# Too Many Guppies



## Inga

For those of you who have multiple sex guppies, How do you keep the population under control? I have sold Guppies to the Pet stores but they just keep populating. I have tried (obviously unsuccessfully) to separate the sexes. I thought I had all the males out but... I must have missed one. I now have a 25 gallon tank with about 45 Guppies in it. Can you say "soon to be over crowded?"

HELP! I need better ideas then I am coming up with. I know that the females once bred can produce multiple fry. I think that is what is going on as I really believe all males were out of the tank.


Anyone want some free Guppies?


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## Mikaila31

Get a bigger fish.


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## Inga

I have already tried my 5 1/2 inch Gourami in there and she did nothing to keep the population down. I don't want to kill off my adults. How do you think a Betta would do with the adults? I have heard they will eat the babies quickly.


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## Mikaila31

bettas are generally slow from what I have seen. Maybe a plakat would be faster... still one won't cut it.


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## Inga

Angel fish?


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## Mikaila31

Possibly... My angels eat lots of my endler fry along with my rainbows. Usually though it works best if they are in a separate tank that you can add the fry too. Angels would probably be best if you started with medium sized ones. My angels are not as efficient as my rainbows. Fry will hide right were the water and the glass meet if they have no other option. The larger fish have trouble getting them there. 

You could just give a bunch away as feeders too. I've done that before when I didn't have the fish to eat them. Like do you know anyone with a African cichlid tank? lol


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## Inga

Honestly, I am thinking of getting out of Guppies. I think they are lovely fish and have these charming little personalities BUT I can't do the whole feeder fish thing. I wanted a fish that would just do in the babies before I even knew about it. Sort of out of sight out of mind thing. It isn't good for my heart to think of my fish ending up as a snack. 

The only one I really really want to keep is "Junior" who was my first baby and just has the best personality. The bad thing is that Junior is a girl so the problem would continue as long as I have her. I wonder how many fry she could have before she quits? If I just kept her and had someone else to keep the population down, it would be good.


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## Amethyst123

One female guppy would be lonely and stressed, as these fish live in large communities in the wild. She would really be healthier and happier with a community around her. By the way, if you really have all the males out of the tank, your females will stop breeding within a few months. They can hold the sperm from previous mating for about 6 months, I think, and they give birth, on average, every 4 weeks (sometimes 3 to 3.5 weeks). So, as long as you remove young males before they can reproduce (probably at 3 or 4 months, but I'd remove them as soon as you're sure they are males just to be on the safe side), your problem is self-limiting. 

I had heard that gouramis would work for population control also, but others have stated that any gourami aggressive enough to go after fry (as opposed to swallowing them if they wander in front of its mouth) might also hurt the adult guppies. Same with angels. Also, I don't believe 25g is big enough for more than one or two angels alone. Probably wouldn't work with angels and your other fish. As for bettas, it depends on the fish. My male bettas are both quick enough to catch and eat newborn guppy fry, but I don't think they could easily eat them more than a week old, and I don't think they'd eat enough in that week to take care of the problem, since you can't put more than one male betta in the same tank. Also, bettas have been known to attack guppies, because the colorful and flowing tails and fins can look like juvenile male bettas to other bettas. This is more likely with male guppies, but I have some girls with lots of color, and I wouldn't risk it. 

I have a 47g tank with guppies, mollies, platys, and swordtails of both genders, as well as 8 corydoras catfish and 3 otocinclus catfish. I was worried about overpopulation, too, as I could have hundreds of babies a month from the 4 livebearer species in the tank. For me, overpopulation simply hasn't been a problem. I see a few fry from time to time, but I have yet to see any guppy fry last more than a week unless I take them out of the tank. And I've only ever seen one eaten - it just happened to be right at the top of the water when I was feeding, and an adult simply swallowed it. I have had one platy fry grow up in the tank with the adults. He is now about 6 months old, and has fathered some drops, because I have seen platy fry in the last month or so.

While it may sound counterintuitive, several species of livebearers in a large community tank may be the best population control. They will eat each other's babies as well as their own. If you reduce feedings for a day or two after you notice fry, the adults will be more likely to seek them out, and/or the fry will be more likely to die due to lack of food as the adults would eat what is available before the fry can get to it.

This may sound heartless, but I look at this way: this is what happens in nature, and is why livebearers have 20 to 100 babies a month. If they all lived, even in the wild, the whole planet would be overrun.


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## Amethyst123

Mikaila31 said:


> bettas are generally slow from what I have seen. Maybe a plakat would be faster... still one won't cut it.


