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I am getting really keen on Guppies and today in the LFS saw some lovely orangey red males. I was very tempted to buy ones but wondered about the colour combinationif bred to my femal guppies. Are their "colour" rules to follow when breeding them, should certain combinations be avoided and are any more desirable than others?
Any help would be appreciated. I have aquired yet another tank and am thinking of setting up a Guppy breeding tank and would like to select some stunning males - what should I lok for apart from good health? Also What is "breeding size"
Sorry there are so many questions..hope you can help.

nope, if u are breeding for profit, or show, then u should breed pure strains and only breed that color to taht color,

but if for fun: then go for anything u want.

If you decide you want to breed make sure you are prepared. I'm just breaking down all 15 of my tanks...one beautiful pair led to another then another. I ended up with about 10 pair or so. And make sure you know how many fry to expect. 1 female can have up to 5 batches of fry...1 batch about every 25 days. You'll also need space for the fry. I did this for appx 1 yr. and it turned into a lot of work. Thinking back I should has bought all males! I had guppies coming out the wazoo!

"I had guppies coming out the wazoo! "

My wife did the same thing- we couldn't keep up with all the fry- we had them in 5 tanks.

P.S. I also should have known better when she suggested my daughter get a male and female hamster.

Last edited by BM at 08-Sep-2005 09:50

http://www.fishprofiles.com/site/aquarank.aspx

Fish store guppies probably won't breed true anyway if you're loking to maintain the same colours. If you really want to breed for specific traits, you need to buy from a reputed breeder and selectively breed them for good finnage, colour, etc. With pet store fish you really have no idea what the offspring will look like because you don't know their genetics.

Thanks for all the info guys. :-) I have spare 3ft and 2ft tank so will have plenty of room - famous last words LOL. 4 tanks in 4 weeks

I now have my male and female guppies in seperate tanks. My 5 females are heavily pregnant. I had planned to introduce 1 or 2 of my favourite males to the female tank once they had their fry. BUT If female guppies can produce more than one batch of fry from a single encounter with a male, will their next batch born be "left overs" from a previous liason or will the next batch have fry that have the "new" males for fathers?

If you introduce the males into the female tank, the next batch will be mostly from the "new" male, but some will be from the "old". the batch after that will be from the "new"

"I had guppies coming out the wazoo! "
thats funny because i had the same problem and i only had oen ten gallon but everything turned out well in the end my friend gave me a loch and he ate to his heart content . i know it sounds mean but i couldent get a bigger tank at the time and of coures i didnt have room pluse there was no store near bye that would take them in not even for free. well im out of that stage now im comletly in to bettas now but hay if u think your prepared then go right ahead and breed your guppies