Help With Guppys

[boabmac63]

I have 1 very colourfall male guppy and just bought 3 female guppies this morning i put them in ten minutes ago and turned the light out wen i look in its as if the male is trying to lick the females anal is that ok i want them to breed also

 

[the_lock_man]

That is very usual, that is the male showing an "interest" (shall we say!) in the females.

A couple of points to bear in mind when breeding common livebearers

1) Make sure you have tank space. You have 3 females, each will drop 30+ fry every 4-6 weeks, so potentially 90 fry next month, and 90 fry the month after, and so on, until 6 months after the male dies (unless you buy another one). You probably won't be able to move the fry on until they are a good 4 months old, so that's potentially 360 fish at any one time.

2) Make sure you have somewhere that is prepared to take those quantities of home-bred guppies. Remember that because guppies are so popular, they are available at pretty much every single LFS there is. The laws of supply and demand dictate that where there is such a huge supply, the price becomes very low. These two factors combine to mean that many LFS won't take home-bred guppies. You might also find that a LFS will take them from you in the first month, but may have good stocks already in the second month. You need to find someone who will consistently take them, and if you can't, you have a major problem. There is always Gumtree, and perhaps Ebay, but with the latter, you won't find many people who are prepared to pay for the postage, because they would just be able to pop to their nearest LFS, and not worry about postage.

 

[boabmac63]

That is very usual, that is the male showing an "interest" (shall we say!) in the females.

A couple of points to bear in mind when breeding common livebearers

1) Make sure you have tank space. You have 3 females, each will drop 30+ fry every 4-6 weeks, so potentially 90 fry next month, and 90 fry the month after, and so on, until 6 months after the male dies (unless you buy another one). You probably won't be able to move the fry on until they are a good 4 months old, so that's potentially 360 fish at any one time.

2) Make sure you have somewhere that is prepared to take those quantities of home-bred guppies. Remember that because guppies are so popular, they are available at pretty much every single LFS there is. The laws of supply and demand dictate that where there is such a huge supply, the price becomes very low. These two factors combine to mean that many LFS won't take home-bred guppies. You might also find that a LFS will take them from you in the first month, but may have good stocks already in the second month. You need to find someone who will consistently take them, and if you can't, you have a major problem. There is always Gumtree, and perhaps Ebay, but with the latter, you won't find many people who are prepared to pay for the postage, because they would just be able to pop to their nearest LFS, and not worry about postage.

Ol cheers and i do have a place for them. How long after they mate do u see the dark gravid spot ??

 

[the_lock_man]

Certainly from my experience with other livebearers (never having bred guppies), the gravid spot isn't a particularly good measure of pregnancy. If you go to the Common Livebearers section, there is a pinned topic with a title of My Molly From One Fry Drop To The Next, or something along those lines.

If you have a good read of that, you will see how the female's shape changes as she progresses, the female guppy goes through the same changes. That should give you a better idea of your females' progress.