Help On Guppies!

[Trienchieu]

My dad has agreed to get me an aquarium of guppies, however he wants to have more males than females. I asked him why not just males he said he wants to have baby fry, no matter how many time I told him it's not good for female and might lead to death, he said he'll keep four females and four males. Is this safe enough for females or what do I do? If there are other ways to keep the female alive please reply. Such as putting plants....etc

I have a 20 gallon tank starter kit

 

[This Old Spouse]

If it's your tank, why not get what you want?

If you can't talk him out of what HE wants, then be sure to get lots and lots of plants and tall rocks or decorations to give the females and fry places to hide.

 

[Trienchieu]

Well he helped me paid the bill so he's being the one wearing the pants, so about how much plants are we talking here, becuz I know twenty gallon isn't that big

 

[This Old Spouse]

Twenty gallon is quite big for eight guppies. You should also get a 10g for the gazillion fry they'll produce.

 

[Trienchieu]

Well yea eight guppies is the starting number of the first few months, idk if he might increase the males, one thing I know for sure he will not budge on the females. He might get more males or some platys and swordtails. Will some of my females die even with the decor and plants?

 

[Baccus]

The males can be pretty relentless in their constant persuit of females. If you make a nice dense grove of plants with some timber/ drift wood/ bog wood near the plants hopefully the females will get a chance to hide/ avoid the males. The timber should also give the females something to duck around or behind to hopefully lose any males that are too harrassing. Personally because he does want fry I would try to have another tank with females and plent of plants and just add a male occasionally and then put him back in the batcholer pad when he's done. That way the females get left in peace, will have their fry in the tank (the girls will also eat the young fry hence the plenty of bushy plants) and before you know it you will have guppies comming out of your ears. If another tank really isn't an option then I really don't know how you will manage to grow out fry to sellable/ give away size without the tanks being totally over crowded. Also any other live barers (such as sword tails or platies, which by the way will cross breed) added to the tank will also eat any fry, just as the guppies will happily eat any young from other fish species.

 

[Trienchieu]

Well I've been trying to add decorations with holes in it for the females to hide along with artificial or live plants, and gravel.I've talked to my dad slot and he says when he was a kid, he raised guppies with more males than females and it's perfectly fine, idk. He says the females give birth normally, and not dying from the harassing. I don't know how he did this, is this possible

 

[Baccus]

Maybe in his setup it did work, Maybe he ended up with enough girls to keep the boys busy without them picking on only 1 or 2 girls all the time. But it would never have been an ideal environment. It would be like a lone woman walking in to a bar full of drunk blokes....not fun and the potential for plenty of fights.

 

[Trienchieu]

So lets say He keep four females and four males just like he's planning to do, will it work just like wat he did when he was a kid? And btw lol the girl would die before the guys are through with her lol

 

[Baccus]

Bascially every tank is different, what works for some may not work for others. Try the four of each, but keep an eye on them and if the males wont leave the females alone either add more plants, more females or have another tank either the females or males can be put in to seperate them.

I have three tanks that are pretty much dedicated to guppies, one tank is of males I don't want to keep because they are not the colour we are breeding for, the same goes any reject females, the third tank has a mix of our desired breeders (with more females than males) and heaps of babies always growing out. That is just the set up I am using and it works for me. And even though I have most of the sexes seperated I still have hundreds of babies.

Good luck with the guppies.

 

[Trienchieu]

Thank you, I won't get the fishes until like the second week of august because I am going out of country for a month, so I am doing research so when we set it up, it'll work perfectly fine. One more thing, if I add other females livebearers, will the male guppies spend it's time aiming for the newly added females, leaving the females with some personal space?

 

[Baccus]

Sometimes the males can go nuts for a new female, other times they couldn't care a less and keep at the existing ones. I don't know if it matters if the new females are already pregnant or not for the males to be interested in them. I guess the only way you will know for sure is add one or two new females at sometime and see what the males do.

Good luck.

 

[Trienchieu]

So if a new female platy is added, there is a fifty fifty chance whether the male guppy will harass her or not, if it doesn't it will continue to harass the female guppies? Are there any male guppies who doesn't harass? ( it could be that he's gay lol)

 

[Baccus]

A male guppy shouldn't harrass a female platy, but there is always the exception. I have heard of guppies taking a particular shine to one particular fish even if it is not the same species and trying to mate with them.

 

[Trienchieu]

Or should i set the temperature low like at low seventies so the guppies won't be as active and hopefully won't mate?