I want them to have babies, so how can i tell its sex?
Do I need a heat lamp to make sure their temp. stays the same? (I live in Bay Area, CA, so it's pretty warm)
Do I need a Florescent light bulb?
I have a 30 gallon tank, how many will it hold?
What kind of filter should I get?
Answers:
Male guppies tend to be longer and thinner in the body with a larger and more colorful tail. They also have a long thin anal fin. Female guppies have a rounder body with a triangular anal fin. Most female guppies will produce a batch of fry every month but things like the water being too cold and there being not enough plants/decorations will stress them and cause them to hang onto their babies longer. Use a submersible heater and set it at about 80 for the best results. What type of light you use doesn't matter, but it should be put on a timer on a twelve hour cycle. I would suggest buying a tank divider as well. It can make life a lot easier then using breeder boxes as the guppies will eat a percentage of the fry.
Foods like pureed beef heart and earthworm flakes have been proven to increase the number of fry/batch, the number of males/batch and increase the lifespan of the guppies in general.
Here are some good websites
http://www.guppies.com/forums/
http://www.andi-holmes.com/ringhome.html.
A
Good questions, and you are in for some great fun! Guppies are funny little things. The males has really awesome coloring on their tails and sides of their bodies, while the females are primarily the see-thru grayish/silverish color.
Depending on the ambient temp in your place you might be able to get away with out the need for a heater. I have Guppies in one of my tanks right now, and they just had some babbies - temp currently is at 70 degrees, but I have had it as low as 67 with no problems (but then again - no babies at that temp either).
A bulb won't hurt anything or anyone in the tank, and really unless you are planning on eventually going with live plants - is really more for your viewing pleasure than anything else.
A 30g tank will hold at least 30 to 60 Guppies without too many problems.
Here is some more info for you!
http://www.aquariacentral.com/species/db.
Best of luck to you in your new hobby!
With guppies its pretty simple, get em, put em in a tank, and let em be. The males are usually the really pretty ones and the females have less color and get fat in the belly. The babies are born live, they dont lay eggs, so the females bellies will get black towards the back of their bellies, that is the babies eyes. A good idea is to get some breeder grass from your local pet store, a fake one will do, you can even get them at walmart, and put them in the bottom of the tank for the babies to hide in till they are ready to come out more. As for the light, a normal tank hooded light will do, but no more than 8 hours a day of light, or you could kill em. With guppies, you can get quite a few in a 30 gallon tank, just watch so you dont over crowd it, or they will stop growing and eventually die off. They will breed fast too. For a filter, a normal whisper filter will do just fine, dont over feed em, and dont use gravel on the bottom when breeding. You cant vaccum out the bottom cause you will suck up the babies. Good luck.
Guppies-who doesn't love them? They are small, and relatively easy and inexpensive to take care of.
Steps
Make sure you own a bare bottom tank that can hold 10 gallons of water or more.
Make sure that there are box filters in your tanks, containing marbles and/or dolomite and filter floss.
Change about 20% to 40% of your water each week, siphoning the debris from the bottom of the tank. The water should be aged or treated with a chlorine/chloramines remover if you have these chemicals in your water supply (if you're no sure, treat anyway).
The pH of the water should be in the range of 6.8--7.6(7.0-7.2 is preferable), although if kept in local tap water, it doesn't matter very much.
The temperature should be between 75 %26 80 degrees (guppies 0-4 months 78-80, 5-8 months 75-77, 9-12 months 72-74).
The lighting schedule isn't too important unless you have live plants, in which case, find out the specific needs of those plants. Otherwise, the light is mainly for viewing purposes, so turn it on when you wake up, and turn it off when you go to bed.
Don't overcrowd your guppies, around 1 adult per gallon of water is acceptable (fry should be reared in seperate tanks unless you do not wish to do so).
For food, any kind of tropical fish food is acceptable, but should be mixed with a diet of frozen foods including bloodworms, tubifex and brine shrimp at least three times a week.
Tips
If algae becomes a problem in your tank, establish the cause. Usually overfeeding, too much light or too many fish lead to algae, but since there are many different types, seek specific advice. Do NOT purchase any 'algae eaters', the vast majority grow very large (larger than one foot is not uncommon), and they are also very messy, contributing to poor water quality and debris around the tank.
Guppies can be very sensitive, so test the water every week. Find out how to do a fishless cycle using ammonia before you add any fish to the tank.
Warnings
Do not mix any large, predatory or aggressive fish with guppies.
Always keep an eye on the water quality, it is the major cause of death in fish.
Guppys being smaller and more colourful and females being larger, fatter and duller in appearance. Guppys are live-bearers (give berth to live fry). Breeding comes naturally to live-bearers and Guppys will breed in community tanks. The females gestation period is 28 days if kept at 25 degrees Celsius (Higher temperature results in shorter gestation periods but females will live considerably shorter lives).
