CATDOLL : CATDOLL: How to raise guppies?

How to raise guppy (Phoenix tail)

Basic information of guppy

Other names: Rainbow fish, million fish, anchovy

Scientific Name: Poecilia

Family: Fish (viviparous)

Origin: Venezuela, Guyana, West Indies, etc.

Water temperature: 22～24℃

Hardness: 10-30dGH

Ph value: 7.0-8.5

Food: Red nematodes, water fleas and dry feed are all acceptable.

Temperament: Gentle, lively and active

Guppy

Morphological characteristics of guppies

The fish has a slender body, a flattened rear, and a very beautiful tail. The size and color of the male and female fish are quite different. The male fish has a thin body, with a body length of 4 to 5 cm. The dorsal fin is long and pointed, the caudal fin is wide and long, accounting for more than half of the total length, and the caudal peduncle is long, larger than the height of the caudal peduncle. According to the shape of its caudal fin, it is divided into upper sword tail, lower sword tail, double sword tail, lyre tail, needle tail, round tail, flag tail, fan tail, triangle tail, scissor tail, pointed tail) and large tail varieties. The colors of its body and dorsal and caudal fins are colorful, mainly red, blue, black, yellow, green, tiger skin and variegated colors. Some male fish have small blue-black round spots on their tails, like the tail feathers of a peacock, hence the name. The female fish has a sturdier body: the body length can reach about 7 cm, the body color is dull, flesh-colored, slightly transparent, and the color of the dorsal and caudal fins is much inferior to that of the male fish.

Guppies are the most common and favorite tropical fish. They are small and lively. The male fish is about 3 cm long, and its caudal peduncle and caudal fin account for about 2/3 of its body length; the female fish can reach 6 cm in length, and its caudal peduncle and caudal fin account for more than 1/2 of its body. The male fish has colorful body colors, including red, orange, green, cyan, blue, and purple, with the base colors being light red, light green, light yellow, red, purple, and peacock blue. There are blue-red round spots on the caudal fin and abdomen, surrounded by light-colored rings, which resemble the color of peacock tail feathers, hence the name. The dorsal fin is short and high, and the caudal fin is wide and long. There are various shapes such as harp tail, round tail, upper sword tail, lower sword tail, fork tail, square tail, torch tail, tooth tail, and big tail.

The female fish is much less colorful than the male fish, mostly a single silver-gray color, and although there are some patterns on the tail fin, they are not as bright as the male fish. The female fish's fins are shorter than those of the male fish, but the body length is about twice that of the male fish.

Guppies have strong reproductive capacity. After long-term hybridization and breeding, many varieties with various colors and shapes have been produced.

Guppy breeding

Guppies are ovoviviparous fish. They have strong reproductive capacity and early sexual maturity. After 3-4 months of breeding, young fish will enter the mature stage and reproduce offspring. The early or late sexual maturity is closely related to the water temperature and breeding conditions.

When breeding guppies, you should choose a larger aquarium with a water temperature of 26 degrees Celsius. The pH should be 6.8-7.4. At the same time, you should plant more aquatic plants and then add breeding fish in a ratio of 1 male to 4 females. When the fish are in estrus, the abdomen of the female fish gradually swells and black fetal spots appear. The male fish will chase the female fish at this time. When the male fish's copulator is inserted into the female fish's cloaca, sperm is discharged for internal fertilization. When the female fish's fetal spots become large and black and the anus protrudes, it can be scooped into another aquarium to wait for delivery.

After the female fish gives birth, it should be scooped out immediately to avoid eating the fry. Alternatively, a funnel-shaped wall made of plastic sheets should be built into the water, and the female fish that gives birth should be placed in the funnel so that the fry will fall into the water outside the funnel from the hole under the funnel after they are born, and the female fish will not be able to eat the fry.

