I am curious about why you should..

[Rob_G]

.....into a breeding tank a week before birth. Forgive my ignorance but what is wrong with moving the female into the breeding tank at any time and leaving her there and then putting a male in with her and waiting until she gets pregnant then moving the male out again and leaving her in ? I am thinking that as long as i have some bushy plants in the tank i can leave her in and fry can hide ? I just dont see the point of moving a fish and stressing it out just as it is to give birth.

I am planning on buying a fluvel duo 600 - 83 litre tank and putting some guppies in there with a male and leaving them all there before and after birth. Is this not advisable and why ? Also - will the filter in this tank (fluval plus 2 ) be too strong and suck in fry ? I originally set up a very small tank with a air operated sponge filter but find this tank far too small and the guppies have not given birth in this tank in months even though they have got pregant - i guess they ate the fry or aborted before me seeing any.

I am SO interested in breeding any am getting nowhere and want to go out and buy the above mentioned tank for this purpose.

Will greatly appreciate your advice guys,


Rob

 

[The-Wolf]

I just dont see the point of moving a fish and stressing it out just as it is to give birth.

i guess they ate the fry or aborted before me seeing any.

Asked and answered.

 

[sylvia]

I agree.

Move the female whenever you want - just not too late.
You are most probably right about the eaten/aborted thing too
The filters mentioned should both work as livebearers can swim pretty well from birth and don't usualy get sucked up as easily. The sponge shouldn't be causing problems either.

Good luck

 

[Polardbear]

I keep a 10 gallon set up all the time that is heavily planted and has lots of hiding places. New ladies go into the 10 gallon when they come home from the lfs and stay in it until they give birth (every one has been pregnant when purchased). A few days after they have babies I move them either to the main tank or another quarentine tank (depending on how long it's been since they were purchased). I get tons of babies that survive and after a couple of weeks I move them to one of two 29 gallon growout tanks. The older ones that are in the main tank give birth there and plenty manage to survive. I tried moving them into the small tank a week or so before they were due at first and then moving back to the main tank after birthing but found almost every time the momma fish would die within a day or two. I think the stress of moving so much may have played a part in their dying.

 

[paulthegreat]

You could try a breeding trap in the main tank and put the mommy in a couple of days before she births. Then after she births release her and move the fry to a grow-out tank.

 

[SnowyzMom]

All I can add is that I saw Snowy's pregnant female guppies sometimes stress out sooo much in a breeding trap in the main tank, trying constantly to get back into the main tank with their buddies. So I prefer to just have a nice heavily planted area at one end of my tank where the females can give birth away from the open area of the tank and the fry seem to survive just fine over there on their own. But that's just me.

Currently raising I dunno, about 30 fry. The pet store lady is out of guppies so I sense a sale coming on!

 

[yvez9]

I have a 50 gallon tank i use for growout

there must be between 70 and 80 guppies in there now.
My girlfriend just lets her females give birth in her tank or sometimes she manages to put them in a breeding trap. Every week i get between 20 and 30 fry. She has 5 females

 

[newfishies]

wow...that's a lot of babies!!! good luck with them...do you plan on selling them?

 

[ruffmeister]

why not leave the female in the tank all the time and let nature take its cause if you have it planted well enough you will save the best ones, never have i had to move them and i still get plenty of fry to grow on and sell to my lfs