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Hey, i have about 21 guppies but i only have a six gallon to put them in, they are getting bigger and i don't have the money to buy a new tank, (i am thinking of serperating the males and putting them in a two gallon eclipse tank.)

I think the females will be fine in the six gallon if i add more live plants, and better filteration.

any suggestions?

Ku5626

Take most of them to an LFS. 2g and a 6g is too small for guppies.

Inky

I second Inkling. They need bigger tanks, even single ones.

Keep about 3-4 of your favorite males, put them in the 6g, and take the rest to a fish store. Anymore than that will not fit well in the 6g when they reach full adult size and a 2g is just too small. Guppies especially females can eventually reach nearly 2" when fully grown. Plus females will continue to give birth to batches of babies for months after seperating from the males. Your 21 guppies are going to increase by about 10times in another month.

I agree. You need a larger tank, especially if you keep any females. The guppies multiply like crazy. I have about 15 in my 54g and they seem to be spitting out babies every two weeks.

Keep about 3-4 of your favorite males, put them in the 6g, and take the rest to a fish store. Anymore than that will not fit well in the 6g when they reach full adult size and a 2g is just too small.

Don't mean to be rude, but I don't think 3-4 males would be proper in a 6 gallon. 6 gallons are much too small, even for 1 or 2.

1)Guppies like to swim alot, and 6 gallons does not provide that.

2)Also, if we were to use the 1 inch per gallon rule, guppies get larger that an inch and would produce too much waste.

3)Water changes would need to be 50% and atleast weekly. With a small tank like that, it would be hard to have a proper bacteria colony too.

My advice is buy a 10 gallon. Just the tank alone should cost you less than 20 dollars. It'll be easier to maintain and your fish will thank you more too. Just keep in mind that you still can't keep all 21 of your guppies in one. Maybe about...6? If you plan to keep males and females, 1 male, 3 females. The babies will populate the tank for you. This may in the future become a problem too though if there's too many. If you decide to keep just one sex, 6 of one would be fine.

EDIT: Just remember to have roughly 1 male to 3 females. NEVER have more males than females. They would harass the females too much and the females will begin to die from stress. Trust me, I know from experience, and I had more females than males. This was with endlers that is, but they are pretty much the same in these terms.

So instead of 3-4 just males(which are smaller than females) in a 6g you are saying to put 6 of possibly mixed sex in just 4 more gallons. That's more cramped than my suggestion. Usually I way understock tanks compared to suggestions on here and I didn't find 3 males in a 5g to be even close to overstocked. They could swim full speed and they could swim actively without running into each other. They've since moved to my 55g so I can use the 5g just for shrimp. I hate setting up tanks for fish that are less than 20gallons.

OK thanks, i was going to sell the guppies anyways but there are all really small right now so they do just fine but as they get older i will eventually sell them all

Yes, you can raise them & then sell them. I would seperate the males from the females, so you don't have any fry, in the future.


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I have guppies in my 15g with some danios and they do just fine. They are feeders though, and tend to be a little smaller. I have kept guppies successfully in a 10g, and think if you go with a 10g and add about 4 or 5 they should be okay. If you plan on saving the babies though you will need a seperate 10g.

Inky