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Flow rate for Guppies

9K views 5 replies 3 participants last post by  hamdogg08 
#1 ·
I am going to get into breeding fish, and will start with guppies. My LFS said that they move them quick, and offer 1/3 retail price in store credit for fish that we bring in. This is a great way to pay for my new reef tank that I'm setting up. The plan is to get a 150 gallon system. 1 20 gallon as a general guppy population holder, then 13 ten gallon tanks for the mamas to give birth and raise fry, or recover in after birthing the guppies. I might switch out two tens for another 20 for the "studs" later down the line. For filtration, I will be drilling all the tanks, and hooking them up to a central system with a fluidized bed filter, and a "sump" (this is just a water reservoir to account for evaporation, hold the heater, and hold a submersible pump) For filtration I will be using a Fluidized bed filter, and an inline mechanical filter. I will be plumbing the FB filter parallel to a regular output line from the mechanical filter to the tank, allowing for a higher water flow than the FB filter would normally allow. The inputs on all the tanks will have a valve to control water flow on the small fry tanks. The question is: How big of a pump should I get? I don't want to waste money on pumping power that I'll never use, but I don't want the system to be a stagnant "swamp" either. If anything isn't clear enough, I'd be happy to clarify.
Thanks
-Dan
 
#2 ·
Sounds like alot of work for such a tiny fish. I have a fairly large breeding operation in my basement and did not go to the extreme that you seem to be going. Many of my tanks have have nothing more than a sponge filter. Some have gravel, some may have elodea or java moss, but nothing as extravagant as you. The question I must as is, why are you going to all of this extreme and expense?
You will need to make sure that your guppy tanks are species specific, ie. snakeskins males with snakeskin females, half-black males with half-black females, and so on.
My suggestion on tank size would be 20g longs for all. By using tank dividers, you can segrate what needs segregated. 10g would be good rearing tanks.
 
#3 ·
herefishy said:
Sounds like alot of work for such a tiny fish. I have a fairly large breeding operation in my basement and did not go to the extreme that you seem to be going. Many of my tanks have have nothing more than a sponge filter. Some have gravel, some may have elodea or java moss, but nothing as extravagant as you. The question I must as is, why are you going to all of this extreme and expense?
You will need to make sure that your guppy tanks are species specific, ie. snakeskins males with snakeskin females, half-black males with half-black females, and so on.
My suggestion on tank size would be 20g longs for all. By using tank dividers, you can segrate what needs segregated. 10g would be good rearing tanks.
I know that it's a big job initially, however, with 13 tanks pumping out babies at once, I'll be able to move quite a few guppies. This will also allow me to have the exact same water conditions for each tank since they are all hooked up with each other. That way, I won't have to acclimate pregnant guppies. The third reason is that I just think that it would be a great project to do. After selling about 800 guppies at 50 cents each, I'd have covered my costs of filtration, tanks, and livestock. After that, I'd like to use the money to make another setup for a more expensive fish such as discus.
I've been doing some reading since posting this thread, and noticed that it is important to keep track of which fish is which for a more pure offspring. I'm thinking that maybe I'll keep a 10 gallon stud tank, and a 20 gallon female tank. I'd keep the ratio of makes to females 1:3, and place all four of them in their own ten gallon to breed. After about two weeks, I'd switch one species out for another, and put the male back, and the females into a holding tank for 2-3 weeks until they start to show. From the holding tank, I'd put them with a) the other females or b) into a birthing tank.
 
#4 ·
herefishy said:
I have a fairly large breeding operation in my basement and did not go to the extreme that you seem to be going. Many of my tanks have have nothing more than a sponge filter. Some have gravel, some may have elodea or java moss, but nothing as extravagant as you.
What do you breed? Also, could you think of any fish that the LFS's would be after?
 
#5 ·
hamdogg08 said:
What do you breed?
You shouldn't have asked that question!:blink: He is likely to throw a list of a lot of fish here.:lol:

Good luck with breeding, Dan.:D That's something you want to enjoy in this hobby.;)
 
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