Guppies give birth once a month. Depending on the size of the female fish, they can produce 10-80 fry each time. The annual number of fry is quite large, so they are called "million fish". When breeding, it should be noted that the breeding fish in the same nest should not exceed three generations, so as to avoid continuous inbreeding leading to the degeneration of the species, making the offspring smaller and smaller, and the tail fin shorter. It is best to introduce fish of the same species for purposeful distant hybridization to prevent the degeneration of the sub-species and achieve the purpose of improving the species. However, the lifespan of guppies is very short, generally only 2-3 years.

Guppy's habits

Guppies are gentle in temperament and can be raised together with other tropical fish. They are usually lively and active, and female fish tend to jump when frightened.

Water quality requirements for guppies

Water temperature

The water temperature that guppies can accept ranges from 18℃ to 34℃. If the temperature is lower than 18℃, some conditions are more likely to occur, such as loss of appetite, mental debility, and susceptibility to infection with diseases such as Saprolegnia. Therefore, whether to use a heater depends on your personal situation.

In summer, the room temperature is often higher than 30℃. In addition, the weather is hot, so the owners are usually too lazy to change the water. Therefore, the concentration of feed residues, excrement, nitrite, etc. in the water will increase rapidly, reaching the point of threatening the survival of guppies. In addition, the high temperature is accompanied by the rapid metabolic rate of guppies, which causes a large loss of calcium in the body. Therefore, large old female fish are prone to spinal curvature. The greater the curvature, the easier it is to compress the internal organs and threaten the survival of guppies. The solution to this problem is to lower the temperature. There are many ways to lower the temperature. The simplest way is to turn on the air conditioner at home. The disadvantage is that you have to bear more electricity bills. Another method is more economical, but more laborious, which is to change the water frequently. If you can change the water every day, you can reduce the temperature by a few degrees, and it can also make the peacock grow faster and the fish healthier, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

pH

The most suitable pH value for guppies is between pH6.5 and pH7.5. The pH value in water has a great influence on guppies. The pH value is in logarithmic form, so water with pH5 is ten times that of pH6 and one hundred times that of pH7. Therefore, for humans, it is only a small difference of 1, but for guppies, they may be tortured to death.

Another thing to note is that if the breeder changes the water less frequently, over time, the water quality will have already become acidic due to various factors. At this time, if a large amount of water is suddenly changed, it will inevitably cause a considerable impact on the guppy.

hardness

Guppies prefer hard water, with a hardness of about 10 to 15 degrees. However, in my opinion, the hardness of water will not have much impact on guppies. Take Germany and Japan, two countries with a long history of raising peacocks, as examples. Germany's water is hard, while Japan's water is all soft. These two completely different conditions can keep peacocks very well, which shows that peacocks have strong adaptability and do not require owners to bother to adjust the hardness of the water. This is one of the reasons why many people often say that guppies are easy to raise.

Nitrite concentration

The level of nitrite concentration also has a considerable impact on the survival of guppies. Although peacocks adapt to nitrite concentrations much better than other fish species (according to data, the nitrite concentration that guppies can tolerate is about 100 times that of angelfish), once the nitrite concentration is too high, it is always harmful to peacocks, especially since the aquarium is a completely enclosed water body, and we usually raise fish at too high a density, so if we are careless, guppies may die collectively in a short period of time. Fish lovers as owners cannot ignore the importance of this issue. There are many reagents for testing nitrite concentrations on the market, which can easily measure the approximate value.

To solve the problem of high nitrite concentration, the quickest way is to immediately replace it with fresh, chlorinated water. However, if the nitrite concentration is too high for a long time, you must consider whether the filter is too ineffective or the fish stocking density is too high.

Guppy feed and feeding methods

Guppy Feed

Artificial feed

There are many types of artificial feeds on the market, which can be roughly divided into three types: 1. Flake feed; 2. Pellet feed; 3. Frozen feed. These feeds are the easiest to obtain and the easiest to feed. In addition, there are feeds specially developed for guppies, which should also be the staple food of most guppy owners, and the nutritional content is also quite complete.

Live Bait

The use of live bait has always been mixed, because the nutritional value of live bait is of course far superior to artificially processed feed, but it is accompanied by safety issues. As fish owners, we must be careful, otherwise the sequelae will make you feel that it is better to just feed feed!

