to have it be same with the light duration about 8 to 12 hours of light a day.

I am located in Charlotte, NC.

 

[fish48]

They do best in a PH of 7. +/ can take a wide temperature range of 68f- 80f they do best when kept between 70f-74f when kept at lower temp-s they will be more healthier and live longer when or if you get the chance fed your Guppies some live foods

 

[OldMan47]

Fish48 has given you some good advice on temperatures. I find that many people try to run the temperatures a bit high on their livebearers to get faster growth. Although that works for growth rate, it does not give your best results in terms of fish quality. Guppies can tolerate a wide pH range, mine are at about 7.8 pH because that is my tap water.
A colony breeding situation, such as yours, is fine for breeding large numbers of fish but a selective breeding program that seeks to improve the fish's appearance requires an entirely different approach and lots of tanks to separate the different fish before selecting the specific fish to breed. That is a whole different hobby to the one most of us are in.