My bettas are definitely fast enough to catch guppy fry, and neither are plakats. They are both either super deltas or half-moons. I occasionally drop a fry or two in with a betta (and then turn away, because I don't want to watch), and the fry are gone when I next check the tank, usually within a few minutes. 

The only slow bettas I've seen are those in tanks that are too small, water that is too cold, or fish that are not well. If they are in 78 - 82 degree water, are healthy, and have enough room to swim easily and quickly (2.5g minimum, 5g is better), they do so.


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## Mikaila31

Yes but one or two fry is a lot different then a tank full of fry. My rainbow fish are probably the most efficient. I doubt fry even see them coming they are so fast. 

Don't keep endlers if you don't want to deal with the baby excess. I think I started with 6 adults and still can't get rid of the things years later!. When I move though this year they are going down:twisted:. Endlers will NOT eat their own fry at all. Even in a community of tetras and rams I was removing thirty or more a week. Eventually I had a 15 gallon with 100 endlers in it. Caught almost all of them and gave them to one person for free. The ONLY reason I still have these fish is I can never catch them all. Fry or really fast adults get left behind then months later I got the same problem:lol:.

For liverbearers wild type swords might be a fun thing to try. Swordtails are not quite as prolific as guppies. They grow slower too.


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## Inga

Oh Heaven's I don't want ANY more breeding in the tank. I have tried the not feeding for a day or two. I added a very hungry Gourami who simply looked at me like "well, when ARE you planning on serving lunch?" and hung out for another day or two without food. None of the babies were harmed. I keep hearing people say that Guppies will eat their own young but mine won't. 

Some one else told me to add a Pictus Catfish but my concern is that they would hurt the adults, which I do not want to happen. I don't want any to die actually, I just don't want any more breeding. Ugh! it is a terrible dilema for an animal lover. To be happy they need each other but... then they over populate and you have to try to find homes for hundreds of babies, which is not an easy feat. I do not wish them to suffer at all.


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## LasColinasCichlids

I would suggest maybe an African Dwarf Frog, they wont bother juveniles or adults, but would happily eat the fry. Also, a large molly or two would eat the fry. Or if you have the seperate tank, or already have one...maybe a dwarf puffer, they would eat the fry...but I would put the fry in the puffers tank not the puffer in with all the guppies. 

Guppies might eat the fry when they are super small, so small we might not see them all yet. But my tank is all male guppies (11 of them), yet I have 6 guppy fry in a breeder net I had given to me. I woke up a few mornings ago to one of my male guppies, his name is Turk, inside the breeder net...he had to have jumped in, even if he did poor thing probably hit his head as the water level was high and he needed to clear about an inch in distance and another inch in height to make it into it. Anyways, he had probably been in overnight, but he didnt bother any of the 6 fry, he actually seemed really freaked out that these 6 little things were what seems to be playing ring-around-the-rosie with his head. I had to laugh, then figure out how to get him out. lol. Once the fry are sexable, the males will join the 29 gallon, and the females will go into a new 15 gal with the neons from the 29 gal, all the fish from the 5 gal (except the otos, they will go to the 29 gal as the new tank wont have algae), and I will probably add some cories to it later on.


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## guppygirl01

First of all, keep your fry with your females and don't feed the females for a few days. Guppies will eat anything they can fit in their mouths so the adults will eat the fry. It seems cruel but you should try it. And have you sold to petsmart? I want to sell my fry to them but im not very sure they will take them.


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## Navthrfez Platy

You could try a female betta or two


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## Inga

I settled on an Angel fish. She is very small at the time but should be able to eat the new fry and not harm the adults or even juvinile fish. As she grows she will be moved to a larger tank. Tomorrow, I will be moving 2 dozen juviniles out. I found a home for them. Shouldn't take too long to restore balance. At least, that is the hope.


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## alysalouise

Inga said:


> Honestly, I am thinking of getting out of Guppies. I think they are lovely fish and have these charming little personalities BUT I can't do the whole feeder fish thing. I wanted a fish that would just do in the babies before I even knew about it. Sort of out of sight out of mind thing. It isn't good for my heart to think of my fish ending up as a snack.
> 
> The only one I really really want to keep is "Junior" who was my first baby and just has the best personality. The bad thing is that Junior is a girl so the problem would continue as long as I have her. I wonder how many fry she could have before she quits? If I just kept her and had someone else to keep the population down, it would be good.


