Hi All

I wanted to try my hand at breeding fish, and guppies seem to be the fish that breed the easiest.

I have a few questions:

1. Will a 400 x 200 x 200 mm tank do the job ?

2. What should be the male:female guppy ratio ?

3. Should the temeperature of the tank be increased / decreased ?

4. What kind of filter is best to use ?

Any help appreciated

tank size should be fine but if you want any survivers youll need another tank to put the fry in

1 male to 3 fems min

temp should be kept at 24 deg and sponge or box filter would be the best (no power filters cos theyll suck up the babys)

good luck

I wanted a 25w heater for the tank, anyone know wehre I can get on cos Hollywood Fish Farm doesnt have any that are that low power rated.

What If I isolate the parents after the female has dropped and leave the fry all alone in the tank? Is that Ok ?

Wot's rong with a 50 watt heater.

It wont have to work so hard as a 25 watter.

Have a lot of plant in the breeding tank, riccia and cabomba or similar

or pine tree, just load up the tank. Gives the babies a chance.

Remove female as soon as she has dropped the babies.

I concur with the prev. post.

Use water from where the female has been living,

and try and estimate about a fortnight out from the birth

to put her in the trap tank.

You can then go thru reg. water changes to adjust pH to 7.00

G'luck.

Now are you sure you want our advice??

Alan

THanx man, I was worried bout the 50w heater because I thot it would be too muich fore my tank.

That's why they have thermostats. Assuming everything worked correctly you could put a 10,000 watt heater in the tank and be fine.

(Of course, in reality that wouldn't be advisable) :lol:

woah at 10,000 w heater id be too scared to put my hand in that tank incase the heater broke (vissions of sparcks flying out my ears, nose,mouth and eyes )

That's why they have thermostats. Assuming everything worked correctly you could put a 10,000 watt heater in the tank and be fine.

(Of course, in reality that wouldn't be advisable) :lol:

That's what I would have thought too Ira. Recently, I purchased an aqua one glass thermometer and stuck it in my tank which is 55 Litres heated with a 100w Aqua One Heater. About four hours later, I took a look at the thermometer and it reads 28º C. I realised it was 2º C over the recommended temperature for my 2 Neons, 4 Dwarf Gouramies, 2 Bronze Corys and 2 Black Phantom tetras. I immediately turned the heater down by 2º C and temperature fell to 26º C, the recommended temperature that the LFS uses. Please note that the thermometer is on the other side of the tank as the heater is, and my Shark 1 is pointed at the heater which is placed at a 45º inclination to improve heat dissipation. This tells me that those thermostats are not perfect, and that it is best to check temperature with a thermometer.

Here is a Pic of the tank I plan to use. It is made out of Acrylic.

And I bet ya never checked the thermometer either.

The heater stats are very cheap for what we use them for,

at that price, you can expect variations.

If you want exact, you'll have to pay for it.

2C isn't to be worrid about.

Tell ya whot tho, if the heater jambs on and you haven't got a back-up thermostat,

THEN

you are in trouble.

Alan

obviously not a very good quality heater the one i use is a jagar and it allows you to calibrate it if its out would have thought that most heaters would have this function.

Thats what I thought and thats why I chose aqua one brand - I thought they were quite reputible

glass thermometers are notoriously wrong id opt for a digital one befoer i came to the conclusion of a faulty heater

and as alan said if the heater jamms on a 25w heater is a hell of a lot safer than a 100w unless you like the look of upside down floating boiled fish, they dont appeal to me, dead fish dont swim too well

You want to put the fry in one of those little acrylic Kritter Keepers? You need something bigger than that as they need lots of room to grow well. Unless you have lots of keepers and only putting a few fry in each.

I have been breeding guppys for a few months now, (with fairly average results) about a month ago I got a baby reeves turtle and I decided that to be able to feed him live food I would need a more efficient way of breeding the guppys I found that if I used a breeding trap the gaps were to small and the mother would eat most of the babys before they could swim to safety and I would only end up with 4 or 5 babys I got a stationary tray from payless plastics that had 4mm square holes in it for about $7 I turned the tray upside down and cut the side walls out just leaving the corner parts to act as legs I then brought some clear perspex for $13 to make a main area for the adult guppys to be contained in and the rest of a 2 foot tank for the babies to swim around in the only problem I had was the the smaller males could get out to start with and swim around and eat the babies i fixed that problem with some bio balls i had for my canister filter that i floated up underneath the holes so that the males can't get out but the babbies can now one month on and from 2 females i have about 40 - 50 babbies in their little are (and a happy little turtle waiting for some nice live guppies)

P.S. sorry to anyone offended by the fact that I am feeding fish to my turtle, but reeves turtles are endangoured species and guppies arn't

Hi Dan

I dont think many people care about feeding guppies to turtles. Thats what I wanted them originally for, as live food for dwarf gouramies.

Thanx for your reply

Thanx

i think you'd be surprised how many poeple "actually" care! :evil:

Hi Breakaway,

If you are still interested in a 25watt heater for this tank, there is currently one up for auction on that (now) Famous, and well used trader site "Trademe" go here If you are still keen...

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Lifestyle/Pets-animals/Fish/Pumps-filters/auction-15606179.htm

ChrisMack