Guppies are from South America. They are tropical freshwater fish, which belong to the Poeciliidae family. Guppies possess colorful and slim bodies as well as attractive fins. Meanwhile, guppies are peaceful and easy to care for. Thus, they are perfect for beginners. However, different guppies have special features, including colors, tail types, and markings. Besides, guppies possess great fertility. Today, we will learn something about guppy breeding. Does it sound interesting? Let’s get started!
How often do guppies have babies?
It is extremely pitiful that guppies suffer death because you can not determine whether she is pregnant or not. Therefore, it is essential to learn some characteristics of pregnancy.
- Some female guppies may become agitated and swim up and down around the tank.
- Others may flap their fins and hide in corners, such as aquatic plants and aquarium filters.
- Guppies even lose their interest in appetite.
- Breathing rapidly is another feature.
- A dark mark on the female guppies’ abdomen.
- Observing from the sides, guppies’ bellies are shaped like cones.
- Viewed from the back, the back becomes more arched, and the mouth is small and upturned.
- From the bottom to the top, it looks triangular from the belly to the head.
- The shape of the guppies’ bellies is close to square.
After learning tips to tell if guppies are pregnant, one question here. Do guppies breed easily? Exactly, guppies are easy to breed. Guppies are ovoviviparous. Female guppies develop eggs inside their body and then release them to hatch. Nevertheless, you should be careful about guppy breeding. To begin with, you should choose a healthy male guppy. Then setting up a breeding tank is also important. And we will share something about it later in this article.
How long does it take for guppies to breed?
With proper care and ideal habitat, guppies can reproduce once a month or twice every three months. The gestation period is about 21–30 days. They can produce 10-100 small fish at one time, while some even produce more than 100 fish each time. On the other hand, the small fish will get sexually mature after three to five months, which means that they can reproduce. In addition to this, guppies can breed all year, even in winter.
However, low temperatures may decrease the survival rate of small guppies. Nonetheless, continuous inbreeding will cause degradation, shorter tail fins for instance. Consequently, you should not keep guppies from the same brood, breeding over three generations. For such cases, it is recommended to introduce fish from the same species to achieve distant mating.
Start a breeding guppy tank
Setting up a guppy breeding tank is critically crucial. When a guppy is pregnant, a breeding tank can provide a safe and comfortable environment. Meanwhile, a breeding tank can protect pregnant guppies and small guppies from attack by other fish in the home tank. Moreover, if you keep pregnant guppies in the home tank, they may get disturbed. It will lead to premature birth or dystocia. What is worse? The pregnant guppy and small fish suffer death. Furthermore, it is necessary to remove the mother guppy from the breeding tank after reproduction. Or she may eat the small guppies. Since so important, then, how to set up a breeding guppy tank?
- Tank size
Just as we have mentioned above, you need another tank. However, overstock means more feces and waste. It sounds bad. And it is not good for your guppy fry, exactly. Generally, a 5 to 20-gallon fish tank is great. Guppy fry will be enjoyable in such ideal tank sizes.
- Decorations
For the bottom of the breeding tank, you can leave it bare or place substrate. However, a bare bottom may be better as it is easy to clean. But if you are busy and have no time to clean, adding substrate or gravel is better. Still and all, if you keep a bare bottom, you can easily record the number of guppy fry and how much they eat. For another thing, guppies prefer to reproduce in caves or under plants.
Accordingly, you should provide hiding places. You can purchase some artificial hiding places, such as aquarium decorations tree trunks, rocks, and plants. On the other hand, adding live aquatic plants is another good option. Java moss can provide comfortable hiding places for small guppy fry. But live plants will take your time in daily maintenance.
- Aquarium light
Light helps your guppy fry grow faster and form brilliant colors. Without sufficient light, they may face poor metabolism, stunted growth, and loss of color. It is recommended to keep your decoration lights on for about 10–12 hours per day.
- Aquarium filter
Do not be surprised! A breeding tank also requires an aquarium filter. Your guppy fry will live in the breeding tank until they grow up. An aquarium filter plays a crucial role in maintaining great water quality. But be cautious when buying the aquarium filter. Exactly, a sponge filter is better. It can provide biological and mechanical filtration, and also clean the fish tank. If you purchase an inappropriate one, your small fry will get sucked into the filter.
- Aquarium heater
To avoid sudden fluctuation of water temperature, adding a fish tank heater is sensible. An aquarium heater can help to keep a stable water temp. The ideal water temperature for guppy fry should be around 78℉.
- Regular maintenance
A breeding tank also needs regular maintenance, it is no doubt, right? Changing the water regularly is essential. Change 20-30 percent of the water per week is feasible. And a fish tank gravel cleaner will help you out. When are you doing water changes, it is recommended to test the new water with an aquarium water test kit before adding it. Furthermore, you should clean the aquarium filter and the breeding tank.
If you do not keep cleaning, your small fry will get sick or suffer death easily. Aside from that, you can also apply a rechargeable air pump. It can expel excess carbon dioxide and oxygenate the water in the breeding guppy tank. As a result, the water quality will not turn poor.
Reminder
In the end, we would like to share some pointers about caring for guppy fry and keeping an eye on pintail disease, which is the main cause of guppy fry death.
Diet
Microworms, brine shrimp, boiled spinach, egg yolks, and powdered flakes are food sources for guppy fry. You can feed them twice a day but do not overfeed them. Although you are aching when your fry is hungry, excess food even makes your fry get sick or die. We believe you are not eager to see that, right?
What can be moved to a large or home tank?
You can move the guppy fry to another tank when they are about three months old. But it is better to keep them with peaceful fish. By the way, you can remove the fish from another tank with a fish net.
For more useful tips, please go to Hygger’s blog. Of course, if you are willing to share your ideas, welcome to leave messages in the comments. Finally, thanks for your reading!
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