Hello, I went into my local aquarium store, and i broke down and ordered a pair of "show" guppies... (whatever that actually means!!hehe!) and I have had a guppy or tow in the time i have had an aquarium, but i know there are some seasoned guppy breeders and owners that could tell me the specifics. perfect water temp to produce high color, chemical levels, appropriate food to get nice fat healthy happy fry, et al.
Any help at all would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks all, I love this forum!
~Krys :huh:

All my wife does is keep the p.h. at 7.0 the temp at 75 to 77 degrees they will do their thing, and trust me do it alot. When the female (which is the less colorful one) begins to develope a triangle shape black thing behind its stomach above her pooper she will start mating with the male the black spot will then turn to a pink spot and the guppy will gain a ton of weight. the whole process takes about 8 weeks from conception to birth. when the female is ready to give birth she will hang out by the heater alot more that usual. You will also be able to see little tiny black eyes in the pink spot on her belly you have to look close because they are so small. Then when you notice she's ready take her and put her into a breeding net or tank for about 24 hours then take her out and put her back with the male. You don't want to leave her with the babies she may mistake them for food. The babies should be seperate from the adults for about 8 weeks ,then they may be put with the adults. If you don't want to use a breeder make sure you have alot of floating plants and alot of ground plants, so the fry can hide. I hope this helps you out a little. Good luck, and may the force be with you. yoda

Thank You! Is the Heater a mandatory thing? Or will they go at it sans heat?
Do you reccomened live plants or plastic... does it even matter?
Sorry for all the Q's...
Thanks again!
~Krys
By the way, love that avatar!!!

I would reccomend live plants because they provide microorganisms that are food for the fry, as well as helping to filter the "nasties" out of the water.

I say plastic of real doesn't matter. To feed them instead of plant organizms you can take out a used tank filter and drop it in with them, and they will eat off it. What I do is just put some flakes into a zip-loc baggie and crush them up real fine almost to a powder. Then just sprinkle a little into your tank. I have also heard of using egg whites. That is messy though. Aso for the heater as long as you have the temp right I think you will be ok. Let me know if you have any more questions my young padawan. yoda

I had heard the egg thing, and the powdered flakes. But if i use real plants are they going to mow them down or are they just not a threat for being so small!?
My Guppies are coming in tommorow.... Blue variagated cobras... I can't wait!
:D

Also, if i use real plants are there any in particular that you would recommend?

not sure on the plant thing. I don't use any real plants. I find they can get to be a pain. I would ask the same question in the planted tanks section.

i kept guppies in less then a gallon when i started out and they bred
thats with no filter, lighting or heating

back to topic
Java moss is most commonly used by breeders for any fish as
a)theyre very easy to keep, you just need to rince them out every once in a while
b )as dtroup said, they provide micro organisms for the fish to feed off of
c)fry can easly hide in it
and the parents wont it them
HTH
DD

Well, I must be doing somthing right I have new fry!! jay Just six, that's all I found, dunno if they got some of them! :whistle1: But they are all healthy and in a 5 gallon tank to grow a bit before i let them go in with the parents!

Here is a picture if one of the new additions!!
jay
~Krys

The black triangle spot thing Fishy was referring to is called the Gravid spot. :)

IME and the experience of others, breeding traps or breeding nets don't help as much as they make things harder. They easily stress the female. Guppies have the ability to reabsorb the eggs meaning she will begin to store the sperm again, or possibly start redeveloping them afterwards. I am not sure if it is harder to do this when they are only a few hours or a few days from dropping the fry.

The live plants...it depends on lighting for one thing, so you would probably be better off with lowlight plants such as java moss...java fern (?)..water sprite (?), ect.

As for the eggs, they are only messy if you don't do it right or haven't been doing it long. ;) I used the crushed-into-powder flake technique....but maybe that's just because I'm lazy..*shrug*.

Uhm, guppies don't mess with live plants if that'd what you were asking...?

cool!u did the right thing putting them in a 5gallon.in the main they wouldv been eated and in a breeder trap they grow much much slower.congrats

Show qaulity has been turned into such a discredible term these days, if a guppy is pretty they call it a show guppy and can add some extra dollars to its price tag, most of the time your buying a random anomoly of a guppy that has badly inbred genes. Real show guppys have been line bred, and are pure strains. However i would still like to see some pics of it.

What a total load of bolox! Females in some cases can be much more colourful than males, especially if strain bred or wild caught. If there are males in a tank with female guppys, the female will always be "gravid" The black spot above her "anal fin" is called a gravid spot. The female never mates with the male, the male will harrase the female continuously and eventaully inseminate her. If the female already has a Gravid spot (black spot) Then it will not change colour to pink. For it to change colour, the female would first have to give birth and then be inseminated by a male, wait atleast a week, and the male genes would have to be either golden or albino, for a pink gravid spot. The female will get fairly corpulant before giving birth and generally it will happen in the early hours of the morning. The whole proccess does NOT take about 8 weeks, unless the female has either absorbs the fry and started again, or shes released fry slowly. If she is healthy and depending on stress levels, e.g. male harrasment. Then you should be getting fry every 4 weeks, at the latest 6 weeks.

I have never had my females hang out by the heater alot, i guess it depends on the fish and tank, but i would disagree with that statement. She will tend to shy away from the more active area of the tank, maybe even hide. However rather than useing a breeding trap or net, i prefer to put a birthing female into a small heavily planted tank, filled with freshly hatched BBS. The mother does not tend to eat her fry while giving birth, or for a few hours after she is finished, so that is not a problem, and the plant will provide shelter and food for the fry.

However, the secret to keeping alot of different sized guppys including adults and new brorns in the same tank, is activity, i keep 100's in one tank, that breed over and over, and the adults hardly ever take any notice of the fry because there is so many other adults in there and so much other activity they are pre occupied, and planting the tank always helps, and gives a nicer look.

Thats not a smart idea, the sponge will be full of nirtrates and amonia.

I think you need to go back to the drawing board.

I feed all my fry guppy or not on freshly hatched BBS, you will have much faster growing healthier babies if you do this, however it is expensive to be useing on guppys.

Cheers Shae