How to crank out guppy numbers

[Daviscoast]

Hi was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how I could breed lots of guppies that are healthy with a larger success rate

[KBOzzie59]

Good water, plenty of food, loads of cover for fry (planted and floating).

[Dr.rex]

On 7/13/2021 at 12:37 AM, KBOzzie59 said:

Good water, plenty of food, loads of cover for fry (planted and floating).

Agreed, I have a 55gl runing at 82° a0 ni0 na 50-100 pH 7.6ish, super heavy floating plant stock,(water lettuce and duckweed running under 2 50w shop lights), I've got stupid hard water with no buffer so I use aragonite and they really do seem to prefer a tank with it in it to not, and they kind of like heat when they breed 78°-84° but other than that that's the only two things I found outside of what he said, well I feed the hakari fancy guppy food mainly with repashy community plus every other day that may increase there cycle, but mine tend to give birth to about 30 to 45 fry every 22ish days, witch about oh about 30% ish live atm, heavy on the ish, too many to actually count anymore

[Guppysnail]

On 7/13/2021 at 1:37 AM, KBOzzie59 said:

Good water, plenty of food, loads of cover for fry (planted and floating).

Water quality is non negotiable if you want large batches. This doesn’t just mean the testable stuff.  They drop more with frequent water changes they love fresh water. Hard high ph. Tons of calcium. Feed feed feed. Variety frozen bloodworms for fat content for mom bbs.  The more fat they store the more fry they drop and the fry are larger and color quicker. I get color beginning not just black but color at 4 weeks with male fry. I feed every 2 hours from 6 am to 7 pm. Lights on whole time. Light is critical for development in fry. I alternate feed. Dry powder or crushed varieties and recently bbs every other feed. I’ll get a picture of some later. I have sets in one tank right now ranging 2 weeks to 3 months.  Gravel vac every night before lights out to remove excess food with 30-40% water change every time. Maybe different than others but it works miracles for me. Other methods were slow unreliable and I just didn’t get my 2.5-2.75 inch females like I do this way. 

[TheDukeAnumber1]

In an old Co-op Dean video he said something along the lines of "I doubt there is a successful breeder out there that doesn't hatch out baby brine shrimp daily".

In my personal experience feeding newly hatched baby brine every day is when my breeding is the most successful.

[Taco Playz]

I have way tons of guppies in my breeding tank. The trick is to just have a bunch of floating plants like hornwort and guppy grass. Also if you want them to grow a lot quicker make sure you have a heater and feed them alot.

[KBOzzie59]

On 7/13/2021 at 5:19 AM, TheDukeAnumber1 said:

In my personal experience feeding newly hatched baby brine every day is when my breeding is the most successful.

Yep!  And watching the fry chase down them little swimmers is fun to watch.

[Guppysnail]

Here’s the pictures.  The other thing that made a difference for me is never moving the girls. They live in a forever home tanks very heavy planted and I add boys and remove after a week then remove the fry as I find them. I keep my girls fed so they just don’t eat the fry unless the fry is weak or has issues. Once I stopped moving my girls my batch size went up. 

ok I lied for whatever reason it won’t upload photos. I’ll try again later with hubbies camera if I can

[lefty o]

good clean water, mid 70's temps, quality food, and plants.

[cornelius85]

On 7/13/2021 at 3:19 PM, TheDukeAnumber1 said:

In an old Co-op Dean video he said something along the lines of "I doubt there is a successful breeder out there that doesn't hatch out baby brine shrimp daily".

In my personal experience feeding newly hatched baby brine every day is when my breeding is the most successful.

Dean also said; "Fish food got so good in recent years, I am relying  less on live/frozen food".

Do not get me wrong I do not deny bbs has advantage over dry food, I personally hatch daily. But for a prolific species like guppies I do not think it would make that much difference, as long as you are using high quality dry food.  At least that is what what I observed with endlers.

Edited July 13, 2021 by cornelius85

[gardenman]

Guppies are going to give you large spawns, but most get eaten by, you guessed it, guppies. Momma guppy will even snack on her own kids given the chance. You want the adult guppies separated from the babies if you want to raise a lot of fry. There are lots of ways to achieve that. Fish Boy on YouTube uses an external breeder box for his pregnant females to maximize yield. Some people move the pregnant females to a nearby tank and put them in a colander or similar device where the babies will fall through and the mother can't eat them. A lot of plants will help and keeping the adults well fed will help, but separation is your safest bet to maximize the number of fry.

[PedroPete]

☝️ Really great guppy advice in this thread. ☝️