Breeder’s Award Program Article
Breeding the Guppy
Poecilia reticulata
by Christian B. Homrich Jr.
SouthWestern Michigan Aquarium Society. From SWAM, March/April 2004 Issue
Aquarticles
When you start talking with beginner fish hobbyist about breeding guppies the first
thing you hear is, “That’s not hard to do. Just get a small tank and add water,
and insert guppies. Wait a few days and you have them bred.” Well for the most part
this is a simplified version of what I intend to talk about in this article. But, there is
more.
A five-gallon tank will work for a trio of one male and two females, but if you want
more, than I would say use a ten-gallon tank so that you can have two males and up to ten
females. The latter of the two is what people that raise show quality guppies do to
increase their chances of seeing all the traits in just a single fish that they are
looking for. Make sure the water is cycled to avoid any ammonia or nitrite spikes. One
tablespoon of aquarium salt should be added for each ten-gallons of water. Guppies do much
better in water that has a little salt added to it. Floating fake plants are used quite
often, but another thing I like to use is a weighted spawning mop made from a dark green
or dark blue colored yarn. These mops give great refuge for the fry, so that the other
adult fish do not eat them before you have a chance to move the adults to another tank.
And yes, I said move the adults. It’s much easier to catch up to twelve adult fish
that are at least an inch long or larger, than it is to catch up to one hundred very tiny
guppy fry.
As far as what to feed the guppies to condition them for breeding, I suggest black
worms, half a cube of frozen bloodworms, half a cube of frozen brine shrimp, and/or a few
good quality flake foods such as foods made for guppies, or plankton/krill/spirulina
flakes, and some occasional liver flakes, etc. The best advice I can give about feeding
your fish is to vary the diet, and do not feed them the same thing each and every day.
Your fish will thank you for doing this by growing faster, looking better, and being
healthier in the long run.
There is much more to breeding guppies, some of which not everyone will decide to
follow. A lot of people see a nice Cobra Delta-tailed Guppy at the store and decide
that’s the fish they wish to breed, so in that process that same person either buys a
female or two at the same store or they visit a different store to purchase the female or
males, which ever the case may be. Meanwhile, there are other fish hobbyist that do some
researching and locate a specific color and/or fin strain that they wish to breed. These
strains may cost up to, if not more than $85 for a trio (one male and two females). But,
keep in mind that the breeder that has these fish for sale has been working on this strain
for quite some time using a process of “line-breeding” to keep the strain as
nice looking and pure as possible. These are the potential breeders of a show quality
guppy. Don’t get me wrong, some breeders have taken the average guppy from a local
shop and through line breeding have developed some very beautiful show guppies. Neither of
the two ways that you get your guppies will produce a show quality guppy rightaway; this
generally takes a bit of time, sometimes over 5 years. It all depends on what you are
looking for in the guppies, and how devoted to the objective you are.
Currently I am working with some store bought guppies, one of my males has a green
colored body with a snake skin pattern that starts right behind the gill plates and
carries on back to the beginning of the tail, hence its name “green snake skin”.
The fins of this fish are what’s called a “delta-tail.” This is a tail fin
that is about three times as tall from top to bottom as the fish’s body is from
bottom of belly to the top of its back. And the dorsal fin is long and floats through the
water like the tail of a common Crowntail Betta. Both the tail fin and the dorsal fin have
matching yellow/green/black dotted patterns. This male is being bred to similar looking
females. And since these fish are not related genetically (at least not to my knowledge)
this is known as selective breeding. Selective breeding is when you buy your fish and you
look for the traits you wish to have in the offspring in the breeding stock you are
planning to purchase. Line breeding is when you take the offspring from this group of
breeders and mate them back to the original breeding group. For example, you would take
the female offspring and mate them back to the male of the original group (father to
daughter), or you take a pair of males and breed them back to the original female that
they came from (very accurate record keeping is needed for this method of breeding sons
back to mother). But, many of the top guppy breeders in the world will tell you, it is
much better to breed the daughters back to the father than it is to breed the mother back
to the sons.
By breeding the daughters back to the father you have a much higher chance of seeing
the desired traits. From this point on you will be doing some very heavy culling of the
unwanted offspring to keep just the traits you are looking for. When I say culling the
offspring I am talking about pulling the slower growing or less colorful males and females
from the group and keeping only the best looking fish. You also pull out any deformed fish
as well since these would not make for good breeding stock in the future. There are a few
different ways to get rid of the culled fish, but please, never just flush them down a
toilet. The fish do not die right away and end up suffering from breathing in toxins that
no one should have to breathe in, or swim in for that matter. Instead either feed them to
a larger fish (not everyone likes this method either), or place them in a small bag with
water and place them in the freezer. By freezing them they just slowly start to hibernate
like they would during a winter season and finally just stop living altogether. This is
said to be the most humane way to do this. And of course there are people that do not
agree that the previously mentioned method is actually humane either. So, you are left
picking and choosing your battle so to speak.
Once you are happy with some of the guppies you have been able to produce throughout
all this time, you can now consider locating an International Fancy Guppy Association
sanctioned fish show and enter your fish in the show. At this point I would suggest
competition in the Novice category since it can be really disappointing to be in
competition against some of the breeders that have been entering shows for many years and
then not place well, or you may hear some remarks about how your fish should not be in
that category. I have been to a few of the shows and heard a lot of bad talking about
other hobbyist fish, and sometimes its not pretty language either. Or you could even start
by showing your fish in your local club’s “Bowl Show” (just a gentle hint
to the members of the club I am a member of). It’s always a good feeling to enter
your fish and take the chance of winning some form of an award, such as but not limited
to, a first, second, or third place ribbon. The prize is not as important as how the
hobbyist feels when he/she sees their fish on display with one of those ribbons near it.
And there is always a chance that you will be able to produce a new color variant or
strain and it will be seen at a local or larger fish show. You too will be able to sell
some of your quality offspring to other hobbyists that have chosen to follow in the same
direction as you have.
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