Fancy guppy

Archive for January, 2009

In keeping with the tradition of keeping the guests happy, good people continue the trend with other specie too. And if the guest is a Fancy Guppy lively staring at the owner through the aquarium sheets, treating them well becomes a treat of a passion for the owner as well.
The fish is a pot.  It devours heavily and anything worth its digestive capacity. Yes,  each specie has an inward and intuitive knowledge of what food suits its tastes and fancy Guppy is no exception.  Left to us, the feeding should be at a very interesting rate.
The guppy fries or the baby guppies should be first provided enough fat and proteins to build in some weight. Freeze-dried worms, brine shrimps and finely cut edible stuff rich in vitamins are a wonderful thing to have for the babies. The beef is also a rich taste, although one fails to realize how they instinctively like it, since they would hardly get across beef while they are free.
The adults, or the 4-5 month old Fancy Guppies, are best kept on a diet, because most have had their fill since birth and grown a belly, most clearly seen near the dorsal fin. Such Fancy Guppies may live even after 2 weeks of no food and there is no harm in keeping them hungry for a few days.
Food is essential, and ultimately even they need it. The perfect food is low-calorie stuff, punctuated with freeze-dried food once a week. The balance is maintained. Cultured food or live small creatures answer the call best as they are naturally live and thus fresh. The Fancy Guppy feels pretty homely feeding on it.
The mosquitoes are a great attraction to these fishes and they may have a wholesome feast on them if provided. As the mosquitoes are commonly found sitting on the surface of the water, they are easy prey for the Guppies in the wild. In home atmosphere, the mosquitoes may be drawn to the aquarium with due strategies.
The natural food, like plankton and algae are very friendly to the fancy Guppy bellies, as they neutralize the false effects of their digestive system. Even lions have been seen consuming leaves sometimes to keep their digestive tract glowing!
The flakes are an owner’s scientific way of keeping the calorie balance. Checking with experts or online about what quantity of what the Fancy Guppy needs, the owner might find the actual food a bit expensive to spend on the fish. So flakes are a great alternative and provide a variety in taste. The Fancy Guppies are found to have a fancy for the flakes and run in to have their share even before the flakes bloat.
If the fishes are found uneasy because of certain feeding complications, and if the owner is qualifies enough to judge that, he or she should best keep the fish under quarantine and hungry for a few days till it regains its color. The males guppies are more colorful than the female guppies just for the record.

You will not require many things to breed guppies, just breeding fancy guppy trio (1 male 2 female), small tanks, tank accessories and that’s all.
Breeding fancy guppies easiest among all other tropical fishes. But difficult part is raising guppies. We will cover it in some other posts.
Most important thing in breeding guppies is right choice of breeding programme. If you fail to choose right programme then your beautiful fancy guppies will look like wild guppies after few generations.
Concentrate only on one part, this will give optimum improvement in your guppy strain. Decide whether you want to increase fin size or brighter colors or size of tail or all to gather different strain. do only one thing at a time.
Once decided choose best suitable from following 3 methods
1. Inbreeding
2. Line breeding
3. Out crossing
we will see all these in short.

1.     Inbreeding mainly advantageous in choosing particular color for fins, fixing fin confirmation or color pattens.
this method mainly involves breeding guppies closely related. e.g. choose best male guppy and breed it with its sister or mother. this will produce fish which look alike in patterns and colors. This method is also used for mass production of particular strain. fancy guppy you buy from fish store are likely breed using this method.
2.     Line breeding is slightly modified version of inbreeding program. this method is very systematic and require lot of hard work and extensive documentation. To start with you take one male guppy and breed it with 2 sister female guppies. Keep separate resulting young guppies of each guppy female. this is first generation name it generation-1 (or whatever). next generation again breed a male guppy to 2 female guppies and keep each line separate. do this again and again till you rich 6th generation. at this stage you take a male guppy from one line and cross it with female guppy from other line. This method is proven and gives quality fish for years to years provided you chose best male for breeding guppies. Breeding male guppy from another line after few generations maintain better quality while strict inbreeding program improves particular feature of guppy.
3.    Out crossing, as name suggested is breeding guppies of 2 unrelated guppies or even different strains. Most of breeders use this method to produce their show guppy or fancy guppies. Some people have developed beautiful new varieties by simply crossing everything they have together with the hope of finding the right combination. After this is done, the problem is getting the new line to produce the same type of fish. I would recommend selecting another line of fish with an established line only to improve the finnage or color of what you have. This can provide you with that little extra your fish may need to push them over the top.

