want to buy some guppy

hi

my favorite fish is goldfish and guppy. I have a 10 gallon tank with two comets. I wish to buy another 10 gallon tank, and this time i'm willing to keep some guppies. how many guppies can I keep in a 10 gallon tank? as male guppies are pretty, if I keep only one female and other male guppies, will the males cause trouble for the female ???

 

You could fit as much as 4 or five of the guppies in the 10 gallon tank. I would put more females than males in there. The general rule is 2 females per one male, but I'm sure if you put 3 females in there and one male, that should be fine. If you just have one female per one male, then the male will be constantly harassing that one female trying to breed with her, so if you get more than one female, then his attention will be more spread out. Plus if you want to breed, then there is a higher chance of getting that one strain that looks just gorgeous!

 

You should really get a larger tank for your goldfish - the rule that most people support here is 20 gals for the first fish and 10 per fish after, though I have read other sites that use a 10 gal per goldfish rule (probably just for simplification). Instead of buying a new 10 gallon tank, why not buy a tank that is big enough tfor your goldies, and then putting a few guppies in the old tank? If you have one female and multiple males, as already mentioned, the female will be harassed - she can become stressed enough to actually die.

It is much better to either A) put 2 females per male in the tank or B) make an all male tank. I have a tank of male guppies (and a tank of females) and the boys are gorgeous - IMO much more colorful than the females - I'm even considering switching to a larger male tank and just keeping a couple of females in case I decide to breed. I don't know how much you want fry, but if you have all males, you don't have to worry about what to do with fry. Another option would be to split the tank, put two females on one side and two males on the other. If the females have fry, you can separate the fry in a breeder and sell them later; you can also breed the fish selectively by putting one male on the female side for a week or more - especially if you managed to get a virgin female (I bought one of my females virgin). Other than that, the males can't harrass the females and you still get a 1:1 ratio.

 

hI

I thought of getting a bigger tank. but my comets are near 6 inches, if I keep guppies with them, I think they may eat the guppies by mistake :-\.

 

If the guppies are big enough you shouldn't have a problem with them getting eaten, because they can get up to 2 inches, so the 6-inch fish shouldn't be able to swallow that.

 

I am quiet experienced with guppies. Dont put them with gold fish, it is not a good idea. Also the general rule of thumb is one male /two females , but it is not needed if you ask experienced guppy breeders. coz I belong to guppy association in my area. sometimes to get good quality fry (I mean nice ones with real cool colors) , you have to have more males and less females. Dont go for colorful females, they are mostly infertile and don't get pregnant. So select a good 2 males, one with each different tail type and a bigger female and leave them. in 4 weeks you will have fry's.

 

Wow I never knew that the colorful females are a lot of times infertile. Thanks for the advice!