# Guppy breeding woes



## Daeorn (Dec 13, 2006)

Hey all. 

Currently I have 3 tanks set up for my first attempt at breeding guppies. One 5gallon for specific breeding of my nicer guppies, and 2 20gal long for "mass breeding" where there are net breeders and dividers set up to seperate certain strains of guppies.

Then I have another small tank for guppy fry to be raised.

Now, here's my main problem... all my female guppies seem to die quickly. 

My water parameters are perfect, I do 10% water changes every few days, I had 2 females to every male, but now after the last two weeks or so, I've lost several females and I can't figure out why.

Can males chase them around so much they stress and die? Should I do less frequent (1 water change- 1-2weeks) water changes?

Any ideas?


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## Ice Prince (Jun 15, 2007)

how many guppies were in the tanks before the females started dying? also can you tell us exactly what your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate readings are, because sometimes people say they are perfect and they arent. also have you noticed any aggression between the guppies?
edit: yes males can chase females enough to stress them out, which is why its recommended to have more than one female to each male, to give them a break once in a while.


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## Daeorn (Dec 13, 2006)

Ammonia, Nitrates and Nitrites are all 0, done with liquid tests not the strips.

Perhaps I am merely overstocking my tanks, I had about 25 guppies in a 20gal long, with a 40gal filter and 40gal rated airpump with 8" bubblewand.

There were about 10 males and 15 or so females, now I'm down to about 10 males and 8 females, its been a really devistating couple of weeks.


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

Daeorn:

Please bear in mind that my comments are based upon at least one year of no joy with guppies and only recently some 

joy with guppies.

My joy is adverse to the literature as well as input from several members of the Forum.




Daeorn said:


> Now, here's my main problem... all my female guppies seem to die quickly. ...
> ... I've lost several females and I can't figure out why. ...


Yep: had the same experience in my main tank with a meltdown of female guppies

But: subsequently had a meltdown of my male guppies (after I had restocked with female guppies).

I also do not know why this occurred.




Daeorn said:


> My water parameters are perfect ...


I am presuming that you are referring to ammonia and nitrite concentration.

Please recheck your nitrate concentration as I have never observed zero.
Also please post your Gh for other members with much more experience than I.
And please post your water temperature.



Daeorn said:


> I do 10% water changes every few days ...
> ... Should I do less frequent (1 water change- 1-2weeks) water ...


My experience says that "10% every few days" this is not adequate and as such less frequent WCs are not appropriate also.

More like a 20% WC daily but this quantity and frequency will depend on the concentrations cited above.




Daeorn said:


> I had 2 females to every male, but now after the last two weeks or so,
> Can males chase them around so much they stress and die?


I have found that 1 male/3 females will function.



Daeorn said:


> Perhaps *I am merely overstocking my tanks*, I had about 25 guppies in a 20gal long, with a 40gal
> 
> filter and 40gal rated airpump with 8" bubblewand


Yes I believe that you are.

As somewhat stated above I have found that one guppy male and three guppy females will produce offspring in a 5G tank.




Daeorn said:


> ... its been a really devistating couple of weeks ...


I have been there, done that, and got many tee shirts (as the death of fishies which I supposed to be keeping is not good at all).
dddddd

One additional item is floating plants and do you have any? as I have found them to be necessary for the guppy fry to survive.

TR


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Well, that about covers it although I would add that pH and hardness are just as potentially important as nitrogenous waste levels, so maybe you need to consider just how "perfect" your water is for guppies.

You definitely want many more females than males for the very reason you already deduced. Besides, you get a LOT more fry that way.

More water changes are what you want, not less.

Your problems may be stemming from the differences between your water and the water from which your broodstock came. The good news is that your fry won't have that problem.

Females require more oxygen, and pregnant ones much more, than males. That's one reason they tend to be the first to go if something cuts into the oxygen supply. An overcrowding situation would certainly be a lot worse for the females, so maybe that's part of your problem as well.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

Also there is something called the guppy virus.
"guppy reovirus" to be exact. I had a run of it among my females not long ago. They were all 4 generation bred by me and I am at a loss as to where the virus came from. I have 3 girls left out of the 8 I started with. Symptoms are variable according to the fish. Some went dusky overnight and died. Some started panting and took several days to die and some the livers swelled up before they died.
It was a very discouraging time. This virus affects mostly females.
I would not say that 25 guppies in a 20 gallon tank is too many. Of course it depends on what size they are. Some guppies get to about 2 1/2 inches long and others are much smaller.
I have a friend who had a 30 gallon tank in which she let the guppies bread freely. It was way overstocked. Also contained a pleco.
She sometimes had massive die offs. The few fish left continued to reproduce until the next die off.
I could not convince her to do water changes ever. She just topped up from one month to the next. I did however convince her to add live plants. With all the nitrates in the tank they grew abundantly!!. 
I do not recommend that method however.
My females are separated from the males unless I want to breed them. Then I choose the male and female and put them together for a couple of hours. even this way I end up with so many fry over the next few months that I beg the neighbour kids to take some.Can't even give them away to the lfs.
I find guppies are pretty hardy for the most part but they do like hard water.


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## Daeorn (Dec 13, 2006)

You guys are absolutely correct. 

When I say "perfect" water conditions, I mean with the regards to absence of most pollutants, not hardness or alkalinity.

When I get home tomorrow I'll be testing everything again.


As for oxygen, I have a 40gal whisper air pump with an 8" bubble wand to supply extra oxygen.

My big problem was I originally figured "mass breeding" or, sticking a bunch of guppies together in a tank would be a good idea. However, my new set up that I'm working on will be several smaller tanks dedicated to one male to two or three select females, with separate small tanks for raising the fry - doing it the right way.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I think "mass breeding" would be ok, but I'd put that number of fish in a 33L (4ft x 1ft) and add a lot of hornwort (it needs adequate light, but likes hard water and grows quickly, soaking up nitrite). If your hardness turns out to be low, 1 tsp of aquarium salt per gallon (add slowly at first) should help or try cichlid salts for a more "natural" water quality. Your water changes are small enough to keep the pH swings reasonable, but how do you have 0 nitrate. Unless you have live plants or ion exchange resin to remove nitrate, you ought to see some. How old is your test kit?


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