Raising guppies, red dragon

[Cmike15]

I just got these in today, they are mainly very small with 2 that are older I’d say but still fry. I have had bad luck keeping guppies I got locally. Mainly my females would live to have fry once and died. I’m hoping that these might be stronger. 

I will keep an eye on the M/F ratio and post a few more pictures when I can soon.

This summer it would be my hope to pond out some of these to grow them strong. 

I’m wondering if there are tips to raising up a line of guppies choosing the strongest and prettiest eventually to keep growing out. I’d really like to have more success this time around. 

[gardenman]

Modern guppies aren't especially hardy these days so your experience with them having one set of fry and dying isn't uncommon. The fry tend to do better though. In terms of improving or maintaining the strain, you want to focus on what characteristics you want to keep or enhance. Simply Betta on YouTube has done several videos on how she selects her bettas for breeding. While bettas and guppies aren't completely comparable, her tips could give you some ideas of what to look for and what to avoid. You should have some idea of what you want to see in a "perfect" guppy. When you look at your current adults, which ones come closest to your ideal? Select those for breeding. (Bear in mind guppies get sexually active at a young age so sorting out the males and females so you have virgin females is wise.) Things to look for are body shape, color, structure, health, vigor, pattern (where applicable), finnage, etc. Put the male and female who come closest to your ideal together and then raise their fry and see which of the fry comes closest, then pair them up and, so on and so on. Bring in some outside genes from time to time to try and improve areas where your guppies fall short of your ideal and to add more vigor. It's a time-consuming and tedious process, but you can end up with gorgeous fish over time. 

[Cmike15]

Thank you for the advice, I've watched Simply Betta's YouTube before so I'll go look for some I missed, it's been a while. I'm not expecting miracles but a fun home project that i think will be rewarding. i plan on taking lots of pictures and in time journaling it on this site. Hmm, I'm glad I am setting up more tanks since I think I'll need before long. 

 

I have an idea of two buyers i liked also that i could buy from to add in similar colors in the future. The biggest thing for me might be catching the ones i don't want in my main tank before they all breed together. 🙂

[SpicyFin]

On 3/11/2021 at 8:27 PM, Cmike15 said:

Thank you for the advice, I've watched Simply Betta's YouTube before so I'll go look for some I missed, it's been a while. I'm not expecting miracles but a fun home project that i think will be rewarding. i plan on taking lots of pictures and in time journaling it on this site. Hmm, I'm glad I am setting up more tanks since I think I'll need before long. 

 

I have an idea of two buyers i liked also that i could buy from to add in similar colors in the future. The biggest thing for me might be catching the ones i don't want in my main tank before they all breed together. 🙂

I swear catching the guppies you want to cull is the worst lol I swear the ones I want out seem to know it and hide and the ones I want to keep literally swim into the net lol

[Cmike15]

My guppies are growing out now, some color in their fins. I’ve been feeding BBS,  pellets and flakes from the coop. 

[lefty o]

hope they continue to do well. cobra guppies are some of the best looking imo.