Has anyone ever bred Guppies?

Has anyone ever had any experience breeding guppies? If so fill me in on everything as I'm hoping to breed a small fish soon. I've always been interested in breeding fish. I thought it would be best to start off with a smallish fish & from what I've already been told there one of the easier types to breed.
Thanks :m16:

 

Yes, guppies and mollies are pretty easy. I'll give you my daughters set up. A 29 gallon tank with an undergravel filter and plenty of plastic plants long and small. The babies hide in the plants and they are mostly born at night so we dont really see them until they are a week or so older. She doesn't use a power filter, as it could pull them into the impeller... and the current is just too fast. She does a water gravel vacuum and 40 % change about every 2 weeks and does not adjust the ph. During the gravel cleanings, she tries her best to round up the little ones in a breeding net that floats at the surface. It seems like there are always more than a couple of little ones at any given time.

 

Excellent. Cpuld you plz explain whaat a breeding net is? I've heard of them many times but Im not sure what they are.

 

My standard "before you breed anything" warning:

When you start breeding fish (and especially easy to breed ones like guppies), you can end up with literally hundreds of fry. You need to be prepared to deal with them in terms of either culling them, buying more tanks to house them (not practical in most cases), or selling them. If you intend to sell them, don't just assume your LFS will be happy to take them off your hands. Not all LFS's buy from private breeders and even if they do, most won't take easy to breed fish like guppies simply because they can easily breed their own. Plus you're not likely to get much money for them.

I'm not saying by all means don't breed fish, just plan ahead and know what you're going to do with the fry.

-Chelle

 

I was waiting for that Chelle :mrgreen:

 

Thanks Chelle. I'm not breeding just yet & before I do I will make sure I know what im doing with them. Apart from keeping them for themselves & selling fish that they have bred, what other things do people do with their fish after they've bred them? Are there any other easy-to-breed fish (livebearers) apart from Mollies,Platies & Guppies?

 

I'm breeding firemouths right now, but they're really difficult. I really would reccomend platies to breed. If you get a few really neat kinds, its possible to interbreed them and make really bizarre but interesting looking fry. -tll

 

i dont think they are any more easy to breed livebearers other than the ones you already stated.

 

guppy breed all the time just have males and females and there you go just make sure you have the room for all the fry

 

Thanks for your responses. I'm probably going to breed guppies, mainly b/c I like their coloures. I'm going to ring our lfs & ask if they buy from private breeders when I get the chance. Any particular reason why you think I should breed Platties tski22?

 

I jsut like them because mainly there are so mnany different styles. Different tails, fins colors. So hence when you interbreed them you can get some really neat colorful fry. I just like the variations in the fish. -tl

 

yea, i like the cobra and the sunfire guppies

 

I am afraid that my filter will suck up the fry when they are born, i do have plastic plants in the tank though. Do you think that the guppies will have time to make it into the plats before the filter sucks them up? It is an aqua tech 5-15 gallon power filter.

 

hmmm, i am thinking that yopu could put something like nylon over the filter intake to prevent the fry from being sucked up, but not screwing up the purpose of the filter.....you could probably rubberband the nylon onto it

 

Look for a sponge pre-filter. It should slip over your intake and keep the babies from getting sucked up.

-Chelle