Guppy Fry Question

[blindfaith429]

Recently picked up some guppies for my tank. I originally had 3 (2 all yellow females with round tails, 1 male mostly orange with silver stomach).

The females got pregnant very quickly, and the male seemed to pester them a bit. I picked up a third female to hopefully reduce the harassment, which seems to have helped. The third female is silver at the front, fades to black on the back, and has a spotted bluish-black tail and dorsal fin (very pretty fish).

My local fish store has females and males separated, and the females were not pregnant when I got them (that I could tell).

I was thinking about taking the fry out when they are small, and keeping them in a divided tank to prevent the fry from becoming pregnant right away.

Would this be doable? I was thinking maybe getting a bunch of glass jars and outfitting them all with small sponge filters to help them mature without breeding further within my main tank.

Only issue is, with 3 pregnant guppies, I would need a massive amount of these "jars" to keep each fry in its own tank and isolate them.

Obviously, once they are bigger, I can sex them and separate them into 2 tanks (male and female).

This is also assuming my LFS would want my guppy fry. I have to talk to them about this. Not trying to get rich breeding guppies, but I'd rather see them go to a good home rather than overpopulating my main tank.

Thoughts?

 

[Roboticsbede]

You would really have to establish a solid plan here, as your after removing the first batch of babies, your main guppies could get pregnant anytime again. So it's either you buy a ton of your "Jars", or you just keep the fry in the main tank and the parents will eventually eat them and you take the ones that managed to grow into adults back to the fish store. Or you keep all the babies separated into one tank, and when they grow I don't think the females would be impregnated that quickly, just keep an eye on them everyday until you can finally sex them.

 

[feeshi]

Unfortunately it's super hard to sex guppies when they are small and when they become dimorphic enough to tell apart its usually too late. If a female guppy has a dark spot at the base of her tail, she's already pregnant.
I like to think that I am very good at sexing guppies, but I still get a late bloomer that sneaks into the opposite gender tank.
My solution to not being overloaded with guppy fry was to get some gourami in the tank. I've tried bettas and rams but the gouramis are the best at it. Honeys are my favourite, small and gentle but great hunters.
I do still get a few survivors, the fastest and strongest which I then raise up myself but it's a much more manageable number.
As for selling guppies, I have no problems with the males. People on Facebook will purchase good-looking male guppies for 1.00-1.50 easy, more for blue guppies or pandas. I sell cobra guppies myself.
It's the females I have the most problems moving, and I fear giving them away free/super cheap then people will use them as feeders.
This is of course my experience, if you live in a rural/isolated area you could possibly get some stores willing to take them off you.
Best of luck

 

[blindfaith429]

Here's a pic of the tank, one of the yellow females,, and of the spotted female guppy. You can also see the male near her in that pic.

 

[emeraldking]

I love the background of your tank....

 

[blindfaith429]

I love the background of your tank....

Its from a company called Aquarium Vinyl dot com. Was a little pricey, but it does look fantastic, and was super easy to apply.