I just got my first Guppies and I want to breed.

[gunk]

I just got a 10gallon tank up and I bought 3 males guppies and one female as starter fish for it. I bought them about 6 hours ago and I already like them a lot. I just read up a bit about them and they seem like an interesting fish to breed. I was just wondering if anyone could lend me some tips on successful breeding. My biggest question is how long does it take to get guppies to breed and what are ideal overall conditions? How many adults should I have and what should the male to female ratio be? Can I keep other fish species in with the guppies if I'm trying to breed? How many can I fit in a 10 gallon tank? I can purchase another 10 gallon if I have to for the babies. And finally, is there any way to specifically breed for color preference? I want to eventually have a tank full of beautifully colored adult guppies at some point. Is color of offspring usually similar to that of the parent or is it hard to selectively breed?

Anyway, thanks for any advice. I'll really appreciate it!

[Drip Loop]

Heh, if you want to breed guppies, just wait. Keep clean water and they will do the rest. Im sure others will have more helpful info, but these fish are quite possibly the most prolific creature on the planet second to bacteria.

Oh, and your gonna need more space. 10 gallons is alright for now, but not for long. They multiply faster than my adjustable rate mortgage.

[Ellen4God]

You got 3 males and 1 female? You need to go back and get at least 2 or 3 females for every male you have - so if you have 3 males, that'd be at least 6-9 females.

With the stock you have now (3 males and 1 female), your males are going to chase your female and irritate her way too much - this will cause stress and a not very happy fish. If you get 2-3 females for every male, the males won't bother just one female over the others - the "male tendencies" are spread out over more fish, if that makes sense.

[country_boy454]

Ideally you should have 3 females to one male. Otherwise the male will pester the female to death trying to breed with her and what not. There really isn't too much to breeding them other than putting them in the same tank. You can do selective breeding and the males will be exactly or really close to the father. I used to breed guppies but have now turned to endlers as they are more hearty fish. Many guppy lines are so fickle that the fry don't reach adulthood. This is from being inbred so many times.

[MandyL]

Ellen is right - need several more females. The other 10g will work for raising the fry. The parents will eat any fry they can catch so when a female is ready to pop, you need to seperate her, preferably in a breeding trap so she can't eat them either.

[Angila]

just add water they will breed...and breed...and breed until u wanna pull your hair out lol...u might want to look into a fish to feed the many to many babies u r gonna have

[gunk]

Yea I bought some more guppies today so now I'm at 9 females and 5 males in my 10g and I've already seen one or two fry swimming around. The adults have been going after them a bit but they tend to hide well. I think I'm just gonna let them breed without intervention until I can get my hands on new tanks and stuff. If they don't survive, oh well. If they do, then sweet. If I get too many in my tank I'll start giving the fry to my dad's chiclids.

[graceluvsplatys]

9 females and 5 males is really oversytocked... If you cant get a bigger tank and like 6 more females in it, then i would take some back and keep 1 male ( a real pretty one) and 3 females. you should grow your own!

[Furface]

I keep hearing that males will pester females to death, I have them in equal numbers and the males are never too pesty, if the female doesn't want to bother she swims away and the males lose interest. I keep hearing that the adults will eat the babies, mine never do. I see babies and adults nose to nose and the adult ignores it. I don't add anything special for the babies, they do just fine on leftovers and algae. It's probably a good idea to start with many different colors rather than selectively only one color because of inbreeding problems. My mixed varieties stay healthy and most of the babies grow up fine. It's not so easy to give a rule on what's overstocked. I've seen a balanced 10 gal that the owner took care not to over feed with a population of at least 50 with no problems. Guppies will suppliment by eating algae if they get hungry. There aren't many other fish that can be kept with them that won't eat the babies. A couple of small plecos like the bristlenose would be goog for algae eating and cleaning up uneaten food. I also have
clown loaches in my tank that don't touch the babies. Anyway, try to keep a clean tank (weekly 1/4 water changes is one of the best policies you'll ever hear) and don't believe everything you hear until you see it in your tank.

[Sasquatch]

9 females and 5 males is too much for a 10g tank. Your sex ratio is about right, but you've got too many fish. You should split them up, or upgrade to a 15-20g tank.

As far as breeding goes, easy as anything, you mentionned you've already got fry! If you're looking for specific color patterns though, that'll be more difficult. You've got to keep the breeders genetically diverse. The biggest problem will be finding females with the right color pattern, they're much more drab than the males.

[gunk]

Today I found one of my females dead and another with a nipped fin, so I decided to just give all the females to my dad as feeder fish for his larger chiclids.

So now I just have 5 males.

I found a guppy breeder who lives nearby who I am going to purchase a high-quality trio (2 females, 1 male) from and put in a seperate 10g tank after I buy and cycle it.

Thanks for all the advice!