# stupidest male guppy?



## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

My male guppy seems to be only interested in trying to get out of the tank or else he is chasing his reflexion in the glass. He has gone up and down the glass for the past 5 days with virtually no interest in anything else.
I have placed a female guppy in with him for company but he is totally ignoring her-- still cruising the glass sides.
The last male guppy I bought for breeding had the same problem - he was not interested in the girls at all and he died without ever mating with them-- at least none of them ever got pregnant by him. 
I am thinking that by keeping the males all separate from the females at Big Al's that the males have no idea what they are to do.
I know this does not seem logical- any home bred males I have had are randy little things -just these guys from big al's are not interested in the girls.
HAs anyone else experienced this??


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## Dando (Apr 13, 2010)

*Guppy Problems*

*Hi, I havn't had this kind of problem with my guppy's Most fish race up and down the side of the glass maybe try and lower the ph and see if you get any results.*


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I've never seen a non-randy livebearer male. Do you think they could be playing with hormones to improve color or time to market? Maybe they are younger than look. 

Mousey, Is there any place for you to get fish besides Big Al's? I really like them for mail-order supplies, but you have had the worst luck with their fish. At this point, I'd be placing an ad on craigslist for someone to bring you some home-grown fish.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

I also wonder if they are playing with hormones to get them bigger and brighter faster.
he is a huge fish and from the perfect symetry of his tail I would think he is fairly young.
My own experience has been with home bred guppies that the males only keep the symmetry in their tails for a very few weeks. Once they are about 9 months old the tails start to become uneven. I have never had home bred males ever this big despite using my big females who are also home bred and about 2 1/2- 3 inches long.
I have now borrowed a friend's male and he seems to know what to do.He also is huge but was bought from a different store
( Petsmart) but has been in with a bunch of girls. The German gold is in with my home bred males who are a randy bunch -- perhaps he will figure it out.
These are our 2 choices now for fish- the other 3 stores we had all went out of business.
Good idea about Craigs list though. I will likely be looking for homes for fry if I get any and we have a local Freecycle group that I can try.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

well I have been trying my friends male fish who is a lovely red, but she got him at Big Al's. he is mildly interested in the girls but thus far neither of them are getting any bigger!
I am trying my old female- she may be a bit too old to get pregnant, She is still very slim after being exposed to males now for 3 weeks. She has had fry in the past so i know she could be fertile.
My friend also got females from Big Al's but they all died. I have never been impressed with Big Al's females-- they are either very old and worn looking or young and nonpregnant, and seem to have a lot of fungal problems.

No wonder in the past when I had plenty of females to get rid of, Big Al's snapped them up. They were always sold in a couple of days too.
This lack of breeding is getting tiresome. Am going to advertise on freecycle and see if anyone can give me a known fertile male.!!


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## hXcChic22 (Dec 26, 2009)

LOL I can see it now on Craigslist:
"Wanted: Stud guppy!"
"I really need a guppy who knows what to do with his gonopodium. I want a male guppy that has been proven with other females, and who is a known horndog. Thanks, have a nice day"
bahahahaha I wonder if it would get flagged for "breeding"?


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

actually I have advertised on 'freecycle'


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## Peeps (May 24, 2010)

Oh yes, a lot of fish just swim up and down. Maybe add some more females.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

male seems to have figured out what to do and the female is as big as a house but the gravid spot is really small and she does not really look as if there are fry inside her. Sometimes you can see an irregular line inside them if you look at the space between the abdomen area and the top of the back. She doesn't have that so whether she is preggnant and is holding the fry or if it is a pseudopregnancy I don't know. The temperature in the tank is currently at 82 degrees because of the heat in the house- I have added a bit of salt to the water and no fry after almost 2 months !!
I had hoped to have young guppies to put outside for the summer but no luck yet. Even the new guppy female I bought does not look pregnant yet- so maybe the males are duds?
I dunno- usually ahve tons of guppy fry and giving them away.


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## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

this thread made me laugh pretty hard. "stud guppy"  lol

sorry that I cant help, I used to keep guppies but that was a long time ago so I dont remember them very well. Good luck with finding a stud  perhapse check ebay as well? though I dont know how reliable it is for purchasing animals


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

Ahh, so today the female finally gives birth!! She was first introduced to males at the beginning of April so she sure has taken her time dropping fry. Certainly an atypical pregnancy to what I am used to.
I stopped collecting fry after she had 25. there are anothe r20 or so in the tank less any that she snacked on.
I watched her give birth for a while and then went out for a few hours. She dropped 3 at a time all rolled up into little balls. About 3/4 of the fry are pink with the rest being grey. Her mom was a gold; she is a grey.
The father could have been any of 3 hapless males who gave their lives to impregnate her!( a gold red tail, a black and bluetail or the yellow tail)
The pink fry are a bit larger than the greys. When I returned from my outing she was actively hunting fry to snack on. She is still huge so I wonder if she is holding back.
Another question though- can they be impregnated by different males at different times and thus deliver batches like cats can- from multiple fathers?


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## Peeps (May 24, 2010)

I saw a female guppy give birth. It's kind of like they roll out, it's pretty cool. Yes, they can be impregnated by different males at different times.


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