Feed quality food to your guppies. Quality food will keep them healthy. Select young guppies for breeding. If you choose older ones they may not produce quality baby guppies. Keep in mind if you want great quality guppies you need discard which are ill or poor quality.

This article is rewritten from original article from FRANK SCHWAB who runs www.guppyalternative.com

Fancy guppy is very beautiful hardy fish to keep in aquarium.  But to keep it healthy is not so easy. Here are few Tips how to Keep Fancy Guppies.

1. When you start, get one or two trios in the same line. In order to maintain and keep a single pure strain, will need about 8 to 10 tanks. It is best to use small tanks of 5 gallons for breeders and fry.  Fancy Guppies can live in a wide range of water conditions. The chemistry of water is a pH of 7.2 and moderate hardness, but will be adapted to water is between 6.4 to 8.6, while acclimated. The first thing to do is to put your newly acquired livestock in a clean environment (do not use soap), that the container is large enough to support each trio, big enough so you can add an equal quantity of water tank. DO NOT  FLOAT UNOPENED BAGS. After placing his trio in this aquarium, which are set to leave for a short period of time.

After a short period of time (approx. 15 minutes) from start to add about 3 to 4 ounces of water slowly into the Guppy aquarium. Do it slowly over a period of approximately one hour, until almost doubled the volume of water. Do not rush  in this important process of acclimatization. Make sure the fancy guppy can not jump from the aquarium. When you are done, your fancy guppies settled down, carefully transfer them to new tank. Do not feed. Observe and be patient. After about an hour feed a baby guppies brine shrimp or a pinch of dry food is a lot.  In about a month you will start getting baby guppy. Be ready to take tank space available for each drop of raising guppy babies. After 3 – 4 weeks is starting to get rid of virgin young women for future breeders.

2. Keeping young guppy fry in small tanks, allows them  much easier to find food without burning too much energy. If your baby guppies are more than 60 , it is better to raise them in 10 gallon tanks.

3. The daily diet of newly hatched brine shrimp to guppy babies for least 4 months is required for proper growth.

4. Inside the box are all filters that are required and are the choice of most of the best breeders. A layer of polyester with cotton balls or gravel is all you need for the filter material. I use dolomite gravel because it helps neutralize the effects of water. Dolomite can be found in most pet stores that sell saltwater fish. alternative to dolomite is shells of oysters. Sponge filters are another type of filter that works equally well when used properly. Filters sponge should be rinsed sometimes without destroying the living bacteria.

5. Changes in water: 30-50% weekly or biweekly water changes are necessary for the development and size. Always siphon tank to the bottom. Avoid adding water to tanks lost by evaporation. It is important to purchase a reliable water test kit to see what your tank or tap water conditions. pH Test Kits, hardness test kits and ammonia test kits are easy to use. First time fish maintenance managers must understand the chemistry of water and its effect on keeping Fancy Guppies.

6. Small periodic feeding is best for your young baby fancy guppies. Overfeeding your fancy guppies is probably the main cause of death. Small pinches of shredded good quality flakes is better if fed every hour. Fancy guppy can not digest freeze dried food so better not feed them this type of food. If  fancy guppies are not aggressively searching for food, simply do not feed them.

7. 4 to 5 weeks, juveniles must be separated by sex. Eliminate or just enough to isolate the female guppy that you need to configure your next set of breeders. Guppy female are easily distinguishable from guppy male because they have a dark area just above the anal fin, where fertilization takes place. This region is also known as the “Gravid spot”.  Discard all disabled or inferior guppies. If you were able to acquire a strain of high quality, it should be compulsory to discard. If you need to discard more than 20% of litters then you are not having pure strain.

8. Keep bare their tanks, it is easier to monitor and maintain and avoids the problems caused by gravel and plants. Most guppy books explain fancy guppy life cycle. If you have never raised live bearers I suggest you buy a good book on the tropical fish. Female guppies will look bigger and rounded, once impregnated. Just prior to the female having birth they take on a squared-off appearance. The area just above the anal fin, called “gravid spot” will be darker.

9. Keep your guppy breeders and guppy fry at temperatures between 76 and 82 degrees. Fancy Guppies can be kept at temperatures higher among 72 to 76 degrees.

10. Do not overwhelm you in the beginning starting with too many fish. Remember that if fancy guppies are  in good health, every 28 to 35 days they breed and give birth to guppy fry. A good idea is not to mix different fry (or even the same strain), and until they are at least 3 months. You may pay more for your breeding stock than you expect, but starting with young, top quality breeding stock can save you a great deal of money if purchased from a reputable guppy breeder.

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Credits to original article published at http://guppyz.tripod.com/guppy_tips.html