CaliFishGuy

I've been raising and breeding guppies for about 4 years now, just as a hobby.

As part of that hobby, I've been doing a "selective breeding program" by maintaining 3 different tanks for the guppies.

Tank 1: The "mama" tank. Here's where my breeding stock females go. This is a regular 10 gal tank with a standard flip lid with easy access to the top, for easy scooping. Floating on the top of the water in this tank is two "baby havens" - green plasty plant-like things that have a flat bottom and shallow, bushy fronds that I float upside-down.

Tank 2: The "Adult" tank. The non-breeding females and all adult males go.

Tank 3: The "baby" tank.

When I want to breed for a specific trait, color, or whatever, I just put the male in the mama tank and let nature take its course. Every morning, and throughout the day as I think about it (or my husband, either one of us), we stop by and check the mama tank for babies and scoop them out with a brine shrimp net and put them over in the baby tank.

With the 2 floating baby-savers, a crockery pot in one corner and a rock cave in the other, the babies have plenty of places to hide in the mama tank after they are born, and the ones that are eaten by the other females - oh well. That's natural selection for you. At the rate they breed, if I didn't have SOME form of culling in place, I'd be very quickly overrun with guppies even more so than I already am, so it's not big deal.

Every so often, as I want more "fresh blood" or find a cool new strain at the lfs, I get new males and put them into the mama tank. I almost never buy females, since it's easier to buy a male and let them do their thing with the females.

I would say that things have been pretty successful so far. I've bred for some amazingly large fins and tails on the males, mostly in the black tuxedo strains, but some gold tuxedos. I also did some color matching, starting out with some red blondes and a Japanese Gold, then adding a yellow delta to the mix several generations later, and most recently adding a Tequila Sunrise to the mix.

I think my most interesting result to date, however, was what I call my "American" guppy - a Red, White & Blue colored guppy strain that came out of the Red Blonde, Japanese Gold and a Russian Blue.

So does anyone else have any experiences, stories, anecdotes or fun facts to share about breeding guppies? Advice? Questions? Complaints?

Chief_waterchanger

We have 20 something strains of guppies and are mainly working on reproducing the strains we have, but we definately plan to start a selective breeding program in the next year or so.

My thoughts were that I would setup a stand with an almost decorative look (substrate, rocks, plants, etc) and only do an extensive selective breeding program on one strain at a time, because I figured it like this:

Tank 1: Male and females (1m to upwards of 5-10 females that all show traits we like)
Tank 2: Subadult males (Teenager type age range.. could breed, but isn't fully adult yet)
Tank 3: Subadult "unhit" or virgin females
Tank 4: fresh fry that is too small to sex (identify gender)

We have several large tanks of low quality guppies (sold as feeder guppies) that the culls would join. Make for some pretty feeders, but just not quite show quality.

I am glad you find joy with the hobby and hope that your breeding program continues to bring you joy for a long time to come. There are many worse things that could be occupying your time.

sirdarksol

This would be interesting to do, and if I ever have enough money, I may do it. Unfortunately, I can't afford to get several decent-sized tanks to keep the various adults in.

sinead

Im a beginner and decided to start with guppies however ive realised from reading this site that the lady in the pet store gave me bad information and allowed me to buy one female and three males....... however i read here that its suppose to be at least 2 males to 1 female.

To cut a long story short she fell pregnant ( no shocks there lol) and yesterday evening when i went to do a water change i saw 5 lil babies i wasnt sure what to do as i dont have another tank with a heater and filter. I do have a tiny tank (about 6 inces long by 4 inces wide) i decided to put the mother and babies in this tank and let the tank float in the main tank so that the water would stay warm BUT she ate one of the babies ( should have read up on breeding guppies here) so i had to put mother and babies back in main tank and right now im not sure what i should do?? should i buy a heater and put in small tank with babies would that be ok, without a filter? im gunna have a look in my local fish shop for a net to put in tank to at least separate babies from the males and mother but i know the pet shop wont have it (rural ireland pet shops arent the best)

Any help or suggetions would be much appreciated thank you very much.

sirdarksol

If you can provide places for the babies to hide, it will help. Guppy grass is good for this. They sell plastic versions (if your local pet shop carries them) for really cheap.

Otherwise, you can get a breeder net, which floats in the tank, and try to get the fry in there, or you can start a small tank. They should do okay for awhile without a filter. You'd just have to do daily water changes to keep the water quality up.

Chief_waterchanger

There should be atleast 2 FEmales per male in livebearers, and really 3 or 4 females per male is better numbers.

sinead

Thanks everyone ill invest in another tank and get some more females for the main one thank you..

Fishies-for-me

I have guppies and I leave the mom to be in the tank and she drps there with the other gups and my neons...I have a lot of hiding spots and a lot of the fry make it...the adults seem to get used to seeing them in the tank and don't view them as food the same way they would if you take them out and reintroduce them after they are bigger....good luck.

misty spills

i breed guppies i am trying to get a fully black or black/blue or black/yellow strain... because i have only got one fully black female and i dont want him to have any comptition he has about 50 females to himself which keeps him busy all day, and because he has so many big females to choose from there is less of a chance that the little ones will get pregnant, by little one i mean ones that survied the odds i normally use a breeding trap for all my good breeders and then move then to my 25lter baby tank i also have a boy trap for all unwanted strains

i really enjoy the feeling i get when i sell fish back to the store in which i brought my first fish from.