First Time Guppy Breeder

[Zac]

Hey all,

I’m a first time guppy breeder and well…. I have a little dilemma 

So I have 1 male and 1 female sunflower guppies and 2 more females coming in the mail soon. My setup is very small. I have a densely planted 30 gallon, a bare bottom 10 gallon with a fake log and a couple fake plants, and a Fluval multi-chambered breeder box. I’m having trouble figuring out how the heck I’m going to separate the fry when the time comes. Here are my ideas:

-Have the female give birth in the 10 gallon then put her back in the 30 gallon. Then proceed to sell the fry just before sexual maturity so they can’t interbreed

-Have the female give birth in the 30 gallon and let the fry grow out there while the 4 adults are in the 10 gallon. The problem is that it’s significantly easier for them to interbreed in that tank and a big pain to catch them all with all the plants in there 

-Raise the fry in the 10 gallon. Then put one sex in the 30 gallon and leave the other in the 10 gallon. The adults that I’m using for breeding will be in the tank with whichever sex they match with. The issue with that is I don’t want to lose the parent guppies with the fry if the fry get too big. And I’d hate to leave 4 guppies in a .5 gallon breeder box.

My biggest fear here is interbreeding and getting an explosion of fry because I have 3 females. What if they all give birth at the same time? Will that cause an ammonia spike? Or am I over paranoid? I do already have a buyer interested in fry when the time comes. But the other issue is being able to offload them consistently and reliably. 
 

I’d appreciate any advice on the plans I’ve written out and how you guys would run this mini breeding operation.

 

Edited July 25, 2022 by Zac

[lefty o]

first thing first, with 3 females you are not only going to be over run, it is going to happen kind of fast. if you are interested in not inter breeding, you might consider getting a few more 10g tanks. every 30 to 35 days give or take a few, each one of those 3 females is going to have anywhere between 20, and 100+ each month. find friends, family etc, anyone you can to take the fry you dont want, and even consider having a couple of fish that will predate the fry to keep the numbers in check.

[Fish Folk]

Responding to your post line by line...

 

I’m a first time guppy breeder and well…. I have a little dilemma 

So I have 1 male and 1 female sunflower guppies and 2 more females coming in the mail soon. My setup is very small. I have a densely planted 30 gallon, a bare bottom 10 gallon with a fake log and a couple fake plants, and a Fluval multi-chambered breeder box. I’m having trouble figuring out how the heck I’m going to separate the fry when the time comes. Here are my ideas:

 

Are you concerned with separating fry from parents? or separating males from females?

 

-Have the female give birth in the 10 gallon then put her back in the 30 gallon. Then proceed to sell the fry just before sexual maturity so they can’t interbreed

 

I am a bit confused: are your three females from different lines that you do not want to cross?  Are you concerned to keep females from getting gravid? A 30 gal. tank is a great place to breed colony-style.

 

-Have the female give birth in the 30 gallon and let the fry grow out there while the 4 adults are in the 10 gallon. The problem is that it’s significantly easier for them to interbreed in that tank and a big pain to catch them all with all the plants in there 

 

Again, are you concerned with keeping your female guppies from spawning before selling? If everyone is from the same line, as long as you keep them all together, you can just say "females have only ben with males from this same line." Most people will understand.

 

-Raise the fry in the 10 gallon. Then put one sex in the 30 gallon and leave the other in the 10 gallon. The adults that I’m using for breeding will be in the tank with whichever sex they match with. The issue with that is I don’t want to lose the parent guppies with the fry if the fry get too big. And I’d hate to leave 4 guppies in a .5 gallon breeder box.

 

All back to the same initial questions about your purposes in separating. I just keep mine going in a colony setup.

 

My biggest fear here is interbreeding and getting an explosion of fry because I have 3 females. What if they all give birth at the same time? Will that cause an ammonia spike? Or am I over paranoid? I do already have a buyer interested in fry when the time comes. But the other issue is being able to offload them consistently and reliably. 
 

