Peter McLeod

If you can keep the tanks inside and the water does not go below 18 degrees you may have some luck.Below this temperature you may have trouble with your females not dropping fry.Try some swords if you can find some, I think they would be better suited to colder water than some of the Delta shapes (larger tailed).I can save you a few virgin females to start you off.I have been working on a few different types of Deltas if you want to start with a heated tank. Andrew is right about the mosquito fish.I used to keep a few for feeding their fry to my fighters to help get them into breeding condition, but was worried they may get into one of my Guppy strains and cross.Don't know if they would cross and don't want to find out.They will handle much lower temperatures than the guppies, even as low as 5 degrees for periods of time.

Don't think high Temperature has much to do with more males althogh I have read some articles that says it does on Guppies and Fighters.Last Summer I had real trouble venting heat from my fishroom, had to get my wife to leave the door open all day while I was at work, and most fry turned out female.Just about lost my H/B light blue strain.Out of a drop of about 40 fish I got only two males.Both developed true to the strain but both were fireing blanks.I outcrossed some of the females back to the origional darker blue strain I got from Kelly Rennel and then the best male fry back to their still virgin Aunts to get the colour back again. Lack of water changes can slow growth in guppies.The nitrates accumulating in the tank sort of say to the fish there ain't much room in here stop growing.I didin't know hormones like estrogen could also build up in the tank. Noted and will do some research.

How old are the fry??.Sometimes they are hard to sex even up to 6 weeks old.Could be the strain or temperature or diet slowing the growth rate down.Sometimes the best males you will get will be slow to show themselves. Don't be too quick to choose your future breeders!!

One male will do the job but I use two-three from the same srain just in case one male is sterile, then you could be waiting a while to find out the bad news.

I have found with my experience a female won't eat her babbies "usually" in a tank by herself provided the fry have nowhere to hide.Fry hiding behind something and darting around in a small space seems to encourage the females instinct to chase them. I used to use breeding traps and found the small space seemed to stress some of the females into not dropping and often died before or partly finishing dropping.

I have a friend who is interested in breeding Discus and does not have access to a computer. They are blue cobolts about 100mm in diamiter. They follow each other around constantly.Would this be a sign of them pairing. Has anyone ever found a good way to sex these fish.

I'll try and get over to tauranga and get a few fish.I have been reading up on them and looking on the internet so I can sex some fish. Will get some to you. Killis are doing great Andrew.Albino's especially.Feeding mostly Brineshrimp and surplus guppy fry.The male especially is getting bigger every time I look. Thanks

Has anyone had experience at breeding and obtaining Cocolate gouramis. I know they are mouth brooders but thats about it.

I could get the chips at Benchmark where I work or a garden centre. They are about 5 cent size and smaller.I'm sure a sledge hammer and your concrete path could get them smaller.

I would have to see her to be sure but it sounds like a male guppy reverting to the wild type.

Has she got any paturn or colour in the tail

Could someone help me out.Could limestone chips in my box filters do the same job as dolomite lime.I only want to keep the PH around 7.

I will be in Wellington in the next month or so and will try and send some fish down from there. They will probably be H/B yellows.They are the ones I have most of at the moment.

I will get some fish down there. Just need to make sure I have enough good breeding stock. I would like nothing more than to get a Guppy society going in NZ. Never say Can't. I have only been working on guppies for a short time (in line breeding terms) and I am already having good results. You can acheive alot by yourself.I make my own tanks from glass I get from the local re-cycling centre.I grow and make alot of my own food. I feel very sorry for species breeders like Killifish who need to get hold of fish comming through Quarantine but with guppies, other livebearers and fighters anything is acheivable through good linebreeding and time. If you need any advice please contact Me, or Cees.