 
I would gladly take any  as i cant even get my 2 males to breed with my 4 females, lol but i unknowingly got platys to breed, weird stuff, i thought guppies were the easiest to breed


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## Inga

alysalouise said:


> I would gladly take any  as i cant even get my 2 males to breed with my 4 females, lol but i unknowingly got platys to breed, weird stuff, i thought guppies were the easiest to breed


Did you just get your Guppies? If you just got them a short whille ago from the fish store, they are likely babies themselves and need to grow up before they start having babies. If you have males and females, you will likely have fry just have patience. Do you have some nice plants in the tank for the fry to hide in? I have Pennywort floating all over the top of my tank to and several swords, Ludwigia and various grasses for fry to hide in. I would say it is optimal situation for guppies to breed. Noting how many babies keep showing up, I think the Guppies would agree. 

I think a 1-5 ratio is best male to female. I have read that the males will pester the females to death if they don't have others to share their attentions with. Just be sure you have a home lined up for the babies once they start coming because they really will be explosive breeders once they start. 

Where do you live?


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## alysalouise

also a question, if the females are albino will i still get colored babies?


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## Inga

Here are a few pictures, though not good ones of my Guppies
females









males

























As far as coloring goes, I am afraid I do not know the answer to that. I would suspect however you would get some colored babies if the males are colored.


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## guppygirl01

Oh your males are gorgeous! If only we lived closer I'd gladly take many of your guppies. The guppies I have to start with are always plain. With my first batch of fry I got a nice looking male but I sold him with all of the rest.


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## alysalouise

*Here are my females*

and you can see my salt water fish watching me take their pictures lol


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## Inga

Cute, they look like Czech red to me or a sunset. That is what color my little Junior is.


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## alysalouise

ah lol, i think its weird because i can see all their bones haha, one of them looks very pregnant, big gravid spot on her and really dark, i just dont know how long until she has the babies and if she will have them with the other 3 females in there


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## Inga

alysalouise said:


> ah lol, i think its weird because i can see all their bones haha, one of them looks very pregnant, big gravid spot on her and really dark, i just dont know how long until she has the babies and if she will have them with the other 3 females in there


 
Yes she will. Do you have places for the babies to hide? Live plants are great for that. Floating the Pennywort or Wisteria is wondeful for the fry.


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## alysalouise

i have like 3 plastic floating plants thats suppose to be hooked on stuff in my net breeder, but i have all 4 females in my 2 gallon tank with large rocks on the bottom


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## guppygirl01

They look like blondes but I think you can only get blonde males I don't think females come in that color. They are still pretty. For my fry, I bought a 5$ breeder net and it worked good for my first batch of fry. The only problem I have with it is the fake plands. I'm going to replace them sooner or later with live ones.


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## eileen

I had a angelfish in my community tank and it did a great job keeping the fry down. I would get rid of all the floating plants where the babies hide in most of the time. That could be the reason also why you have so many fry. I would just keep all male guppies only as the females are mostly a bland color. This will do away with excess fry. Mix male guppies with platy males, or Balloon molly males,You will not have any babies born and have a nice group of livebearers that look nice. With this group you can get a small Harleqen Rasborao group of 4 or more depending on your tank size, Neon tetras, Glow light tetras, I have a schooling group of 9 neon tetras in my Black & Blue Themed 30 gal. bowfront tank.

I have the following fish in that tank:

9 Neon tetras
1 Male Blue Tiger endler- Soon to get a female or 2 shipped from aquabid
1 Female Blk. Balloon bellied molly 
1 Blue eyed bushy nosed pleco
3 Amano shrimps
1 Cory catfish
Soon to be shipped 3 Blue Neon Wag Platies
Soon to be shipped 1 Blue Wag Swordtail Female

I used to have a 55 gal. but downsized to a planted 30 gal. Anglefishs are great for fry control. Only get 1 as 2 may breed and many not be good with the tetras. I had a nice group of harleqen tetras which are bigger in size and Glow light tetras and the anglefish was the size of a quarter when I got it and great up with the smaller fish. It grew to about 6" before I rehomed it at a auction. I miss the angelfish it was a blushing angelfish and it had a nice personality and would follow you around when you passed the tank or looked in like a dog. It also liked to follow a red lazer pointer around in the tank. 