Temperature range: 24-28 degrees Celsius
PH: 7 (balanced)
dH: normal
Food: Guppys eat ordinary flaked food as well as plants and live foods, which they should be fed with occasionally.
Special Requirements: Guppys will eat their fry. An aquarium must be highly vegetated in order for the fry to survive. Aquarists who keep Guppys often separate the fry to ensure survival (If that is what is intended). Guppy fry can be successfully reared on brine shrimp.
Comments: Guppys are placid, active fish that can be kept in most community aquariums. I highly recommend Guppys to all aquarists.
Guppies are one of those fish where you stick em in a tank, feed 'em and watch 'em multiply. Not much you need to do to get them breeding! I find they're quite hardy, too. I have a mix of feeders and Fancies in my tank. The fancies are there to add some color and size to my feeders. The feeders are there because they're cheap and are almost bomb proof, LOL! They may be small and not very colorful, but the feeders have their own peculiar joy. I'm hard on my fish and they can put up with a lot of crap from me. Almost as good as feeder goldfish ^.^ .
The basics you'll need to remember are 1) temp, 2) feeding, and 3) protecting the fry.
1)Temp should be between 22-28 C (74-82 F). Ideal temp is around 23-26 C (74 - 78 F). If it's really warm where you are you may not even need an aquarium heater. Where I am I need two because the water drops to asinine temps during the winter!
2) Feeding should happen often and in tiny amounts. I feed my monsters twice a day. ^.^ . Babies should get tropical fry food, which comes as a very finely ground powder, or brine shrimp. Brine shrimp comes either in a frozen package that you keep in the freezer and break off what you need, or it comes in the traditional fish food containers.The occasional lettuce leaf and a wide variety of other fish foods will go a long way to keeping your babies happy. My guys get tubifex worms, fry food, goldfish flakes, occasional bits of algae eater food and the above mentioned veggies. If my food is very large I will take a cheapie pill crusher and crush the food for the tank before feeding.
3) I don't set up a breeding tank for my fish. I leave the males and females together in a tank with lots (and I do mean LOTS) of hiding spots. I add natural stones, fake plants and if I ever get a larger tank I plan on adding a large replica log. The hiding spots are crucial if you want to save the babies. I even let a few small leafy fake plants float at the top of the tank as the babies and smaller adults like to hide from the larger fancies in there. They also like it there as they don't have to swim far when it's feeding time. You'll find the babies are easy to spot and even though the females and males are free to eat their offspring (at least in my set up) the surviving babies are fast and easily catered to.
You tell males from females by differences in body and fin shape. Males are very **very** colorful and the color will go almost straight to their head. Females are colorless or downright dull in comparison. Some color mutations will make the females brighter than normal but you can tell the difference between them and a male by the Male's much more colorful fins. When in doubt check the pectoral fins. Females have round pectorals and males will have long pointy ones. The males' fins help with copulation. You'll also know a female when she's pregnant. They become very round and right above their pectoral fins their bellies have a large dark spot. In some fish you may even be able to see the eyes of babies! In the feeders the dark spot looks black. In fancies the dark spot is a dark flesh colored and as the pregnancy progresses the spot turns almost black.
I'd like to mention that hybrid vigor will be a priority at some point. You'll want to add new fish to control inbreeding. My sister had problems with her sword tails and tumors started showing up on some of her fish. I add new fish every 9 months or so. You don't need many to add hybrid vigor. I added three fancies recently to a tank of feeders. I'm awaiting the birth of the fancies' fry as I love seeing those babies grow up! A pregnancy lasts about 3 weeks.
A 30 gallon tank should hold about 25 fancy guppies or more if they're feeders. Feeders are tiny little guys and they can probably get away with a bit more than fancies can. I don't use a florescent in my tank but I do have a day bulb beside it for my birds. They seem to be doing okay with the set up. In my tank I have a standard carbon filled corner filter that is good for my smaller tank. I have a 10 gallon, so it's a small thing. It does the job and is easy to clean. I've heard that bottom filters work really well with guppies and I may go that route when i get my larger tank :-) .
I hope I've helped! I love my guppies and if I could I'd have a 100 gallon with them and algae eaters!
A 30 gallon tank will hold upwards of 30 guppies comfortably. Get the recommended filter for a 30 gallon tank, but put/add a foam sleeve on the intake.
Guppies have specific temperature and pH requirements. Do your research.