I have a few strains of guppies I have been working on. When I have enough I will send some down to Caryl to give out. They still need a bit of work but they are beginning to come out quite nice. I had hoped to be able to breed enough over summer to be able to send down, but for some reason the females did not drop many fry.I wanted to grow them to adult size in my polystyrene containers outside over summer.Maybe it was the heat they didn't like.My fighters did fine over summer and bred like rabbits.The Guppies have only just started breeding in the last month or so.I would be greatful for some advice if anyone has another theory. Bruce has some nice Guppies as well.The H/B blue strain I have came from his stock given to me by Kelly Rennel and they are very nice fish with a large delta tail. Don't under-estimate female guppies, it is not just up to the males to produce nice fish.My H/B yellows and H/B blacks came from a female of each type that I bought from a petshop.Most of the fish from each batch came out the same as the female and I linebred brother to sister from there. Line breeding is not hard provided you have tank-space and patients.Be prepared to share any strains you produce.This will cut down on tankspace.When you need to outcross you should be able to get hold of some fish that are at least distantly related to the fish you are breeding. You need to outcross at least every 5-6 generations less iff you have an albino type or you will start having problems with fertility.

I was just interested to know how many species of Killi's are actualy breed in NZ.

Chris had another pound arrive on friday. When I contacted Brinshrimp direct they said there had been problems sending them to NZ in the past but they have been sending eggs through for the last 6 months or so without any trouble. I do not own a credit card so chris orders them and I pay him back.

Did you check out the price of the eggs.Me and a friend of mine buy one pound of brineshrimp premium eggs for $87 and half it. I use rock salt for my hatch mix.2 heaped teaspoons in a 750ml jam jar.Moderate airation. If that dosn't work try a bit of baking soda to help raise the PH. Don't use table salt, you will have bad hatches.Iodine kills the nuplii. I hatch about a teaspoon of eggs a day in the 750 ml jar. I feed all my guppies especially gravid female adults brineshrimp.I feel and have noticed the fry are larger when the female drops. I have 5 lines of guppies and my fighters as well, if I didn't have access to cheap eggs it would be very difficult to raise them all.

Check this out. www.brineshrimpdirect.com

I have finally been able to fix the double tailed fighters.I got about 15% of my last hatch of my blues.Varaing degrees of colour from blue, Steel blue and green.All are healthy and 2 months old.Very impresive even at this age.The longer dorsal combined with the double tail seems to spread the fins out and make the fish look much larger. From what I found out you need to have the double tail as well as the longer dorsal on the same gene, otherwise neither will work. Peter

The traps Cees is talking about are more like small aquariums inside a larger one.They give your virgin female guppies plenty of space to swim and grow,and kept away from their brothers until you are ready to put your best one or two males in with them for breeding.

I thought it would be important to write a bit of information on where would be the best places to get reasonable breeding stock to start your new lines. I have a few virgin females with different characteristics if you have found a nice male and want to get a female or two and try to get a line going. I am not going to charge anyone for this.I would eventually like to either be in buisiness or be working with something to do with aquarium fish, but this is my hobby and I get much enjoyment from helping people, and learning more about the hobby.The females I have that may be useful to you are; H/B blue H/B green Neon green I have H/B yellow females that are about one month old and a few females who's mother was a neutral female and father H/B red. If you are serious about breeding I also have two other strains I am working on.Leopards, and an orange red sort of like a flamingo coloured guppy that have been pre-hit or (mated) back to their father.I have not got many of these but if you are realy serious I am happy to part with a couple.I should have some trio's of Kelly Rennels fish available in a couple of months.They are H/B blues.They range in colour from a light green/blue to a very dark blue, with very large delta tails for their body size. Other places that I have found guppies that might be useful are; PETWORLD in Christchurch who sell guppies in pairs.If you ring and ask them they will be able to tell you what is available.They also have the larger hybrids if you want to start with something different.You can use these males over your own virgin females.If you follow a good line-breeding program,try to cross the male at least with his daughters and with his grand-daughters if he is still around, you should start to see some results after 3-4 generations. If you live in the north Island ask your petshop if they can obtain fish from Aquascope.They are NZ raised and even if you are only after fish for a display tank I think you will find them hardy and prolific.They don't just supply guppies!!! they have a good range of fish and for the quality are very reasonably priced. I will leave my PH number here because my computer may be off line for a while.If you want some fish please contact me, you can drop by and pick them up if you want or I will try to find another way to get them to you. PH; (07) 3477645 Peter