You shouldn't have any ammonia spike just because your guppies drop fry. Keep your tanks planted, and change water consistently. 

 

I’d appreciate any advice on the plans I’ve written out and how you guys would run this mini breeding operation.

 

Out of curiosity ... what are your overall goals? To make money? To produce an excellent dedicated line? To gain experience? Just trying to understand what you'd consider a successful undertaking.

[Zac]

On 7/24/2022 at 11:41 PM, Fish Folk said:

Responding to your post line by line...

 

 

I’m a first time guppy breeder and well…. I have a little dilemma 

So I have 1 male and 1 female sunflower guppies and 2 more females coming in the mail soon. My setup is very small. I have a densely planted 30 gallon, a bare bottom 10 gallon with a fake log and a couple fake plants, and a Fluval multi-chambered breeder box. I’m having trouble figuring out how the heck I’m going to separate the fry when the time comes. Here are my ideas:

 

Are you concerned with separating fry from parents? or separating males from females?

 

-Have the female give birth in the 10 gallon then put her back in the 30 gallon. Then proceed to sell the fry just before sexual maturity so they can’t interbreed

 

I am a bit confused: are your three females from different lines that you do not want to cross?  Are you concerned to keep females from getting gravid? A 30 gal. tank is a great place to breed colony-style.

 

-Have the female give birth in the 30 gallon and let the fry grow out there while the 4 adults are in the 10 gallon. The problem is that it’s significantly easier for them to interbreed in that tank and a big pain to catch them all with all the plants in there 

 

Again, are you concerned with keeping your female guppies from spawning before selling? If everyone is from the same line, as long as you keep them all together, you can just say "females have only ben with males from this same line." Most people will understand.

 

-Raise the fry in the 10 gallon. Then put one sex in the 30 gallon and leave the other in the 10 gallon. The adults that I’m using for breeding will be in the tank with whichever sex they match with. The issue with that is I don’t want to lose the parent guppies with the fry if the fry get too big. And I’d hate to leave 4 guppies in a .5 gallon breeder box.

 

All back to the same initial questions about your purposes in separating. I just keep mine going in a colony setup.

 

My biggest fear here is interbreeding and getting an explosion of fry because I have 3 females. What if they all give birth at the same time? Will that cause an ammonia spike? Or am I over paranoid? I do already have a buyer interested in fry when the time comes. But the other issue is being able to offload them consistently and reliably. 
 

You shouldn't have any ammonia spike just because your guppies drop fry. Keep your tanks planted, and change water consistently. 

 

I’d appreciate any advice on the plans I’ve written out and how you guys would run this mini breeding operation.

 

Out of curiosity ... what are your overall goals? To make money? To produce an excellent dedicated line? To gain experience? Just trying to understand what you'd consider a successful undertaking.

Colony breeding would be ideal for me. I’m just worried about genetic defects I’ve read can be caused by interbreeding. If I don’t need to worry about genetic defects I’d absolutely love to not separate and just let them thrive in a single tank.

All females come from the same breeder but I’m not sure if they’re the exact same line or not. They’re all sunflower guppies.

A successful operation in my opinion would be successfully raising fry and offloading them. I’m doing this mainly for experience and for fun. Then any money made is a benefit I can use to help pay for bills and whatnot (college is expensive lol). If I can enjoy a hobby and get some extra money to help me that’s like a best case scenario.

Hopefully this answers your questions. Would you say I’d be okay with colony breeding? It seems everywhere I go it’s like “if you don’t separate fry and control breeding you’ll end up with too many fry and it’ll end in a disaster”

[Zac]

On 7/24/2022 at 11:35 PM, lefty o said:

first thing first, with 3 females you are not only going to be over run, it is going to happen kind of fast. if you are interested in not inter breeding, you might consider getting a few more 10g tanks. every 30 to 35 days give or take a few, each one of those 3 females is going to have anywhere between 20, and 100+ each month. find friends, family etc, anyone you can to take the fry you dont want, and even consider having a couple of fish that will predate the fry to keep the numbers in check.

