Fish

Guppies are wonderful fishes to keep. They are known to stand hard water, high levels of salinity and tolerate water changes. They also hold great ornamental value. When you notice that your female guppy is pregnant, you would expect having to deal with a large number of fry in just a month’s time. These fishes are outstanding brooders and when females are always kept with the males, you would have plenty of guppy fry swimming in your tank. Watching your guppy fry wiggling around is a very enjoyable view. But raising the fry isn’t really as easy as it looks. Controlled breeding is necessary for female guppies if you do not have all the tanks to accommodate the fry. Local fish stores, however, take guppy fry donations and could well keep and raise them. If you intend to raise the guppy fry yourself, setting up a few tanks for them to grow out would be of importance. Since this fish is easy to breed, it is easy to produce many variations in the colors of this species. This gave birth to the popularity of a wide selection of fancy guppies. They do appear more attractive and appealing, though fish keepers have noticed they are much weaker and have the tendency to die easily in poor water conditions. Many people still prefer keeping the wild guppies as they are the hardiest kinds. Caring for its fry is much more assuring too. Guppy fry development follows a certain pattern.

The first four weeks of your guppies are the most critical, and it is when most of care and attention are to be given. It is around this period where the kind of care you provide could make or break your guppies. In fact many expert breeders are constantly trying to develop diverse methods to handle guppy fry during the critical first month. A fish keeper had to properly ensure good water conditions and feed the fry as often as time would permit to allow them to build body and muscle tone. Feeding them 4 to 5 times would be ideal; however, if you could feed them more often than that, it would be good for your little guys. At the end of their fourth week, your fry fully develop their gender and becomes sexually active on the sixth week. It is during this period (between the fourth and sixth week) that male and female guppies should be separated into groups. It might take a little work as it is done individually on each fish, placing each on a water filled clear container and observing it through a magnifying glass to identify whether it has the gonopodium or the gravid spot. This is performed to avoid mix ups and for a more successful controlled breeding.

During the 6th week up to the 6th month, deformities may develop in some of the fry and taking out the bad fishes is necessary. The procedure is called culling, and ensures only the good and healthy ones are left in the tank. Local fish stores would be very willing to take your culled fry if you wish to donate them. Guppies are considered adults on their 6th month and onwards. During this period, guppies continue to grow, but growth is more channelled into his finnage size and development. They keep on growing even up to death, however the rate of their growth is much slower. These fishes generally thrive for 1 to years, but water temperature and general water conditions could greatly influence their growth and survival. Fancy guppies tend to live a much shorter life span.

Frequent water not only helps remove harmful ammonia and waste from the water, but is also found to help spur the growth of the fry. When your tank lights are turned on more often, your fry would feed more frequently. Since lights could affect fry development, tank owners oftentimes leave the lights on as much as possible. It is important for fishkeepers to understand the stages of guppy fry development to raise healthy and happy guppies for them to keep and enjoy for a long time.

Keeping and raising guppies is a very rewarding experience. These active fishes are very appealing and their colors are very fascinating. As active breeders, caring for guppies involve constant dealing with its fry, as your females guppies can get pregnant much often than other species. Raising guppy fry could even be a more enjoyable experience. Not much expertise is needed to successfully do it, but a little basic knowledge would do. The first four weeks of your young guppies are necessary for body and muscle building, and are the most critical period of their overall growth and development. During this time, your guppy fry are fed as often as possible. Others would feed their guppy fry about five times in a day, but doing it more often, like up to 10 times in a day would be better for them. Their very small digestive systems require refilling every 20 minutes to maximize their growth period.

When kept in the same tank with the mature ones, they usually feed on the leftovers and nibble on the algae. Usually, when the fry are housed in a different tank, they are fed with some baby brine shrimp or ground flake fish foods. The nutrition obtained from the brine shrimp is found necessary for the fry to develop and enhance their coloration. Color enhancing fish food is strongly discouraged. They do not provide the necessary vitamins and your fry needs the proper nutrition to properly grow and develop. They need protein source too, which is easily obtained in fish food supply stores. But if you could cook them up an egg yolk, they would love it. Other options in feeding your guppy fry are micro sized live food, paste food and special fry formula dry food you could purchase from pet supply stores. Your guppies would also enjoy some live tubifex worms, walter worms, mosquito larvae, wingless fruit flies and vinegar eels.

The water temperature is a big factor in the growth of your guppy fry. An increase of the temperature speeds up their metabolism. You would have to feed them more often, but you could expect them to grow much faster and healthier. How you care for and feed your guppy while they’re young could make or break the quality of guppies you have as they turn into adults. Feed them right and feed them well. When your fry are well nourished, and your tank is kept at its best condition, you will definitely be looking forward to having show quality guppies in the weeks to come.