Telling The Sexe

[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!

 

[minnnt]

The male will develop a gonopodium underneath him (penis) I could sex mine at around 2 and a half month. Maybe others could sex them earlier, but i was a noobie and didn't really know what i was doing. I inherited them with my first tank and they bred and left us with about 50 babies. The next brood yeilded about 10. Unfortunately both my females died so that was the end of that.

 

[OldMan47]

They will probably be about 2 months old before they give you any clue to their gender and it will be longer than that before they are mature enough to breed.

 

[sylros]

I ended up having 2 females and 1 male. It was around 2 months old when I could tell clearly. the females are now having babies.

 

[This Old Spouse]

The guppy in OldMan47's profile pic is a male guppy. You can clearly see the gonopodium. Females have no color on their bodies, just tails and fins. And they have a gravid spot in the rear that is colored from very dark to a lighter pink. It's usually 2-3 months before they can be accurately sexed.

 

[OldMan47]

I do not have a guppy as an avatar, Spouse. It is a golden teddy male and his gonopodium is very clear in that picture, much more so than you will typically see in a guppy picture.

 

[sylros]

I ended up having 2 females and 1 male. It was around 2 months old when I could tell clearly. the females are now having babies.

So these guppies were born on April 18, and one of the female has had babies on Sept 28. The other one is about to pop but when will that be will be a mystery. She was always a bit smaller than the other one but how much behind, I have no clue...everyday I check. I've added some Java moss to help with providing hiding places. This time I'm ready.

I have to say that I'm a bit concerned with having too many fry, 5-6 is OK but 20+ or even 50, yikes. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Have you found that the more they breed, that their colours change or did they stay the same? Mine are now pretty dull in colour, mostly black with a few specks of colour...I haven't seen those in stores...