My only issue with interbreeding was because I’ve read that it’s a brewing ground for genetic defects. If it’s not a problem I’d like to keep them all in the same tank. What kind of fish do you recommend to keep fry numbers in check? Maybe an angel or Apisto?

[Fish Folk]

On 7/24/2022 at 11:54 PM, Zac said:

Colony breeding would be ideal for me. I’m just worried about genetic defects I’ve read can be caused by interbreeding. If I don’t need to worry about genetic defects I’d absolutely love to not separate and just let them thrive in a single tank.

All females come from the same breeder but I’m not sure if they’re the exact same line or not. They’re all sunflower guppies.

A successful operation in my opinion would be successfully raising fry and offloading them. I’m doing this mainly for experience and for fun. Then any money made is a benefit I can use to help pay for bills and whatnot (college is expensive lol). If I can enjoy a hobby and get some extra money to help me that’s like a best case scenario.

Hopefully this answers your questions. Would you say I’d be okay with colony breeding? It seems everywhere I go it’s like “if you don’t separate fry and control breeding you’ll end up with too many fry and it’ll end in a disaster”

Livebearers can interbreed without defects for about 7 generations. After that, you'll be needing to cull.

I'd recommend buying a male / males from _another_ line of the same color-pattern you're after. From there then, you can go for awhile without worries.

As for defects, you just need to learn to cull. How you do that is your call. I used to feed my culls to my larger cichlids. Sounds mean, but that's how nature handles the situation,

[Zac]

On 7/25/2022 at 12:07 AM, Fish Folk said:

Livebearers can interbreed without defects for about 7 generations. After that, you'll be needing to cull.

I'd recommend buying a male / males from _another_ line of the same color-pattern you're after. From there then, you can go for awhile without worries.

As for defects, you just need to learn to cull. How you do that is your call. I used to feed my culls to my larger cichlids. Sounds mean, but that's how nature handles the situation,

How often do you change water in a tank with fry? Once a week? One every few days? Would it be beneficial to add fritzyme? When there’s fry?

[Fish Folk]

On 7/25/2022 at 12:49 AM, Zac said:

How often do you change water in a tank with fry? Once a week? One every few days? Would it be beneficial to add fritzyme? When there’s fry?

I perform water changes every 1-2 weeks on all of my tanks.

To protect fry, I put several knee-high pantyhose over the end of my python (or siphon) to keep from sucking out fry.

I only change 25%-50% of the water. I just use a dechlorinator water treatment, not FritzZyme. Fritz Complete is a good choice. You will only need FritzZyme 7 if your tank is not properly cycled.

Edited July 25, 2022 by Fish Folk

[Vince C]

Congrats on getting into breeding - guppies were my first as well - I would recommend the colony in the 30 - put a female in the breeder box when she looks close to dropping the fry, then trying to raise them up a bit in the 10 gallon. You will learn alot the first few rounds, on what signs to look for - what to avoid etc. Give yourself time, be prepared to make a few mistakes and get better each time! 

Also be prepared to spiral down the breeding tunnel into more fish! lol

[Zac]

On 7/25/2022 at 8:27 AM, Vince C said:

Congrats on getting into breeding - guppies were my first as well - I would recommend the colony in the 30 - put a female in the breeder box when she looks close to dropping the fry, then trying to raise them up a bit in the 10 gallon. You will learn alot the first few rounds, on what signs to look for - what to avoid etc. Give yourself time, be prepared to make a few mistakes and get better each time! 

