Low-Expectation Guppy Startup

[Fish Folk]

My LFS cannot seem to keep the Guppies from fish farms alive more than a week. When we breed ours and sell them to the store, they do much better. Local water… what not…

So, instead of paying a fortune on Aquabid, or paying for special orders, I got a batch of random female guppies that were still alive from our LFS.

I stuck them in a 10-gallon Quarantine  tank in the closet…

 

They’re not super impressive, but I’m planning to wait out the Med trio and then move them to a planted 20-gal long for mutt-guppy breeding

I’ve got a few males to add in to start off the mutt-strain…

I’ll probably add a couple other colored males.

Here’s my thinking: I can sell these for $1 / each as often as I have them available. So, with a few tanks free to breed guppies… I’m going to have fun trying to breed some decent ones. 

[Guppysnail]

I can put guppies in my closet 😍😍😍😍don’t give me ideas. Good luck with this it sounds fun!

[Picklepuppy]

I’m so excited for your project!  It’s been a long time since i bought a random female, but honestly, it’s the best! The anticipation of each step of seeing if she’s filling up with babies, then having them, then watching them grow, then finally starting to color up so you can finally see what you get! Please update lots and keep posting pics!  Best of luck 🤞 

[PineSong]

Oooh, fun. It'll be so fun to see how the babies look. I need to avoid MTS and have already planned my next tank and my next tank (!) but I did have a little fantasy the other day about buying a few feeder guppies, getting them healthy and introducing the ladies to my Endler males... I will live vicariously through you in the meantime.

[Fish Folk]

So… went in after lights out to net some females out and switch over to another empty tank, and found fry in QT!!

 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Good lawd you and the BABIES!!!! 😄 Fish Folk and the magic fish room!

[Picklepuppy]

Woooo hooooo! 🍼 Babiesssss!

[Taco Playz]

Yay! So fun!

[Fish Folk]

Just picked up 4x new male guppies from LFS, and added to a 20 long loaded with Wisteria, algae, several sponge filters, and about 1.5 cups of crushed coral tossed on top of the black diamond blasting sand.

 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

😆 I love it! You said "Grody" (however you might spell it), haven't heard that word in a really long while. (I'm with you on not instantly medicating, but watching and treating when needed)

[Fish Folk]

On 8/6/2021 at 7:38 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

😆 I love it! You said "Grody" (however you might spell it), haven't heard that word in a really long while. (I'm with you on not instantly medicating, but watching and treating when needed)

You’re right… I did say the word… “grody” or “groady”… wait, now I’m googling this… haha! Found it:

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Woohoo!! I spelled it right!!

[Streetwise]

I remember teenage girls saying, "grody to the max!", along with, "gag me with a spoon!". Meanwhile, we (teenage boys), were saying, "rad", "sick", and "wicked!" I am medium old now.

[Fish Folk]

On 8/6/2021 at 8:41 PM, Streetwise said:

I remember teenage girls saying, "grody to the max!", along with, "gag me with a spoon!". Meanwhile, we (teenage boys), were saying, "rad", "sick", and "wicked!" I am medium old now.

wicked smart!

[Streetwise]

On 8/6/2021 at 9:06 PM, Fish Folk said:

wicked smart!

I still say that. I'm in New England!

[PineSong]

Those guppies probably can't believe their luck to find themselves in that planted tank.

I'm QT'ing my second batch of fish since starting my community tank, and this time I did not do all 3 meds at once. I can understand that in a retail setting you need to maximize efficiency and there is more at risk if something gets out of hand, so they are better off doing the whole trio at once. At home, I have more leeway to wait and see, do each one individually if needed, because their days in QT are not costing me anything and there aren't hundreds of other fish that they could infect. At least, that's my reasoning.

 

[Fish Folk]

Here’s an update on the male guppies in isolated tank…

And here’s an update on the female guppies who have dropped fry over in QT…

Now, here’s our only other guppies that we’re restarting…

 

[PineSong]

Looks like you'll have the added fun of seeing how the fry from the LFS romances turn out. Liked your videos!

[Fish Folk]

Well… looks like only 3 of the 4 male guppies are left…

[PineSong]

Did you lose the one you thought was doing poorly? That all blue guy in the middle looks like my two males, so I'll be interested to see what kinds of babies he makes.

[Fish Folk]

On 8/9/2021 at 9:48 PM, PineSong said:

Did you lose the one you thought was doing poorly? That all blue guy in the middle looks like my two males, so I'll be interested to see what kinds of babies he makes.

Yeah. Sick-boy just disappeared. Sometimes MTS crush weak fish, and shred their bodies overnight.

Unknown females with these … will be curious to see glorious mutts! 

[Fish Folk]

Sadly… only 2x of the 4x males have survived. Both deaths occurred suddenly without a lot of drama. I noticed neither were eating properly at the end.

However, these two fellas seem to be doing quite well…

 

[Fish Folk]

Today… I’ve added 8x females from QT tank in with the 2x blue males. Let there be MORE!!

 

[Taco Playz]

Sorry for your loss. Those males are looking pretty nice though!

[Fish Folk]

Here’s the Guppy fry dropped by the females while in quarantine…