i set up my computer tank yesterday, still has a few baby cons left in it, but put 3 female and 2 male guppys in there. there has been no heater in this tank, the temp is round 22, thismorning ive got baby guppys everywhere. do they breed like flys( or convicts ) or was it just dumb luck :oops:

I am new to this whole tank business but I have only had my guppies for just over a week and already two of them have had babies. I have managed to catch 10-12 babies so far and know that there could be up to 6 more swimming about the bottom of the tank. I don't know anything about Convicts but guessed it was also pure dumb luck .

Congratulations anyway.

Hi, yes guppys definetly breed easily and rapidly, depending on how big the convicts are and how well fed the cons and adult guppys are you may find the guppy fry disappearing as both will readily eat them. Some people put the fry into a seperate tank but i leave mine in with the parents and make sure the parents are fed well.

Guppies are also known as the millions fish. Guess why! :lol:

i definataly understand that, yesterday i was the proud mummy of 5 new guppies, today im the weary grandma of hundreds of little black eyed specks lol

LOl we have guppies sword tails and p[latties BECAUSE they are so well known for breeding...but as yet have had no luck. Unfortunately the guppies will have to go on hold as i am waiting to get my hands on some nice female guppies (we have 6 guppy fry in a tiny tank in my daughters room which came from my mothers guppy)...but our female (albino) guppy is very very sulky. We have been quite worried about her she has been picked on something chronic and currently we have her inside a plastic floating container in a small betta tank (he is the only inhabitant of the tank but chsed her after we let her out of her container and she hid for a couple of days before we decided to put her back in. She likes it much better on her own....and it gives her tail and fins a chance to recover after having been picked on....when our next tank caomes down from Christchurch i will pop her in it on her own to start the cycling process...and hopefully the baby guppies can join her when they become a little bigger. I don't think she will be going back in the main tank again....which is a huge shame, as we have a very handsome male guppy (named penelope of all things!) in the tank that is desperate for a girlfriend. As for the platties...i missed the first lot of babies...she was soooo close...i had her in the breeding box thing....and she was stressing out as she had been in it for a few days.....so i let her out.....next time i looked she was lim again...and NO babies in sight...bugger! The horny male plattie...who wouldn't leave either of our females alone in the tank in the shop (it was one of the reasons i bought him) seems to have become celibate why? is there something we are doing wrong? the tank seems happy and healthy. I can't seem to shift nitrit to 0 (permanantly .05) nitrates seem to hover around 10-20 despite an excellent new filter, weekly water changes..... taking care not to over feed. ammonia sits at about .6.... PH i feel is a little high....7.6 is as far as my scale goes...and currently it is slightly bluer than that. temp 27. I did get some stuff that came with one of the tanks i bought which 'automatically sets PH to 7.0' but i have been reluctant to use it...how does that work? i dont get how it can lower high tanks and upper low tanks (if you know what i mean)....why aren't my happy fish (and they are) breeding? (Penny can be forgiven...his girlfriend has left home and lives in another tank....but Les Janice and Cilla (the platties) and Spoon, Black tailed sword and female sword (must get them names) just don't seem to be partying at all.

since i had so many babys in a cold tank of water i thought id better do the right thing and give them some heat............the origional temp( when i finally put a thermometer in the tank) was 16 degrees. so in went the heater, well i sat looking at the forum trying to learn about these cute little fellas, looked at the thermometer again.......36 degrees, if they dont get sick outta this lot they must be hardy little buggers, all look ok tonight so i may have got away with my little error :oops:

:oops: :oops: :oops: hope they will be ok. Keep us updated.

Travis said:

looked at the thermometer again.......36 degrees, if they dont get sick outta this lot they must be hardy little buggers, all look ok tonight so i may have got away with my little error

You could be in for some probs.. like White Spot.

You also need to lower the temp "very slowly" over several days to around 27 to 28C.

Bill.

as usual i paniced, lowered the thermostat immediatly to 26, being a small tank the temp dropped quick, 2 days( or 3 ive lost count) more baby guppies, no white spots no dead fish :oops:

i think i was lucky this time

WOOO HOOO Congrats. Glad to hear that all turned out well

I've always found regular guppies to be very hardy with temperature changes, plus they make great live food for my cichlids.

I got too many guppy fry at the moment. I think I might set a gourami loose in the fry tank. Thats fun to watch, and it reminds me of pac man as the big yellow fish gobles all the little white dots

LOL you meanie

Well I really do have to many, about 70 - 80 fry in a 2 ft tank. plus 9 krib fry which are 1 - 2 cm.

Well if I had the space to raise them all to adult size then sell them I would. But I have to pick out the best ones then leave the others to be food.

Plus Gouramis look thier best when they feed on fast food :lol:

Any extra guppy fry I have go to my cichlids. My angels seem to relish them - a taste they picked up from their previous owner no doubt.

mystic, i think you can add baby guppys to the long list of stuff to pick up at my place lol :lol:

one or two of the baby cons are starting to chase the baby guppys, might be time to introduce the baby cons to mr oscar :evil:

wow! you are a gruesome lot!

wow! you are a gruesome lot!

It may look that way to some but you have to remember these fish would do the same thing in the wild. But I think that fish look their best when they get excited from the hunting of real live food.

I know it's no different to hatching brine shrimp...... but i shuddered when i saw the breeding of goldfish specifically for the feeding of other fishies on the documentary yukkies....lol.....just call me a sook....and no...i am not a vegetarian.

Well, i moved the guppys to the 1200-450-450 tank, they are making quite a job of stocking that one, have 1 baby con that i just cant catch in there, looking rather well fed on guppy fry, but the guppys are winning, will post a pic once the tank looks respectable