Also be prepared to spiral down the breeding tunnel into more fish! lol

How many fry can I raise in a 10 gallon if I aim to offload them around a month and a half to 2 months old? Or are you suggesting I raise them in the 10 gallon then put them back in the 30? Worst case scenario my 3 females drop 100fry each at the same time then I’m done for

Edited July 25, 2022 by Zac

[Vince C]

On 7/25/2022 at 9:42 AM, Zac said:

How many fry can I raise in a 10 gallon if I aim to offload them around a month and a half to 2 months old? Or are you suggesting I raise them in the 10 gallon then put them back in the 30? Worst case scenario my 3 females drop 100fry each at the same time then I’m done for

Once you get them big enough you could put them back in the larger tank if you don’t sell first. Also “how many can I keep in x tank” is prob going to be a debated topic here. Lol. I would say if they are guppy fry, and you have a cycled tank, and monitor your water/do frequent changes you will be fine. I personally grow out my guppy fry in a 40 breeder as it’s less maintenance/more room (since I have the space). 
 

Also I know alot of variables go into the amount of fry each drops. I would say from mine I regularly got about 12-15 every month or so. And with some natural losses/culling I would get about 8-10 raised. 

[Guppysnail]

On the how many I’ve gotten as high as 30 almost colored the entire way up in a 10.  Not recommended but with guppies sometimes it happens. Daily water changes.  As soon as they color up most of the way they need to go though. Fry that I’ve split into 2 tanks when they start to color I’ve hit 45. Definitely not ideal and I was not pleased but things happen and they were fine for a short time.  
In the wild though they have a thousand gallon lake they swarm in a 20-30 gallon area by the hundreds for safety. With daily water changes a lot is doable but not ideal. 

[SandBkeeper]

On 7/24/2022 at 10:49 PM, Zac said:

Then proceed to sell the fry just before sexual maturity so they can’t interbreed

I'm pretty sure that guppies are sexually mature at about 4 months or so. The only problem is that many guppies don't show their full colors until later, around 6 months. If you want to separate them, you can use knitting mesh and make a divider for boys and girls. Also, with only 3 females you probably won't get overrun. It's more likely that the first batch of fry will eat any other babies that are born. 

[Zac]

On 7/25/2022 at 11:07 AM, SandBkeeper said:

I'm pretty sure that guppies are sexually mature at about 4 months or so. The only problem is that many guppies don't show their full colors until later, around 6 months. If you want to separate them, you can use knitting mesh and make a divider for boys and girls. Also, with only 3 females you probably won't get overrun. It's more likely that the first batch of fry will eat any other babies that are born. 

From what I’ve been reading everyone says 2-3 months. Is it actually 4 months?

On 7/25/2022 at 10:54 AM, Guppysnail said:

On the how many I’ve gotten as high as 30 almost colored the entire way up in a 10.  Not recommended but with guppies sometimes it happens. Daily water changes.  As soon as they color up most of the way they need to go though. Fry that I’ve split into 2 tanks when they start to color I’ve hit 45. Definitely not ideal and I was not pleased but things happen and they were fine for a short time.  
In the wild though they have a thousand gallon lake they swarm in a 20-30 gallon area by the hundreds for safety. With daily water changes a lot is doable but not ideal. 

What is the usual amount of fry you get per drop? Should I expect a low number or an insanely high number? I know it’s random but is there an average per say?

[Guppysnail]

On 7/25/2022 at 11:53 AM, Zac said:

From what I’ve been reading everyone says 2-3 months. Is it actually 4 months?

What is the usual amount of fry you get per drop? Should I expect a low number or an insanely high number? I know it’s random but is there an average per say?

Younger girl 5-15. Full adults 20-50. More food and fat stores determine the amount you get. But limiting food does not help. Limiting adult food produces less but smaller weaker fry. 

[SandBkeeper]

On 7/25/2022 at 11:53 AM, Zac said:

From what I’ve been reading everyone says 2-3 months. Is it actually 4 months?

Oh sorry, I got it mixed up with when breeders cull and choose the next breeders

[Patrick_G]

I think it will be important for you to have your selling method lined up in advance. Maybe talk to some local shops and make sure there's one that's interested in Sunflower guppies. Selling them local using the Internet might net a higher price. Internet auction will probably generate the most money, but boxing and shipping will be a hassle.