Super guppy

A few months ago I bought 4 female guppies from a pet shop in a garden center I popped into for a cup of tea on my way home one day. They were all different colours and tail shapes but I thought I'd give them a try anyway. 3 out of them died within weeks but one blue tailed one survived and became the only adult female in the tank with 2 adult males and a load of fry.
Soon after I got it it became gravid and got very big before giving birth to over 30 fry. It has since given birth 3 times and each time there were over 30 surviving fry. I have never had 1 guppy produce so many fry or so often, is this some kind of super guppy?. Now she looks like she's about to drop again.
I'm glad only 1 of the 4 survived as I'm having enough problems finding things to do with all the offspring. I've started vacuuming up new fry and flushing them with water changes.

 

Hate to tell you this, but a fully mature healthy guppy female can drop a lot more fry than that. They are very prolific little buggers! LOL!

 

Hate to tell you this, but a fully mature healthy guppy female can drop a lot more fry than that. They are very prolific little buggers! LOL!

I have bread guppies before but never had them drop that many fry so frequently. Another thing I am not used to is that it gives birth slowly ( often 2-3 days between first fry appearing and the last being born). In the past my females give birth in a few hours and then return to normal.
She started dropping yesterday afternoon and she is still in her cave though not as gravid as she was she is still swollen with a large dark gravid spot.
Last time she took 3 days before she was finished dropping.
Have you come across this before?.

 

A few months ago I bought 4 female guppies from a pet shop in a garden center I popped into for a cup of tea on my way home one day. They were all different colours and tail shapes but I thought I'd give them a try anyway. 3 out of them died within weeks but one blue tailed one survived and became the only adult female in the tank with 2 adult males and a load of fry.
Soon after I got it it became gravid and got very big before giving birth to over 30 fry. It has since given birth 3 times and each time there were over 30 surviving fry. I have never had 1 guppy produce so many fry or so often, is this some kind of super guppy?. Now she looks like she's about to drop again.
I'm glad only 1 of the 4 survived as I'm having enough problems finding things to do with all the offspring. I've started vacuuming up new fry and flushing them with water changes.

You should return all your fish and find a different hobby if your carelessly sucking up live guppies is my take on that. Horrible

 

You should return all your fish and find a different hobby if your carelessly sucking up live guppies is my take on that. Horrible

I try as much as I can to find something to do with my fry, in fact I am in the process of making a new acrylic tank about 60 G to house some and I give as many away as I can to friends and friends if friends etc. I have tried my local fish shop but they say they have far to many people offering free fry to take mine. I have no tank space left so either I flush them or feed them to other fish. I don't flush them alive, I syphon them into a bucket and add a dose of clove oil enough to kill them. I don't like feeding them to other fish to avoid cross contamination. I only flush day old fry, not mature fish.

 

I try as much as I can to find something to do with my fry, in fact I am in the process of making a new acrylic tank about 60 G to house some and I give as many away as I can to friends and friends if friends etc. I have tried my local fish shop but they say they have far to many people offering free fry to take mine. I have no tank space left so either I flush them or feed them to other fish. I don't flush them alive, I syphon them into a bucket and add a dose of clove oil enough to kill them. I don't like feeding them to other fish to avoid cross contamination. I only flush day old fry, not mature fish.

That makes imuch more sense that their only one day old rather than adults . I would still consider doing what I said in my first reply

 

That makes imuch more sense that their only one day old rather than adults . I would still consider doing what I said in my first reply

What would you do with fry you can't house or rehome?.

 

What would you do with fry you can't house or rehome?.

Get more tanks

 

A good way to keep your fry numbers down is to cull. I know it sounds heartless but it is sometimes needed. Everyone has their own way of breeding. Some other good ways would be to get a predator in the tank (one that is peaceful with adult guppies but will eat fry). Some gourami maybe?

 

You can't keep getting more tanks indefinitely, eventually you need to stop.
I live in a small cottage and finding space for new tanks is getting harder and harder. No one likes killing healthy animals but sometimes there isn't any better option. I keep chickens and as much as I try to give them the best life I can I have to accept when cockerels are born there is a good chance they will end up in the pot. You can't keep them and it's very hard to find anyone who wants them. You have to hatch eggs to breed hens and you can't control what sex they will be. Commercial fish breeders often dispose of 80 percent of their offspring just because they aren't the right shape or colour they are aiming for

 

I anticipate a similar problem soon. I am planning to give to LFS as feeders. But I do not know if they take fry. Might have to grow them up to suitable feeder size before they will take them.

I am also considering a carnivore tank and use them as my own feeder fish.

Lastly would be the clove oil technique.

Seems some kind of culling protocol is the only practical solution as some point.