The safest live bait at present should be brine shrimp (nauplii)! It does not take too long to prepare, nor does it require too many procedures. However, after hatching, it should be fed as soon as possible, because the nauplii are most nutritious when they are just hatched and still have yolk sacs. If the time is delayed too long, the yolk has been completely absorbed by the nauplii, so the nutritional value will be slightly discounted. If netizens have the habit of hatching brine shrimp to feed peacocks, if there are extra brine shrimp, they can be frozen. The next time you want to feed, just thaw it and you can use it.

Another species is Daphnia, which can be bred with green water. It should be noted that it is best not to feed fish directly with Daphnia collected from the wild, because Daphnia is the intermediate host of Camelid nematodes. Once parasitized by Camelid nematodes, it is not easy to solve the problem in a few words! Moreover, Daphnia collected from the wild may have a high amount of bacteria in the wild water. If it is rashly put into the fish tank, it may infect the little baby in the greenhouse - guppy. Also, pay attention to which type of Daphnia you get. If it is a sword Daphnia, it is not suitable because of its hard shell.

Another live bait that is most commonly used in aquariums is silkworms. The nutritional value of silkworms is very high. Putting some in the fish tank can keep them alive for a long time, allowing your peacocks to keep eating, so the peacocks will grow very quickly. They can also be used as medicine bait. Feed the medicine to silkworms first to become a medicine guide, and then feed it to the peacocks. The effect is quite good. From this point of view, silkworms should be the most perfect feed, but because the source of silkworms is collected from the wild, although some aquariums will sterilize them first, no one can guarantee that the silkworms will not carry parasite eggs in their bodies, so users have to pay attention.

How to feed guppies

From the birth of the little guppy, fish lovers must be busy preparing all kinds of food. The little guppy can swim and forage soon after birth. If you find that the mother peacock is about to give birth, you can start preparing to hatch brine shrimp. Soon after the little fish is born, it will have a hearty first meal. But remember to pay attention to the amount of feeding. If too much feed is not eaten, it will pollute the water quality and cause the opposite effect. If there are no brine shrimp eggs or no hatching experience, you can also take the flake feed that is usually fed to adult fish, grind the flake feed into crumbs, and the little fish can also eat it. It should be noted that the amount of bait fed should not be too much to avoid the little fish from not eating it and polluting the water quality. Another way is to use cooked egg yolks, wrap them with a net, and shake them slightly in the water. The amount does not need to be too much. Because it is too nutritious, the pollution of residual bait will be more terrible. If necessary, you should prepare to change the water immediately after feeding.

Usually before the sex of the peacock is determined, you can feed as much high-protein food as possible. However, after the male and female fish can be raised separately, it is best not to let the male fish eat too much high-protein food to prevent the male fish's waist from becoming too thick. The female fish does not need to worry. You can feed as much as possible to make the female fish's body more rounded. However, if the feeding amount is increased, the frequency of water changes should also be adjusted relatively to avoid the water quality deteriorating too quickly, causing diseases to breed and harm the guppies. Usually mature guppies will eat all kinds of feed happily, but it should be noted that it is best not to use the same feed regularly. You can change the taste occasionally, mainly to prevent problems caused by nutritional imbalance.

Guppy breeding equipment

Fish Tank

There is no doubt that it is necessary to raise any fish. Generally speaking, except for the designs mainly based on aquatic plants, which may use fish tanks of special sizes, players who usually aim to breed guppies almost all have a considerable number of tanks. The more common ones are probably one foot, one foot and two, one foot and three, one and a half feet, and two feet. Other commonly used ones include pet boxes, which are also good tools for emergencies.

If someone wants to keep peacocks for a long time and falls into the trap of peacock breeding, it is best to make a plan when setting up the tank and leave space for future expansion in advance, so that there will not be fish tanks everywhere, which will increase management troubles.