If breeding gets out of hand I ship to a friend on aquabid that sells fish, rehome on craigslist, rehome at the San Diego Tropical Fish Soc. auction that I'm a member of. I can alway ad a blue gouarmi to my Black & Blue themed tank

I'm glad that you decided to get an angelfish as every community tank should have 1 bigger show piece fish mixed in with the smaller fish. I also like the Gouarmi's, Right now I have 2 dwarf honey gourmi's in my 6 gal. that are no bigger then my Crystal red shrimps they are so cute.Will post pictures of those cute dwarf gouarmi's in next thread.


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## eileen

*Pictures of Dwarf Flame Honey Gouarmi's*

Here is the pictures of those 2 dwarf flame honey gouarmi's I got at a local fish store. They were in a tank with tiny endlers. I have never seen ones so small in size. They may be babies as they are the same size as my Cystal red shrimps. I was told by the store manager that they only get about 1" or so big. You can see in the picture that they are the same size as the shrimps. My friend was worried about the shrimps getting eaten I told him that the shrimps are about the same size or bigger then these little guys. I have 6 Cyrstal red shrimps in with them in a 6 gal. for now. I can move them if they get bigger to a 10,20 or 30 gal. tank.


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## guppygirl01

Hey, random question that deals with my breeding of guppies. Since all of mine just died, I want to take extreme precaution. Well there are three random questions.

1- How long should I let my 10 gallon cycle before I put the fish in?
2- How many guppies can be kept in a 10 gallon? I had 26 in my 20 gallon because I had 23 fry and 3 adults.
3- How long should I wait before selling the fry?


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## eileen

1- The tank can cycle in about a months time. To speed it up you can borrow some used filter media from someone that might have a tank set up already, gravel or sand from an existing tank put in pantyhose in your tank. I like this product called Cycle as it has good bacteria that makes cycling faster.

2- you can have 20 or more in that tank. You are suppost to have 1" per gal as a rule but if you do water changes a couple of times a week if it is overstocked they should be fine. All my tanks are understocked and I do a 20-25% water change everyweek. feeding less also helps the water stay cleaner. I feed once a day and skip a day. You can even go every other day like a local fish store does in my area. Get a API liquid water tester kit. They work better then the test strips.

3- You can sell the fry when they are about 1" big at most fish stores that will take them, Some do not take fish from people walking in as they buy from breeders elsewhere. This can be a problem as it takes awhile to raise them at this size. I rehome or sell them on craigslist for cheap. Some fish stores will take tiny fry for feeders. Craigslist is the best I sell 10 fry for a cheap price and include flake food and I always get people that want them if I do not want to deal with hundreds of fry to raise. If they are nice quality guppies that you buy on Aquabid you can get alot more for the babies as long as they are not common ones sold at the local pet store chain. If you want ao raise nice fish to sell get some nice ones on aquabid to start off with as some of the guppies are from show culls.

You can try smaller fish for your tank. Endler's are nice as they are livebeares and are like guppies but smaller in size. If you do not want to breed get males only as a pair will have babies every month or so. With endlers you can also ad Red Cherry shrimps to the tank as long as the tank is planted with real or fake plants. Good real plants for keeping the water clear are Hornwort as this sucks out nitrates, So does a plant that is sold as a bunch that is green and long called Anacharis or ( Egeria densa). They sell this at Petco for about $2.49 bunch.


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## eileen

*Pictures of the Endlers I have*

Here are some pictures of some endlers I have now. They are Ender Hybrids. 1/2 guppy/ 1/2 endler to get these nice colors and they are smaller in size they guppies.
I have the following:

Blue Tiger endlers, I have 1 male and I'm waiting on a female or two to be shipped to me (pic. is from a friend that shipped me some blue tiger endlers) 
Red Scarlet/neon pink endlers
Metalic blue endler's that I will be working on now.


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## Inga

Woot Woot! I just got rid of a few more Guppies. I traded the fish store for 5 Angel fish and a hand full of Assassin snails. He said my Guppies sell very very quickly so, he will take more when they get large enough. I told him if the angles don't do all of them in, I will have about another dozen in 2 weeks. He sells them for $3.95 each so it works out well for me, I don't have to worry about the sell and I get what I want. The Angels are between $7.50 and $24.00 each and the Assassins are $4.99 each. I did well and am happy with the trade.

I got one Koi, One Marble, One black and 2 Platinum Blushing Angles. They are quite lovely.


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## eileen

You will like those platnium angles. When they get older the top of their head is a nice bright yellow color which is really pretty and who can resist those cute blushing cheeks on both sides of their face. 
You got a steal and those assassin snails will rid of of any problem pest snails I have about 7 of them and they have laid egg pods that hatched. I gave away 13 to a friend that had a ramshorn problem in her ttank and kept only 2 and now I have 7 but they do not breed without a male and reproduce very slowly over the year. A place near me sells them for 6 for $12.


