My Female GuppyTank: the struggle continues

[PineSong]

I'm giving myself a grade of D- for my fry-sorting skills, as today I found a second juvenile male guppy in my "female guppies"/community tank. He was pretty far along in development of both color and gonopodium, and I will be pretty sad if he impregnated everyone in this tank.

Once I spotted him, I was anticipating a huge hassle netting him due to plants. I pulled up a podcast so I would have the patience to sit still with my net until he swam in. Apparently, the alluring cadence of Keith Morrison narrating a Dateline episode was all he needed to feel comfy, because he was in the net before the intro was over.

I then gave the tank part of a Sera O-Nip tab to help them settle down after the invasion. You can't see the whole tank in this video but it pretty much shows just how many pregnant guppies I might have if I continue to fail at sorting.

 

[Guppysnail]

My experience is about the same. I always miss one or two. I feel like they tell each other “ if your a boy aliens come and abduct you so hide” 🤣

Do you notice they remain colorless or much less colorful with only touches of black until they are in the fraternity tank? It seems mine do at that age but within a day of going in the boys only tank they start firing up their colors. 

[PineSong]

On 3/7/2022 at 8:51 AM, Guppysnail said:

Do you notice they remain colorless or much less colorful with only touches of black until they are in the fraternity tank? It seems mine do at that age but within a day of going in the boys only tank they start firing up their colors. 

Yes, exactly this! I thought it was my imagination or coincidence but for sure, I have taken some plain guys out due to just a slight shading on the sides or the clear absence of a gravid area and a slight thickening of that front ray on the anal fin, and within a couple of days they are clearly coloring up. When I removed all the adult males of my ginga sulphureus colony and put them in the fraternity tank, they also got more intensely colored than they had been.