How many guppies?

[Barry Tetra1 1]

I'm having trouble managing guppy reproduction in a 60x30x38 cm tank. Starting with 20 quickly led to overpopulation, ended up having to feed them to my muscovy duck. Since the tank is heavily planted and bioload/waste isn't a problem. But I wanted to know what would be an ideal stock level to keep them comfortable without physical overcrowding?

 

[OldFishKeeper]

Separate the males from the females and feed your duck the usual duck food ...

 

[Back in the fold1 10]

That’s a tough one . I keep them all . I just do more and bigger water changes to compensate . I don’t like to spoil their fun and I don’t like to give them away because nobody will love them as much as me .

 

[FattyFish]

I can sense another tank coming

 

[anewbie]

In truth i just let my guppies managed them-selves.

 

[Barry Tetra1 1]

In truth i just let my guppies managed them-selves.

I don’t think mine eat their own fries…

I think I’ll have to keep other fish that isn’t livebearers next time.

 

[OldFishKeeper]

I don’t think mine eat their own fries…

I think I’ll have to keep other fish that isn’t livebearers next time.

Why? Is your duck's tastes changing?

 

[Innesfan21 4]

I don’t think mine eat their own fries…

They eat their own fry. They just don't eat all of them. Many escape the gauntlet. That said, it is easy to become inundated with livebearer fry and many folks do not anticipate that.

 

[OldFishKeeper]

They eat their own fry. They just don't eat all of them. Many escape the gauntlet. That said, it is easy to become inundated with livebearer fry and many folks do not anticipate that.

I found that they eat fry that are not 100% viable as they drop out of the female. Those that are viable are able to survive if they can shoot off within the first few seconds. I believe it is nature's way...survival for the fittest.

 

[emeraldking2 53]

There are guppies which will eat their fry and there are guppies that will leave them completely alone. My guppy strains won't eat their fry. For they're so used to fry that they're of no interest to them. That goes also for most of other livebearers I keep. My halfbeaks will try to eat them when they're in their tank because of the space they've got. But I'll always try to scoop those fry out in time. But outdoors, those fry are completely left alone. There can be also other factors why adults will eat those fry or why they won't eat them.

 

[Jennet1 59]

I'm learning so much in here. Never heard of halfbeaks before. Interesting fish. I spend half my time googling stuff I am reading whilst in here, just lazing the day away (whilst family are not around).

 

[emeraldking2 53]

I'm learning so much in here. Never heard of halfbeaks before. Interesting fish. I spend half my time googling stuff I am reading whilst in here, just lazing the day away (whilst family are not around).

Well, halfbeaks should also be available in the UK. But there are a number of strains of them. They're not the most colorful fish there are but they are interesting in their behavior for sure. And there are friendly and aggressive strains.