New To Guppies

[sylros]

Hello everyone,
I've given in to setting up an aquarium again after several years of hiatus. This time with guppies. Why this fish? Well, it all started at work. Someone had baby guppies by the ton. They had a female that was pregnant and was having babies every month of so. It was nice to see them grow, so I thought well why not. So, I setup a small desktop aquarium with the intentions of getting a larger one setup at home for when they'll be adults. At the moment, I have four that are just a few weeks old. I was wondering when will I be able to tell the sex and do they grow all at the same rate! Even though these are from the same batch, some are a bit smaller...maybe they are the males? Thanks!

 

[Gytas]

hi and guppies do not grow at the same speed and i think you can tell the difference after 8 or 10 weeks.... not sure


great choice with the guppies lovely fish but you have to be carefull not to over stock the tank and the female to male ratio is 1 male to 2 females to keep every1 happy

 

[This Old Spouse]

Welcome back to the wonderful world of fishes! Guppies are a lot of fun, I think. They're very playful and interactive.

My guppies I can usually tell the sex after 2-3 weeks, as the females tend to start showing their gravid spot that soon. But I've seen others on this forum who have nearly full-grown females with no visible gravid spot.

The only sure way to tell is when they're big enough to see the anal fin ... the females have a triangular shaped fin, while the males form into a gonopodium, which is tubular. Some time later they'll start to color up, and the females do not have color on their bodies, just their fins.

And unless you want lots and LOTS of fry, be sure you fill your tank with just one sex or the other.

Good luck, and keep us posted!

 

[algir]

Welcome!

 

[CrazyAirborne]

and heed the advice of figuring out what you want to do with all the fry, or seperating them by sex, because U will get fry, and at first its cool, then U start to realize you cant keep them all, and they are only going to start multiplying more! good luck! Youre in the right place!

 

[colleen0309]

Good luck and welcome!

 

[cognity7]

Do the guppies not eat their fry? I recently bought a male and 2 female guppies and i plan to keep them in my 10 gallon tank with a few shrimp... I was wanting to have a few babies because i thought it would be cool but i was kind of hoping natural selection would take its course... I don't want to have to move any of them to my 37 gallon..

 

[This Old Spouse]

They'll eat some, maybe even most in some cases, but you'll still have fry. And with 2 females shooting out fry every 28 days, you'll have LOTS of fry. Even if you separate the male out, those girls will keep on making babies.

 

[Neomeris]

The coolest part of raising fry is their neat colors. Those devolpe, at (in my book) unpredictable rates.

 

[sylros]

Hey everyone, thanks for your replies...I've been extremely busy this summer and had not had the chance to figure how to work this forum besides I had lost the link. Lots has happened since I last posted, my baby fry are now adults and I ended up with 2 females and 1 male. His colours are half black with a few coloured specks. And..both females got pregnant a little while back and last thursday, I witnessed one having babies. I now have 5 fry which were put into a breeding tank because I wasn't ready! didn't have enough hiding spots in the tank...got some Java moss to fix that. The 2nd female is about to burst and am watching her closely. I did isolate them but they didn't like that too much so I let them out. we'll see what happens. I like watching them grow since I never saw the parents, I never know what colour they'd be. I also was given another batch (7) fry, I have them in my tank at work. Also, inadvertently I got a fry free from the petstore when I bought some flower shrimp. So that's the update for now.

 

[noor]

sylros, that was interesting. Try to capture them and post the picture for us to see. I will be very glad for it.

 

[sylros]

I'll try to take pictures, close up...not an easy thing as they move around quite a bit. But stay tuned.

 

[sylros]

sylros, that was interesting. Try to capture them and post the picture for us to see. I will be very glad for it.

Here is the best photo I could get, it's a challenge to get a clear one!

 

[tmh0921]

Beautiful boy! One of my current guppy fry is half black. I hope he looks similar to that as an adult!

 

[sylros]

and heed the advice of figuring out what you want to do with all the fry, or seperating them by sex, because U will get fry, and at first its cool, then U start to realize you cant keep them all, and they are only going to start multiplying more! good luck! Youre in the right place!

I know what you mean. There's a few people here that I can give some to...some people have not be as lucky as I have with the fry or their fish...so I almost have a ready supply. At least it gives them another chance with this hobby, it can be rewarding if they do the right things.

Today, I went to a new petstore that has a great fish section, not one dead fish! All healthy looking. Seeing how well care for the tanks were, I asked if they took fish from people...and they said yes if they were a decent size. So there, I've another source but I plan on asking other fish places as well. Over here, there's forum with people looking for fish so if ever I get overwhelmed with babies, there's another option. That's how I started maybe I can pass it on!