Filtration system

The filtration system is more important in an artificial breeding environment, because the fish tank is an extremely closed environment, and the fish's excrement is constantly accumulating in the water. If there is no way to eliminate these wastes, the peacock will definitely not grow beautiful in the long run, and may even reduce its resistance to disease. Imagine if humans lived in a place full of garbage and could not dispose of it. In the long run, how many people could bear it? Not to mention the guppies, which are more fragile than humans.

Since most guppy fish owners use many fish tanks to raise different strains of peacocks, if each tank needs to be equipped with a complete filtration system, I am afraid that not everyone can afford it. Therefore, the most common filtration method used by guppy fish owners is to use a sponge pneumatic filter, and the filter we discuss is mainly based on this. The advantages of sponge filters are: easy installation and less economic burden. And there is no need to worry that the small fish born by the mother peacock will be sucked into the filter. The disadvantage is that the sponge is more likely to be blocked and the effect will be affected. Users are better to clean it regularly, because some factors that cause diseases will remain in the filter cotton. If they are not dealt with for a long time, I am afraid that diseases will often occur.

Another commonly used type of filter is the submersible filter, which uses a motor to suck water and then uses filter cotton to filter out impurities in the water. The effect is quite good. There are also many products available on the market. You only need to clean the filter cotton regularly. It can be said to be very convenient, but the cost is too high. If you have a large number of fish tanks, I am afraid that if you use one for each tank, you will have to spend a considerable amount of money. Other filters such as top filters, cylinder filters, and even trickle filters can be used in the guppy tank as long as the filtering effect is good, but the most important thing is to fit the size of your fish tank and the budget for breeding.

Lighting

Some people think that lighting is necessary for the growth of peacocks, while others disagree. The moderator believes that it is not necessary to use special aquarium lamps, but at least there should be light to create a feeling of day and night. According to the moderator's experience, guppies in the dark are less likely to accept bait; the color of guppies will also be duller, and in the case of light, the speed of grabbing food will increase, reducing the chance of excessive pollution of water quality by leftover bait; the color of guppies will also be brighter. In addition, in the case of sufficient light, it is also easier to observe whether the peacock is infected with a disease, when to prepare to deliver small fish, and other daily routine tasks.

For some guppy players, the number of fish tanks they manage on a daily basis is so large that it is impossible to install lamps in each tank, and the electricity bill is also a considerable expense in the long run. Therefore, most of them will not be too particular about the lights, and it is enough to complete some daily work. Friends who have just started to raise peacocks do not need to spend too much on lamps.

Temperature control system

Guppies can tolerate a wide range of temperatures, from about 18 to 30 degrees, so a temperature control system is not necessarily needed. However, if it is really hot in the summer, it is best to keep the place where the guppies are raised well ventilated. Otherwise, the temperature will be too high and it will easily cause the guppies' metabolism to be too fast. For mature female peacocks, too fast a metabolism will easily accelerate the loss of calcium in the body. If combined with postpartum disorders, spinal curvature may occur. Therefore, it is best not to let the temperature exceed 30 degrees. As for winter, because the water temperature is lowered, the peacock's growth rate slows down, which can control the growth rate of the guppies, and they will not exhaust their lives prematurely due to long-term heating.

There are also some side effects to keeping guppies living in a constant temperature. For example, they are very sensitive to changes in water temperature. As long as there is a power outage or a heater failure, it will cause considerable problems.

Bottom sand

The bottom sand commonly used in raising peacocks should be regarded as the silica sand commonly used in aquatic plant tanks. In fact, guppies have strong adaptability, and usually there will be no problem as long as neutral bottom sand is used. Some people like to use coral sand when raising peacocks, because coral sand can make the water hard and alkaline, creating an environment that peacocks like, but you must also be careful not to let the pH quality be too high, otherwise it will have the opposite effect; if you want to plant some aquatic plants, you must consider whether you can accept this water quality. As for the moderator, the moderator raises guppies in a bare tank. This is for the purpose of breeding peacocks. Without laying bottom sand, it is convenient to change water and remove deposited feces. However, in this way, there is no bottom sand to buffer the changes in water quality. It is more suitable for friends with a little experience in fish farming, and it is best to be diligent in changing water and taking care of it, otherwise the peacock cannot live happily.

