-
 Livebearers: Guppies
ORIGIN: The Guppy or Millionsfish are native to Central America
and Brazil but now are almost exclusively captive bred. Live
bearing fishes are native to the America's, from New Jersey down to
Brazil, and in east Asia. They have been introduced into other tropical
areas to combat Malaria, as livebearers eat the waterborne larvae of
disease-carrying mosquitoes.
COMMENTS ON THE GUPPY:
Guppies are one of the most commonly kept of the livebearing fishes.
They range from cheap "feeders" to expensive "show quality" specimens.
You will want to do some research about these fish before you simply
pick some up at the local fish store. Great guppies are
extraordinary, good guppies are barely comparible. They are the least
expensive fish and breed well so they are good to have. These fish will
swim in all areas of the aquarium.
Compatibility: These fish get up to 2.5 inches (6 cm). Similar sized
Livebearers, Tetras, Rasboras, Gouramis, Rainbow fish, Corydoras,
Plecos, Loaches, Dwarf Gouramis, and Catfish.. Guppies are an all time
favorite of both beginners and experienced fish keepers. Guppies belong
to a large family of fish known as the family Poeciliidae. This family
includes other types of fish such as mollies, platys, and swordtails.
The various forms of the Guppy, Fancy Guppy, or Millionsfish are the
best known and most popular aquarium fish. This species offers a large
selection of colors and shapes with no two fish every exactly alike.
There are far too many varieties of Guppy, Fancy Guppy, or Millionsfish
to list here, but let it be said that they come in every color of the
rainbow, and often have every color of the rainbow in them. There are a lot of different shapes to the fins also. Some of
the more common fins shapes are: rounded, pintail, swordtail
(upper, lower, and double), flagtail, veiltail, fantail, and
triangletail.
TEMPERAMENT: Peaceful. mostly used for community tanks. Excellent for
people new to Tropical fish. The active Guppy, Fancy Guppy, or
Millionsfish form loose schools and are always on the move. Though they
are peaceful community fish and easily kept with other livebearers, they
may chase fry and will often nip the fins of the Betta or Siamese
Fighting Fish. Some of the fancier guppy varieties have large tails that
are an easy target for nippy types of fish, so if your are going to keep
the long finned varieties in a community tank situation you will want to
take a little care in selecting suitable tank buddies. In order to
reduce aggression among them it is ideal to maintain several pairs
together in the aquarium.
CARE: Feed with tubifex worms and live foods. Feeding is uncomplicated,
but these fishes appreciate the addition of vegetable matter. Since they
are omnivorous the Guppy, Fancy Guppy, or Millionsfish will generally
eat all kinds of live, fresh, and flake foods. To keep a good balance
give them a high quality flake food everyday. Feed brine shrimp (either
live or frozen) or blood worms as a treat.
Typical of livebearers, The Guppy, Fancy Guppy, or Millionsfish,
appreciates the addition of 1 to 1.25 teaspoons of non-iodized salt
added to the aquarium water. They are capable of adapting to brackish or
saltwater conditions. Some aquarium salt put in
the water will prevent deseases and make the fish look better.
These fish will appreciate an aquarium with fine gravel that is heavily
planted along with some floating ferns. Plants should be hardy varieties
such as Java Fern and Java Moss that can handle the increased hardness
in the tank. This type of vegetation will provide a bit of food
for them as well as hiding places for the fry until they are large
enough to not be eaten.
Most Guppy, Fancy Guppy, or Millionsfish are very tolerant of a wide
variety of tank conditions, though the highly inbred specialized species
can be more delicate and require more attention.
WATER CONDITIONS: pH 7.0 - 7.5 and a temperature of 25 - 28*C (77 -
82*F) Most livebearers adapt well to the aquarium and will thrive in
hard water. guppies can be kept in smaller tanks, as small as 2
gallons for a pair. Some of the fancier guppy varieties have large tails
that are an easy target for nippy types of fish, so if your are going to
keep the long finned varieties in a community tank situation you will
want to take a little care in selecting suitable tank buddies.Guppies
are very tolerant of changing tank conditions.
GENDER: The gender can be easily identified by the male's anal fin
(gonopodium).The male body has striking colors and patterns, and often
have longer fins while the female doesnt
have any colour besides her tail which is sometimes plain aswell.
Females are usually longer than males.
BREEDING: A main attraction of these fishes is their propensity to
breed in captivity, especially the brilliantly colored,
aquarium-developed strains of guppies, mollies, platys, and swordtails.
These fish are very easy to breed when they get into the habit of doing
so. When gravid, the females take on extra body depth, and a dark area
appears around the vent. The male anal fin, or gonopodium, is used to
fertilize the female internally. Adults may eat the fry if left to fend
for themselves without the breeding box. Plants are needed so the baby
guppies can survive.
If you have a lot of
floating plants in the tank, some of the babies will probably survive. The
babies should be removed as soon as they are free swimming and placed
into a separate tank to make sure they survive. It is advisable to move
a gravid female into a separate nursery tank for birthing.
A 5- or 10-gallon tank is
fine. This should be heavily planted to shield the young from
their hungry mother. This tank should be set up with floating
spawning mops and more mops on the bottom of the
tank, and/or some dense plants like Java moss,
hornwort or water sprite. Use a sponge filter
and heater (if needed). The female should be
added to the tank when she just begins to really
show her pregnancy because moving her too close
to her due date runs the risk of her dropping
her babies before they are fully formed. I
prefer not to place guppies (or any livebearers)
into those small plastic breeding traps because
I believe they can stress out the fish. I think
that the "net" breeder setups with plants or
spawning mops are better, and if you cannot set
up a dedicated tank, net mesh will do in a
pinch.
Once they get pregnant, female guppies are almost
always pregnant. Even without the presence of males, a female guppy can
get pregnant with future litters by storing sperm from a single previous
mating to produce a few more batches of babies. This is an attribute
known as super-foetation. The "millions fish" (an old common name for
guppies) can have huge numbers of offspring in a very short period of
time. Consider that a female guppy can get pregnant at 2 to 3 months of
age. Each pregnancy can lead to 20 to 50 babies. Every 30 days or so,
the female will drop a litter of babies that are fully formed miniatures
of their parents. After a few generations of random mating, guppies will
begin very quickly to revert to the wild-looking fish, and lose much of
their beautiful but artificially bred tail size and color.
The fry should be fed brine shrimp, micro food, and pulverized flakes.
An algae-based flake food, along with freeze-dried bloodworms, tubifex,
and brine shrimp will provide guppies with the proper nutrition.
See the description of how to breed
livebearers in
Breeding Freshwater Fish - Livebearers.
Related Articles:
Breeding Guppies,
Guppy Frequent Diseases,
Guppy Fungus Diseases,
Guppy Parasitic Diseases
For more Information on keeping this fish see:
Guide to a Happy, Healthy Freshwater Aquarium
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Guppy
Fancy Guppy
Millionsfish
Family: Poeciliidae
Female
Poecilia reticulata
Male
Poecilia reticulata
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What's in the name? |
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Poecilia
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means
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"many-colored"
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reticulata
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means
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"netlike"
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