HELP GUPPIES I NEED FACTS

Question

will i need 3 tanks and just to make my aquarium interesting some compatible fish with guppies just some facts! thanks

Answer 1

Ok, here are some facts about guppies:

Guppies are tropical fish that prefer a water temperature of 76-82 degrees F.  They like a high PH but can readily adapt to any PH, the important thing is that the PH be stable and not change rapidly.  

Guppies are livebearers (they give birth to live fry).  Females have a gravid spot (a dark spot just behind the curve of their belly) while males have a gonopodium (a modified anal fin just below and behind their bellies, a fin shaped like a rod).  The gravid spot of a female is always present but may change shape, getting darker and larger when she is pregnant and nears term.

Guppies can live up to 3 years in good conditions, but as they are cold blooded, their metabolism changes with the water temperature.  Higher temperatures mean faster growth and shorter lives, cooler temperatures mean slower growth but longer lives.  So, keep your breeding adults at 76 degrees F and they will live longer.  Move your newborn fry to another tank and have the heat at 82-84 degrees F and feed 6-8 times a day on live foods like baby brine shrimp and microworms or daphnia for the most rapid growth.

Guppies are prolific breeders.  Males are usually always chasing and pestering the females to mate.  For this reason, in mixed sexed tanks it is recommended that there be a ratio of 2 females for every male guppy.  That way the males are outnumbered and can't "gang up" on the females or harass them so much that they stress them out and make them ill or even kill them with unwanted attention.  

Females can carry sperm from a single mating for up to 6 months, so even if a lone female is purchased, if she has had contact with a male, she can have up to 6 batches of fry.  A female guppy can usually drop fry every 28-30 days and can have anywhere from 5-100 fry at one time.  Adult guppies are known for eating their fry, so guppy fry will instinctively try to hide when small. If you want the fry to survive in a community tank, provide plenty of hiding places such as clumps of moss or plants, particularly floating plants.

There are many breeding traps or breeding devices sold for isolating a pregnant fish so that the fry are seperated from the mother fish to prevent her from eating her newborn fry, but these devices do not always work.  A determined guppy can still make a rapid turn and eat a fish before it can escape the trap.  Also, newborn guppy fry are not known for their intelligence and will often swim back into the compartment containing the adult female.  Such devices and the isolation are also stressful for the pregnant female guppy and will often cause panic or illness or even death.  

Pregnant guppies have been known to spontaneously abort their fry or give birth prematurely when under stress.  They can also hold their fry or reabsorb eggs back into their bodies if they feel conditions are not right for giving birth.  Reabsorption usually only occurs early in a pregnancy, but this can make a guppy seem to have been pregnant for much longer than the usual month.  Premature births can consist of undeveloped eggs, tiny fry with yolk sacs still attached, dead malformed fry, or just very tiny fry.  Sometimes premature fry will manage to survive.  Even fry with yolk sacs still attached may absorb the sacs and develop into healthy guppies.  Prematurely delivered guppy eggs cannot develop outside the mother's body, however.

For optimum growth, guppies should be fed 1-2 times 6 days a week.  A high quality flake or pellet food can be the staple, but a varied diet is healthiest.  They enjoy bloodworms, tubifex worms, algae wafers, daphnia, brine shrimp, rotifers, earthworms, fruit flies, shrimp pellets, and most tropical fish foods.  A guppy's stomach is as big as its eyeball, so this is the amount it should be fed at one time.  A fast day once a week is good to let a fish's digestive system rest.  A healthy adult guppy can go for up to 2 weeks without being fed and a fry for up to 1 week, but a fry's growth will be affected.  Fry can be fed up to 8 times a day.  Their stomachs empty out every 20 minutes, though they should not be fed this often.  Their stomachs do not need to be kept constantly full.

For optimal growth, fry should be seperated from adult fish.  It is widely believed that adult fish release hormones into the water that limit the growth of fry, though this has not been scientifically proven.  It has been proven that seperating the sexes as early as possible will result in larger guppies.  Guppies become sexually mature at 4 weeks and pregnant females will not attain maximum body size as food will go to grow fry instead of their own bodies.  For maximum body size in female fish, do not begin breeding until they are 3-4 months of age.  Male fish may not show their final, true color or true finnage until 4-6 months of age depending on the guppy variety.  So, for even a limited breeding program, at least 4 tanks are necessary.  One for adult males, one for adult females, one for fry and one for breeding.  A truly dedicated breeder will run at least 10 tanks or more, as 2 lines are better than one so that cross breeding can occur.

Guppies are peaceful fish and tankmates are always a plus!  They can be kept with any tropical fish of a similar size or peaceful nature that won't nip at their beautiful fins.  Fish that go very well with guppies are:

Cory catfish, mollies, swordtails, schools of neon tetras, other tetras, small plecos, barbs, etc.

Answer 2

I don't understand why you would need 3 tanks.  Can you clarify your question?

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