Guppy Overview, Aquarium Setup, Water Conditions, Breeding & Raising Fries, Tank Mates & Diet:
Guppy is from the family of Poecilia reticulate & it is a very famous fish & due to easy care level, it is also called beginners fish. Guppy is from South America. About 300 types of the fish are discovered in Amazon river. Guppy is a live bearer fish & their babies are free swimming when they are born. Male guppy is colorful & have long fins while females are not that colorful & have large bodies.
It is very easy to care for guppy but make sure your aquarium is large enough to house multiple guppies. You can use substrate at the bottom of tank or leave it bare bottom. If you are planning to add live plants to aquarium which is very important for guppy, then we would suggest either using gravel or put plants in a netted pot & fill the pot with substrate. Make sure your aquarium is cycled before you add guppies to it.
How to raise guppy fry & adult guppies in a shared aquarium
If you have plants in aquarium, then guppy fries can hide in them & it is a good idea to introduce few structures & decorations in aquarium which allow fries to hide from adults that consider them food. If a mother guppy give birth to fries in the aquarium, then there are many chances of saving the young if you have plenty of hiding spots then we recommend separating them from adults by picking up the fries in the fish net. It is however difficult to separate the little ones from bullies because of their small size, they are hard to locate in aquarium.
Arrange frame like box shape & cover it with nylon
Aquarists use breeder box for raising fries which allows fries to grow, & they share the same aquarium with adult guppies. It is a nylon box which allows water to pass through it but stops fries from escaping the box. It is very easy to setup a breeder box. Breeder box has a frame & a stylish nylon net is wrapped around the frame. You can keep fries in this box for a temporary period but I would recommend shifting them to another aquarium for faster growth.
It is very easy to raise babies of guppies & no additional maintenance is needed if you have setup a breeder box.
If you have setup a separate tank for fries, then I would suggest adding a sponge filter because babies love to scrap food from the sponges.
Guppy Diet:
Guppies like overeating so aquarists often feed them more, which can cause constipation & health problems. Only offer food to mature guppies once or twice every day, & ensure that your added food is eaten by guppies in a minute. Guppies like all sorts of foods & would even eat algae growing in the tank. Aquarists feed them brine shrimp, flakes, pellets etc.
Guppy Tank Mates:
Guppies are fast & have shiny fins. Due to their flashy fins & fast swimming, you can keep your guppies with other peaceful fish including cory catfish & neon tetras. But avoid adding any aggressive or semi aggressive fish to guppy tank because they can nip guppy fish or swallow them. We would not recommend keeping tiger barbs or bala sharks in guppy tank.
Guppy is a schooling fish & it likes the company of other peaceful fish. If you want to mix up guppies with their own kind, then ensure you add 1 male for every 2 females.
