BettaPonic

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I have a six year old guppy colony that is not doing well. I have three females left, three or four fry, one or two juveniles, and unlimited males. The females all die young. Their spines curve and they die. They are still breeding. I isolated two of the three females incase make harassment is the cause. The spine curving happens right around when they are due. I ordered de stressor, vita-Chem, and internal parasite medicine. I am hoping to increase the lifespan of the females, amount of fry born, and amount of fry that are females.
 
This is because all the fish have been inbred, add new stock to the tank, cull any deformed fish. I wouldn't let a guppy population breed for so long in a tank as they are prolific and inbreeding is guaranteed to happen, while it produces pretty desirable fish for the first few generations (like how they breed Bettas) the gene pool is probably identical at this point I would assume all the fish in their are related as guppies don't live that long.
 
I added an endler a three years ago. The males show no signs of problems. It is only females.
 
An endlers life span is shorter, about 1.5 years the original male is long gone, however it could be a genetics factor if it's only affecting females, you need to throw in new fish, I'd say about 10-15 new females depending on the tank size, the females the are currently in your tank are probably producing non viable offspring, even though males don't show external signs they may be affected internally
 
They are still breeding. The problem is the females are having few offspring and dying young. I plan on crossing the males with pet store females in another tank. I also plan on taking the most pregnant female and moving them to another tank. Then crossing the males with her offspring. Thank you for the help.
 
I still plan on trying to save the main colony without outbreeding. I will have the backups though. Thank you, I have wanted for years to have a long term colony.
 
There are many ways of dealing with inbreeding for example keeping large Numbers outside in ponds is almost like a natural environment, when kept in large Numbers inbreeding of the fish are not a problem, the adult fish have more of a choice to pick from meaning that not all mattings will not be too closely related of brother to sister, also mattings among the different generations can only be good for the fish and can improve the gene pool, inbreeding can and do occur in the wild.  Unrelated or related fish can sometimes produce weak or sick offspring, in the wild nature takes care of such problems there will always be Predatory fish or creatures that prey on the vulnerable its survival of the fittest.
in the home aquarium inbreeding can easily be controlled you can expect to get good healthy Guppies from inbreeding them, one method I use is to run to tanks of the same Guppies let them flock breed, once every few years mix from both tanks this method works very well, or select the best male and female to breed from,
 Or simply run one tank let them flock breed and when or if needed remove any deformed or sick fish,
 By using this simple guide inbreeding Guppies /is not problem, and just to mention Guppies are not to over breed and weakened by too much inbreeding continued inbreeding side of it as very little to do with the stat of some of Guppies/tropical fish that are sold these days. Many farm breed strains are weaker caused by incorrect use of antibiotics hormones and many other factors causing health problems,
Always breed or from good stock remove any weak sick or deformed fry/fish,
Soon I will post some picks of old strains of guppy’s/Livebearers that’s been around for many years,

#1fish48, Jul 27, 2013
 
Thank you, I moved one of my females to a ten gallon. I hope the female has fry and starts a colony. I can then swap males every once in a while to maintain a larger colony.
 
Once you have a brood of fry separate females when necessarily. all should be kept in a female only tank for at least six months by this time the females would have had the chance to grow properly to mature ,

temperature
A tank temperature between 70f to 74f suits them well. guppys are capable of living 3 or 4 years.

foods
A good quality flake food
To keep them at the best conditions they need live food in their diet

water conditions not fussy water changes 30th 40% weekly
 
I do fifty percent weekly, but this year they got about an eighty percent water change. I feed them frozen food mostly. Thank you for the help.
 

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