Guppy dress series

【Dress】

The so-called dress refers to a waist section with a luster ranging from blue to dark black, but the color of this waist section will be affected by genes such as platinum, semi-blue, and pink. In addition, it is also one of the few genes that can be expressed by both male and female fish [sex-linked genes]. The dress gene is usually made into a plain tail, but in Southeast Asia, a dress mosaic is made.

In terms of maintenance, we used to use the method of hybridizing the male dress fish and the female blue grass tail fish. At present, based on the results of Mr. Yang Mingxiang's many years of breeding experience, he encourages us to use male dress fish and female pink dress fish for maintenance. Using pink female fish can make the waist of the yellow tail dress darker, improving the defect of the current platinum yellow tail dress waist color being too light (if using grass tail, at least three generations are required, usually five generations are required, and it is very easy to have uneven tail color).

【Various dresses】

The most common dresses on the market are 1. German yellow-tail dress 2. Red-tail dress 3. Black-tail dress 4. Blue-tail dress 5. Neon dress 6. Mosaic dress. Generally speaking, they are all caused by different body color genes. We can think of sex color genes as the basic structure of a house, and body color genes as paint. Therefore, the various dresses mentioned above are all the same, with a blue to black waist and a plain tail fin, but because of the influence of body chromosomes, they are different in blue, black, and red. [Just like the same house painted with different paints. ] Bottom right picture: various dresses

For example, the German red-tail dress is made up of the dress gene [house] plus the red-tail gene [paint]; the Japanese red-tail dress - Figure 7 is made up of the dress gene [house] plus the red gene and platinum gene [paint], so the performance is different, and Figure 8 - Japanese red-tail dress is made up of the dress gene [house] plus the red-tail gene and platinum gene [paint]. Therefore, it has a different style from Figure 7.

In terms of genes, only male fish are selected and female fish are discarded in order to preserve the Y gene of the first generation of dress male fish, and to continuously use the X gene of the original dress female fish to dilute the X gene of the heterogeneous blue grass tail. All heterogeneous maintenance methods of guppies follow this theory. Furthermore, the difference between the German yellow tail dress and the Mattley yellow tail dress is that the Mattley yellow tail dress has one more recessive autosomal gene than the German yellow tail dress, the Mattley gene [paint]. You can imagine that it is the result of a yellow tail dress type house being painted with an extra layer of white paint.

Grass tail system of guppy

【Grass tail】

Grass tail is one of the most popular varieties, especially the beautiful banana grass tail is the favorite of breeders. After years of improvement, the problem of yellow spots at the base has finally been overcome, and many diamond-shaped spots that attract many players can be retained.

The body color can be dark or light blue, and it can also be combined with platinum and coral or Japanese blue limited genetic genes to produce platinum grass tail, Japanese blue grass tail, coral grass tail, etc. However, since the above genes with strong platinum color have factors that easily make the tail pattern fade or even disappear, there are few excellent individuals on the market and in competitions. Having said that, most players still prefer pure blue grass tails!

Many beginners often think that red grasstail and blue grasstail are different strains. In fact, they are the same; it's just that a pair of genes that control body color "Bb" are changing! [It's just like the relationship between the Japanese blue tail dress and the red tail dress]

When this gene pair is BB, it will be red grass color. When it is Bb, it is blue tail. When it is bb, it is dark blue grass tail. Generally speaking, it is impossible to distinguish red grass tail females from blue grass tail females. You can only infer it by the color distribution of the offspring. Usually, if a blue grass tail is used as a breeding male, if there is a dark blue grass tail among the offspring, it is born by a blue tail female. This is a simple checkerboard rule. Please refer to the general introduction of DNA region.

