Sex ratio for platy/guppy platies?

[yhbae]

Of course, I meant to title it as:
"Sex ratio for platy/guppy" fries?"....

The first and the second batch of platies I had appears to be 100% females! For platies, this isn't necessarily bad since females look just as nice as males. But for guppies, this is not the case.

So for the experienced breeders out there, how do you force certain ratios for these two species?

I heard that for platies, pH is the major factor - more acidic the water is, you get more males. At pH of around 7.2-7.4, you get roughly 1:4 (M:F) which is a good ratio for survival. I hear temperature might also affect the ratio as well...

Absolutely no clue on the guppies though...

 

[juliethegr8t]

Wow, I'm no expert, but I'm gonna say that it sure makes no sense to me that any way your water is would affect the gender of your fry. That's like saying if a pregnant woman breathes air in the country instead of the city she's got a better chance of having a boy - seems silly to me! (But I could be wrong!) Anyways, I think it's left up to chance - boy fertilizes girl, whatever sperm fertilizes that egg gets to choose the gender of soon-to-be-fishie! Anyways, I've proved the platy theory wrong already - out of my 3 platy fry and acidic water, I've got all lil ladies.

 

[aquarius]

i don't know about the fish but in certain reptiles, temperature does determine the sex of the babies. If the temperature is cool, it will be males, if warmer, females. But since platies, guppies, etc are livebearers, temperature has no effect on sex of the fry, that just seems logical to me, but i guess i could be wrong

 

[yhbae]

Hmm... This is odd as I was expecting a floodgate of responses on how they managed to get the ratio right by adjusting some water parameters...

I did find a few articles that experiments this factor... I'll try to look for them again and post links...

 

[Sinuhe]

Wow, I'm no expert, but I'm gonna say that it sure makes no sense to me that any way your water is would affect the gender of your fry. That's like saying if a pregnant woman breathes air in the country instead of the city she's got a better chance of having a boy - seems silly to me! (But I could be wrong!) Anyways, I think it's left up to chance - boy fertilizes girl, whatever sperm fertilizes that egg gets to choose the gender of soon-to-be-fishie! Anyways, I've proved the platy theory wrong already - out of my 3 platy fry and acidic water, I've got all lil ladies.

Actually, the water parameters do affect the sex of some fry, at least with Swordtails. I'm not sure if the same applies to other livebearers.

Actually, there are some factors that may affect the sex of human babies as well. Older men tend to have more female children, for example.

3 Platy fry are hardly a big enough sample to prove the theory wrong Too much room for pure coincidence.

 

[yhbae]

Here are some links:

http/www.soest.hawaii.edu/SEAGRANT/Makai...ai/oct00/3.html

http/fins.actwin.com/killietalk/month.20...1/msg00123.html

Hmm. can't find the one I want to find... Will post more if I can find them!

 

[Juggernaut22988]

You can do 1:4 for platies and 1:5 for guppies (m:f)

Do you want lots of fry??

 

[yhbae]

You can do 1:4 for platies and 1:5 for guppies (m:f)

Do you want lots of fry??

I'm trying to setup a tank that will generate some store credit for my hobby expense...

I already know that LFS will take both male and female platies (more females than males), but wasn't sure about Guppy - I don't have any right now.

I assumed that since a male guppy looks far prettier, I would think that most people who shop for guppies will choose males?

So 1:4(M:F) for platy is great. For Guppy, I was wondering if I can keep that close to 1:1?

 

[Juggernaut22988]

I would suggest 1:2 for guppies

1:1 would be okay if you have a really good breeding net that doesnt cause stress

I just uped my ratio to 4:5 for platies to help them breed (I will have to buy a b-net soon)

 

[yhbae]

I would suggest 1:2 for guppies

1:1 would be okay if you have a really good breeding net that doesnt cause stress

I just uped my ratio to 4:5 for platies to help them breed (I will have to buy a b-net soon)

The ratio I'm referring to, are the sex ratios for the fries, not adults...

I'm trying to see if certain ratios of fries can be achieved by changing water chemistry...

 

[yhbae]

Here's another link that suggests that sex ratio can be controlled, although this is for African Cichlids...

http/www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/aquai...nfo/ph_sex.html

 

[Mamaschild]

I have always kept my livebearers in Ph 7 and have always gotten good male/female ratios. I was not aware that temp, Ph or anything affected livebearers in that way.

However, I KNOW Ph affects Kribensis (Pelvicachromis Pulcher) fry ratio. Over 7 and you get more of one, under and you get more of the other (sorry, can never remember which???).

 

[yhbae]

I sware I read from somewhere that pH linked to the sex ratio for platies. I even copy/pasted the info to my fish spreadsheet, but didn't keep the reference. I can't seem to get to the same article...

Basically, it says pH at 6.5 or so gives 1:1 while 7.4 (more natural for livebearers) gives 1:4(M:F)...

I'll keep looking...

 

[joshua]

hmm... pH does affect for cichlids like apistos and many people swear by it