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## LasColinasCichlids

Endler/Guppy crosses are very pretty fish, yet sadly when you crossbreed them their lifespans are greatly shortened.


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## Inga

LasColinasCichlids said:


> Endler/Guppy crosses are very pretty fish, yet sadly when you crossbreed them their lifespans are greatly shortened.


and they are already shortlived fish.

eileen I have some Assassins already and I do have at least one baby but I thought I would grab a few more for my other tanks. I have several people that want Assassins if they do reproduce at all. I do like the Blushing Angels they are so very elegant. I also am inn lovve with my Marble Angel as it is such a classy looking fish. I know that there markings can change but right now this fish is stunning. I can't wait to see if I get a breeding pair out of this. If I do, the Angels will be very very easy for me to sell.


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## eileen

I love angelfishes but decided not to have them anymore because of health problems from the pet store where I got them. 1 had hole in the head and died and the others I got died suddenly after a few months after getting them.

I'm not sure about the shorten lifespan of endlers. With them reproducing so fast I will always have a nice group of them in my tanks regardless of their short lifespan. I love them because they are smaller in size then the fancy guppies and i can keep more of them then guppies. Endlers also do very well in an outside pond. I had a unfiltered tub pond last year and they reproduced faster in that pond then in my inside tanks and did well in late spring and summer til I took the pond down in late fall/winter. I had water hyacinth and a dwarf pyrus plant in a plastic 16 gal. pot I got at Walmart for under $20. You can look in the section on Ponds here because there is a thread on unfiltered tubponds.
Here's a picture of mine from last year:


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## Mikaila31

I've never heard about cross breeding endlers and guppies resulting in short lived fish either. They are two different species, usually hybrids show "hybrid vigor" more often the any sort of repression from hybridizing...


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## Amethyst123

Mikaila31 said:


> Yes but one or two fry is a lot different then a tank full of fry. My rainbow fish are probably the most efficient. I doubt fry even see them coming they are so fast.
> 
> For liverbearers wild type swords might be a fun thing to try. Swordtails are not quite as prolific as guppies. They grow slower too.


To the first comment: yes, of course one or two fry is different than a tank full of fry. One betta would definitely not enough of the fry to make a difference before the babies got too big for them to eat. However, healthy bettas are absolutely fast enough to catch the fry, unless the fry can get to a place in the tank that is too small for the betta to follow. 

Platys might be another good choice - lots of different colors and markings, and like swordtails, they are less prolific than guppies and grow slower than gupppies. However, less prolific is relative - they can still have 20 to 40 fry every 30 days or so, and the fry hide better, making it more likely that some will grow up in the tank with the adults if there are enough hiding places.

Also, platys and swordtails can crossbreed - just an FYI.


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## Inga

Well, I moved Junior and one Leopard to the 60 gallon tank. This will allow them peace and quiet while the Angels grow up a little in the smaller tank. Then I will swith them around again. Everyone seems quite happy now so... all is quiet in the fishland here. 

I hate to rush things along but man are those blushing Angles gorgeous, I can't wait for them to get larger. I hope they stay healthy, they seem to be doing great right now.


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## Inga

My Angels are doing well. They are growing so fast and I chose to move them into the 60 gallon tank so they have more room to swim. They do remain babysitters to the Guppy babies however. I had high hopes that they would cut down on the numbers of fry but I guess not. I am still enjoying them and I guess having so many healthy Guppy fry to trade will be nice. I won't ever have to pay for fish food because I can trade the babies of that or other fish.


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## GreenAsJade

There's another answer to this other than getting your babies eaten.

Change the water chemistry. In a working tank, you have to do this graaaduuuallly....

... but: it works.

The two variables that I have played with are pH and Carbonate Hardness. I am pretty sure that your own experience will vary, but I find that very softwater (no Carbonate Hardness) and relatively low pH for Guppies (about 7) produces few if any babies.

At te other end of the spectrum, at 7.5-8pH and hard water (high Carbonate Hardness) my tank fills with babies almost as I watch (exaggeration, but it's dramatic).

Let me say again that you have to vary these parameters slooowly (certainly no more than 0.1 pH per day) otherwise fish will die from shock. But with care, you can use this to control breeding rates.

GaJ


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## fishysrfun

an OScar would keep the population down


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