Introduction
The guppy (Poecilia reticulata), also commonly known as guppie is one of the most popular freshwater aquarium fish species in the world. It is a small member of the Poecilidae family (females 4 centimetres long, males 2陆-3 centimetres long) and like all other members of the family, is live-bearing. It prefers a hard water aquarium and can withstand levels of salinity up to 150% sea water (58 ppt sodium chloride)[1], which has led to them being occasional included in marine tropical community tanks, as well as more usually in freshwater tropical tanks. Its most famous characteristic is its propensity for breeding.
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Taxonomy
Robert John Lechmere Guppy (1836-1916) discovered this tiny fish in Trinidad in 1866, although the fish was known to German aquarists prior to that time.
Over time, many species are assigned a different taxonomic name. The guppy is no exception:
Lebistes reticulatus
Acanthocephalus guppii
A. reticulatus
Girardinus guppii
G. petersi
G. poeciloides
G. reticulatus
Haridichthys reticulatus
Heterandria guppyi
Lebistes poecilioides
Poecilia poeciloides
Poecilioides reticulatus.
Currently: Poecilia reticulata
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Distribution and diversity
In its natural environment in South America and the Caribbean, guppies are often found as isolated breeding populations. In its native range, the guppy can be found in small streams and ponds of virtually any size. In Trinidad they are colloquially known as "millions" because of their fecundity.
In many countries with tropical, subtropical and mediterranea climates where guppies were not originally present, they have escaped from captivity and established naturally breeding ("feral") populations. It has also been introduced to some areas to keep down the mosquito population and help fight malaria, usually with mixed or negative results to the local ecosystem. Other fishes that have been introduced to this end include the goldfish.
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Physical description
The female guppy is most often drab brown to grey in colour (though some females can have splotches of colour on them. The somewhat smaller male has a naturally colourful caudal fin (tailfin), showing a wide variety in the wild, depending on where the stock comes from. These colourful variations have been considerably enhanced in shape and colour by selective breeding.
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Ecology and behaviour
There is a great deal of variety between the populations, many with distinctive coloring or patterning. Those that live in habitats where predators are common tend to be less vividly decorated. Populations that deal with fewer predators are much more colorful. Recent studies suggest that vividly colored males are favored via sexual selection while natural selection via predation favors subdued tones. As a result, the dominant phenotypes observed within a reproductively isolated community are a function of the relative importance each factor has in a particular environment.
Occasionally male guppies may behave aggressively towards each other, engaging in fin-nipping and other bullying behaviour. This behaviour is also sometimes exhibited towards other top swimmers like platys and swordtails and occasionally other fish with prominent fins such as angelfish.
Guppies live in complex networks, choosing social partners and remembering them. [2].
The extensive work on guppies is summarised in Anne Magurran's Evolutionary Ecology: the Trinidadian guppy.
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Reproduction
Guppy Fry, 1 weekGuppy breeding by aquarists produces variations in appearance ranging from color consistency to fantails and "spike" swordtails. Selective breeding has created an avid "fancy guppy" collector group, while the "wild" guppy maintains its popularity as one of the hardiest aquarium fish. The gestation period of a guppy is 22-26 days. When the female guppy becomes fertilized, a dark area near the anus, known as the gravid spot, will enlarge and darken. Guppies prefer water temperatures of about 72掳F (22掳C) for reproduction. After giving birth, the female is ready for conception within a few hours. If a male does not mate with the female soon after birth, the female can use stored sperm from the previous mating.
For people breeding their own guppies, be aware that the adults will eat their young. Specially designed livebearer birthing tanks, which can be suspended inside the aquarium, are available from aquatic retailers. These serve the dual purpose of shielding the pregnant female from further attention from the males, and of providing a separate area for the newborn young as protection from being eaten by their mother.
Another option for aquarists is to simply provide lots of plants for the young to hide in. Immediately after giving birth, female guppies experience a rush of hormones which serve to decrease their appetites. This can last up to 12 hours, which provides young ample time to hide provided that no other adult fishes are around.
A heat lamp isn't necessary - a flourescent bulb is probably better, but you should have an automatic aquarium heater to keep the temp steady yearround. They sell inexpensive heaters in any fish store.
Guppys breed readily and have live fry. The fry must be seperated from the adults after birth, the parents will try to eat them!
Males and females are easy to tell apart! Males are smaller and have an extra modified fin underneath (looks like a little fish 'penis') that females lack.
You don't need a heater, but you may want one as most other fish will need it. A 30 gallon tank will hold 10-20 guppy if you have a good filter and put them in a couple a week. (cycling the tank would be good as well.) Note that guppy breed like rabbits so I'd aim for 10.
Filter- A hanging tank (power) filter with a dry/wet (bio) wheel.
Light- Only if you have live plants.
PS- If it's an all guppy (or molly, platty, sword) tank consider adding 1 teaspoon of kosher salt per gallon. (You'll find kosher salt in your supermarket.)
You might find this link handy.
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