Breeding Guppy Fish
By PurpleParker
@PurpleParker (81)
United States
September 30, 2007 9:38pm CST
I have a 30 gallon fish tank that is set up and running. In this tank is gravel, lots of plastic plants, a decoration with an air stone under it for air circulation and a bubble wand. I am using a bio-wheel filtering system that is made for a 40 gallon tank so I know that is big enough. The fish are mostly female with a couple of males.
I keep the temperature about 80 to 82 degrees.
I think I am doing everything to have babies...am I missing anything??
1 person likes this
7 responses
@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
1 Oct 07
Honestly I don't think there is any trick to breeding guppies. They will breed in just about any situation, even if their tanks is over crowded. What you should do, is make sure that once they have babies that you have a good place for the babies to hide, or pay enough attention to be able to catch the babies right after they are born. I have all of my guppies in one tank and as soon as they are born the male start eating them. I have to keep an eye out and catch the babies almost immediately even with heavy plant coverage.
1 person likes this
@PurpleParker (81)
• United States
1 Oct 07
I had some females that were pregnant and they were dying before they had babies. I thought maybe they were having the babies, then dying but I made my kids sit one day and watch the fish..there were no babies.
There are only 2 males right now and half of the tank is very thick plants. I'm hoping some babies will appear soon.
@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
2 Oct 07
Unfortunately, guppies do get baby bound. I have had that happen a few times. Even with ones that had babies a few times. I think it is because they get stressed out.
Make sure that all of the levels (ph, ammonia, etc) are good in your tank.
@mtshootingstar (11)
• United States
16 Oct 07
I have found that some of my mommas gobble up the babies almost immediately...when I notice that, I have to take quick measures to remove the babies to safety.
@erickrubio (624)
• Philippines
4 Oct 07
PurpleParker, I don't think you're missing anything. Just make sure that the tank is exclusive for the guppies only.
@PurpleParker (81)
• United States
10 Jun 08
Thank you very much for this idea. I had a couple other fish in the guppy tank and as soon as I took them out the guppies were having babies like crazy. I now have the whole 30 gallon tank only for guppies and there is about 100 babies in there, all at different stages of development. It is awesome to watch them grow and develop their different colors and fins.
@Thoroughrob (11742)
• United States
1 Oct 07
Absolutely not. Soon you will have more guppies than you will know what to do with. They reproduce so quickly.
@oscarbartoni (2581)
• United States
26 Oct 07
I would put plenty of fine leaved floating plants for the babies to hid in when they are born. Baby guppies (and other live bearing fish) will go to the surface when they are born and if there is hiding places they will stay there until they get large enough to swim with the big guys. Yes you might lose a few of the stragglers but they probably were not the best of the batch any ways.
When I was growing up my father had a 29 gallon tank with guppies in it and they became overcrowded. I took out 80 guppies one day and he did not even mill them (it was that overcrowded).There were so many babies in there that the adults did not know which were small enough to eat plus the young had only to swim a little ways t t hide behind other guppies.
@medic642 (59)
• United States
15 Nov 07
I have a special 5 gallon tank that i use for breeding, and put the male and females in their to create certain colors, or keep certain colors, i also have a birthing chamber for the babies, and i remove the mother afterwards so she doesnt eat them. Good luck! They are usually pregrant for about 30 days, and have a square shaped belly when they are ready to deliver.
@darksome (24)
• United States
27 Jun 08
Yeah there's no problem with your set up...about a year and a half ago the whole fish population disappeared then a couple of week later a couple of guppy fry "popped out" of nowhere...to this day there's more than 20 guppies in my tank just from those few fry survivors...so yeah they will breed whenever wherever.
@mtshootingstar (11)
• United States
16 Oct 07
I have a 36 gal. tank that has a huge number of guppies in it right now (so many, that I can't even count them). I started out with 3 dalmation mollies (ended up with one male and one female)...3 female and 2 male guppies, 6 neon tetras, 1 beta, 3 striped tetras, 11 glo danios and an algea eater. I now have 3 female dalmation mollies (mom and 2 of her babies), 3 female and 1 male guppy (mature), 2 neon tetras, 1 betam 2 stripes tetras, 1 harlequin tetra, 6 glo danios. Every time I see one of my female guppies about ready to have babies, I quaranteen her to a 10 gal tank that is set-up in my daughter's room. I put her in a clear plastic breeder, then as the babies are born they fall away from her-into the bottom part of the breeder...then when she is done, I move her back to the big tank....then I let the babies out into the 10 gal. tank....it is our "baby tank". Right now we have a bunch of fairly new babies in there...that I am just waiting for them to get big enough to move to the big tank.