【Blue Glass】CH Gossip Grass Tail

The diamond-shaped dark blue is matched with radial spray dots. It is not as majestic as a dress or as bold as a mosaic. It has a unique kind of delicate and endearing beauty, like the ancient beauty Zhao Feiyan, light and arousing fantasy.

In the past, when it was first introduced, its beauty always depended on the size of its tail and the degree of detail of the spraying, and the most important thing was the degree of color transparency of its yellow spots. Although the yellow spots can be said to be its natural expression, many people still think that less yellow is more beautiful. Later, someone introduced the Silver Diamond Peacock from Southeast Asia. [This Silver Diamond Peacock is actually a variant of the Blue White Gold] and mated it with the female Blue Grass Tail. It was found that the blue and white hair color could cover the yellow spots, so the yellow spots of the Blue Grass Tail gradually decreased. However, because the diamond-shaped spots of the Blue Grass Tail will be covered by the silver hair color of the Silver Blue Grass Tail, it also reduces some of its beauty. However, after mating the female fish with the male Blue Grass Tail, some individuals with no yellow spots and diamond-shaped spots can be obtained. Over the generations, most of the Blue Grass Tail now have no yellow spots.

Generally speaking, in the maintenance of grasstail, it is rare to see heterologous maintenance. Most of them are derived from the mating of male fish with snake king and metal and female grasstail fish [such as metal snake pattern grasstail]. The use of heterologous female fish for maintenance is also limited to the snake king and lace snake king. Therefore, the selection of grasstail is mainly based on female fish, and the selection of male fish varies according to personal preference. I will not elaborate on it here [because the beauty of grasstail can be seen at a glance, there is no selection technique to speak of. If you have to say there is, just pay attention to the three-month-old juvenile fish. The more densely distributed the dots are, the better the ones with evenly distributed dots are].

The first thing to consider when selecting a female fish is whether it is a blue grass tail. Based on my experience as a fish farmer, the offspring produced by blue grass females are better than those produced by red grass females. Although it is difficult to distinguish between red and blue grass females, the easiest way to distinguish is that if the tail pattern is a black and blue color, it is more likely to be a blue grass tail female. The system produced by selecting this type of female will be better.

Players can use some male fish with limited genetics to mate with grasstail females to make various derivatives, and then mate with the original female fish to introduce different genes. I believe that this will better maintain the grasstail they have. Personally, I think it is better to mate with platinum, silver and metal series male fish. For example, the method of using metal or Medusa to mate with the original grasstail female is acceptable.

However, it should be noted that the genes of the Galaxy are more complex, and the lace base or snake king genes may be transferred to the mother fish. Therefore, when choosing the mother fish for offspring, you cannot choose the fish with colored upper and lower ends of the tail and transparent in the middle, and you cannot choose the fish with completely transparent tail. It is best to choose the one with spots all over the tail. After four months of age, you can barely see whether its waist has snake patterns.

Guppy breeding is very simple

Generally speaking, the ones with smaller bodies and more colors are males.

The one with less color is female

Generally speaking, you should buy breeding stock in a ratio of 1 male to 4 females.

The female fish has a bulging abdomen and black spots on the anus when giving birth

At this time, you can put it in the incubator, add more water plants and stones to the incubator

Guppies breed quickly, once a month, and often in large numbers.

Guppies like micro-granular feed, earthworms, and fleas, and do not eat aquatic plants.

Guppies are more afraid of cold in winter

It is recommended to cover the fish tank and put an oxygen pump and a heating rod in it.

The heating rod must be completely immersed in water, the temperature should be about 26 degrees

Guppies should change water frequently

Look carefully first, there is one with a very flat body and many colors on the body; there is another with a big belly, no color on the body, only on the tail. The flatter body is male, the bigger belly is female, males are more aggressive, often chasing females, it is best to separate them, also look at the female's anus (no need to catch it, just look at it), if there is a black mass, it proves that it is pregnant, then go to Fangcun Flower, Bird, Fish and Insect Market to buy an incubator, generally you know it once I tell you, I won't go into details, generally feed them with finer feed, if the particles are too big they will be stuffed to death, thank you!!!

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