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Hi,

Do breeders do anything to fancy guppies so they can't breed? I've got a crab that I tried to feed 3 feeder guppies, and now there are tonnes of them and they are starting to even get nice spots. As they reproduce and mix.

We started another tank with fancy guppies, and nothing yet. I am just asking. I doubt the answer would be yes though.

Separate them.
The only way you can stop guppies from breeding is to separate the males and females as young as possible.

I meant to ask why are the fancy guppies NOT breeding. I want them too.

Just keep the fish well fed and the water clean.
Thats about all I can think of.

Try some live food too.. (like blackworms). Live food gives it more of a natural habitat feel.

Also - the balance of the water has a way of being more relaxed. Lower levels might make them more comfortable. I am not the one to give advice on that though.

Good luck!

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"it's the neck, it creaks under the weight of too much heavy thinking."

In a word,yes! In places in the world, a lot of specilaist fish breeders wishing to protect their strains sometimes chemically sterilise all the fry they sell, quite often this is done in the far east. It doesnt happen so much in the west though, and nature being nature , eventually a few break through and breed anyway. Personally it disgusts me that it happens. Fish breeding is part of the hobby, and I rather like giving away fish that I manage to breed. GM fish and some hybrids coming out of the east are often routinely steralised.

Guppies however can be sourced in just about all types all over the world, try maintaining groups of 2 males and maybe 6 to 8 females, give them loats of floating plants and livefoods, and they should get to it pretty quickly. Its possible your guppies may have already been breeding, its just that they eat the young sometimes, and you never see them.

You can add some floating plants, so the fry will be able to hide in it. You can also remove the female in a seperate tank & remove her as soon as you see the fry. I don't think that Guppy's wouldn't breed in a good conditioned tank........

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Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
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The females could very well be popping fry out but they may be getting eaten before you spot them. Putting some floating plants for the fry to hide in may help.

....and i've just realised git has said the same thing.

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Before you criticize someone walk a mile in their shoes. That way you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

one of the things i did was feed tubifix worms it conditions them for breeding if they were egglayers you would put marbles in the aquarium and java moss all helps but there livebearers so try tubifix make sure you run it under water so the bacteria washes off i do the same for freeze dried and live

33 gallon 7 neon tetras-5 platys-3 bleeding heart tetras-2 corys-1 rainbow shark-2 L83 gibby plecos

I called the store, which is a very reputable mom and pop shop, and they said no they breed. Sometimes in the bags on the way home.

There really shouldn't be a problem with getting guppies to breed. I'd add some floating plants like others have said, try adding a lot of plants to the bottom as well. Also, it might be a stupid question but do you have a good amount of males and females?

I brought home 3 f's and 2 males but only 2 females and one male survived the move. It has been 30 days.

PS, I'm not going to stock more yet as my blue green algae seems to have returned despite replacing everything and bleaching/salting/scrubbing the tank for 3 weeks. I'm now rethinking... I will probably mix the fancies with the feeders and redo the crab tank with deeper water and a beach for him to burrow in. Something about the crab/feeder-guppie ecosystem is keeping it blue green algae free for over a year now, with only a little green algae on the wet rocks. Crabs love java moss by the way.