# Need tips: About to Start Breeding Guppies



## S-hag (Jan 8, 2012)

I'm about to start breeding guppies, and I've been doing a lot of research, but there's a lot of differing opinions. I was planning on using a 10 gallon with fancy guppies to start, but I am unsure of what to plant it with. I've seen some people say just leave the bottom bare, but others said to use guppy grass. Is there anyone who has had sucess with both that could tell me what would work the best? Also if anyone has any opinions on any other things for the set up and care, I'd love to hear it.

I have tried breeding ballon mollies before, but unfortunetly they did not breed and died over a year ago. The only semi-sucessful breeding that has occured in my 29 gallon is my angelfish laying eggs on my filter (they were sucked away by the filter before they could hatch).


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

lol the easiest way to breed guppys is put a male and female together! For hiding places, the more the better. Adults will eat their fry so you need a lot of hiding places. Anacharis, water lettuce, and java moss are all great plants for live bearers.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

If you want to make a whole bunch of guppies, then you'll need a lot more containers of water, be they real tanks or just cheap plastic tubs. Your best bet would be to get a clear-ish plastic Sterilite plastic tub from Walmart, put a regular filter on it, put a light over it, and stuff it with any of the plants so far mentioned. Plop a fat pregnant female in it when she's ready to pop, and you'll save her and probably all of the babies. Before long you'll be up to your eyeballs in them.

Now, that's how you get quantity. If you want quality, then starting from there, you'll need many more containers for sorting out the fish. You'll want to separate the males & females as soon as you can start to tell them apart, and then keep them uncrowded. If you don't, you'll wind up with junk. 
After that, pick out the best fish you get.

Take the best male or two. Cross breed him back to his own mother and to a few of his sisters. Take those females and put them in their own tank and wait. When they have their babies, repeat the previous steps and once again take the best males you get. Cross them again to their mothers and sisters, and then wait for that next generation to be born. This time, though, separate the sisters into two batches. These will be the starters for your new fixed lines.

By now, the fish should all start to look the same. Now you can really see which of them are truly the best. Repeat the whole process again. This time, take your best two males, and breed each one to the females in in only one of your two lines, one male to each line. This fixes your lines.

From now on, maintain each line completely separately. Every three or four generations, cross your best males to the virgin females of the opposite line. This re-vitalizes your fish and fends off degradation.

Oh, I almost forgot-- when you can cross your males to virgin females, that's good. Try to use virgin sisters when crossing to a sister. When you have to cross back to the mother, though, it gets tricky. What you have to do is put your male in with your mother female 6-10 hours after she gives birth to a batch of fry. If she breeds before the 17 hour mark after giving birth, then she'll use the new sperm instead of any stored stuff. this is how you make sure your desired cross is what you actually get.

By now you should be seeing some VERY nice fish.

Now do you see why thoroughbred guppies cost so much?


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## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

If you had success with angels and not with mollies, then I would wager that your water is too soft for the livebearers. Guppies also prefer harder water, and most of the problems I have heard with difficulty breeding livebearers has been related to hardness. If your water is too soft, you may have to add some marine substrate to increase it.

If your water is hard already, then no need to modify. I have extremely hard water and my I can't get my livebearers to stop breeding.


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## S-hag (Jan 8, 2012)

I'm actually buying a new, smaller tank to start off my breeding, so the hardness of the water will be much easier to manage. TheOldSalt, if I have the time to be that involved and precise, I will definitely follow that, thanks! I forgot to mention but I tried platies too and one female did get pregnant but she died before she gave birth (that was about the same time as my ballon mollies). I wasn't trying to breed the angel fishes, it just kinda happened.


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## guppygirl2000 (Jan 6, 2012)

Well Honestly,
I prefer having two tanks, one for fry, and one for adults.
In my fry tank I prefer to use gravel and java fern, I also have had luck with any stringy plant, because the guppies can hide from there mother, and also eat the grass.


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

get a net breeder. Those are good for fry. I like to float my bettas in plastic bags to keep them separated.


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## guppygirl2000 (Jan 6, 2012)

Honestly, I have had the most success with brightly colored gravel, except I would STRONGLY! suggest having a fry tank as well as the breeding tank, plant it with java fern or java moss, good luck!


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## Sorafish (Sep 15, 2011)

I have a BUNCH of different fry container/tanks.  But for my breeding tank, I have gravel (filter of choice) and a bunch of fake plants, gravel-bound and floating. 
You'll want SOMETHING to keep the fry in for a few weeks, so that they can grow big enough not to be eaten. I use a bunch of little 7 qt clear containers from walmart that have nifty two sided lids. Just pop an airstone in there. 
But really, its all personal preference. What Theoldsalt said is the perfect way to breed them selectively, and what fishpunk said sounds pretty dang true. Any water that angels will breed in, is too soft for livebearers.


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## Tormenter370 (Dec 23, 2010)

Betta man said:


> lol the easiest way to breed guppys is put a male and female together! For hiding places, the more the better. *Adults will eat their fry* so you need a lot of hiding places. Anacharis, water lettuce, and java moss are all great plants for live bearers.


Not all adults bought 5 female and 1 male, the male had a baby with one of them and the 9 babies are still alive and they have made no attempt to eat them, and i feed them about 2 times a day. So i don't believe that they generally eat them.


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## Sorafish (Sep 15, 2011)

Tormenter370 said:


> Not all adults bought 5 female and 1 male, the male had a baby with one of them and the 9 babies are still alive and they have made no attempt to eat them, and i feed them about 2 times a day. So i don't believe that they generally eat them.


MORE LIKE they got full on the other 30+
Guppies have litters between 30 to 200 fry. (of course, the larger the female, the healthier, the more fry they will have.)


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## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

Very young females can drop small litters, like 4 or 5 fry. Second litter is usually considerably larger.

Breeding them in tank is one way to keep the population under control.


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