Awhile back I breed guppies to feed my arawona. I didn't even remove them from my arawona tank and they still were over populating the tank which I had to give them away to friends etc. They can give birth anywhere from 12-30. If I'm wrong others will advise you better but I think I'm fairly close to the number.

 

hi
they don't really need anything special,unless you want to keep
them all.
if they are in a comunity tank,unless it's pretty heavily planted
they will probably be picked out and eaten,one way to keep
the population down,if you're lucky or like
steelerpet says you may get to the stage where you give/sell
them to the LFS or your friend/family.

 

Steelerpet underestimated a bit. Guppies can give birth to over 100 fry at one time! However, he's probably pretty accurate for the first birth, they will have progressively more fry per pregnancy as they mature.

Guppies are pretty darn easy to breed. Personally, I wouldn't do anything for the fry, except make sure there are plenty of plants to hide in, particularly floating plants (like water lettuce) and java moss (which harbors lots of microscopic foods for the fry to eat). Guppies are so good at reproducing that they can take over a tank in no time. I prefer to only let the smartest/strongest survive, as you'll inevitably be overpopulated in no time anyway.

 

do they have them all at once or is it one by one like how many minutes dose it take?

 

Well, it generally takes a few hours. Also, guppies can have several different pregnancies at one time- so they may give birth to some fry, but still be gravid with younger fry.

 

the reason i ask is that two of them only had two babys each and i though that they had more

 

as for only having 2 babies each, the rest could have been eaten with out you realizing or it could have been the guppies first time being pregnant .. if that is the case they wont have such a large drop of fry, or the female could be stressed and is holding out on dropping the fry, they are also capable of holding sperm to be pregnant all over again, and holding in the tiny fry and releasing some of the larger ones to make room for them...

 

she was in a tank to let the babys fall to the bottom so she couldnt get to them

 

also how long dose it take for them to get big as they can so the so the mom cant eat them

 

Not very long. At about two weeks of age, my guppy fry are big enough that the adults mostly ignore them. At this size, even when the adults *do* go after them, the little guys are fast enough to get away. It can take a long time for them to get to full size, though. I've got a guppy fry from my females' first drops at the end of May that's still not a full-sized guppy.

 

ok is there any sign that a guppy is about to give birth?

 

well when she looks fit to burst,she may hide away in the plants
for some peace from the husstle and bustle of the tank.

 

black gravid spot by the anal fin, it will get darker and darker as the pregnancy progresses as well as the fish being nice and plump.

 

i know about the gravid spot and its up to her butt and its dark she is in a nurser so she cant eat her babys is there anything else?

 

I think I know the kind of thing that you are talking about. Is it a square plastic thing to hang/float in the tank with a V shaped insert that the fry can fall through to avoid being eaten? If so, she may be stressed out and that is why she did not drop all her fry. Honestly, I have had guppies for years, and unless you have someone who will take the babies, or a ton of tanks, you will soon be overrun. I know it sounds mean, but just letting her be in the tank will be the least stressful for her. Yes, many of the fry will get eaten, but the strongest will survive. Even this way guppies still have a way of overrunning a tank. If you want to seriously breed them, a small breeder tank would be better than a nursery box. As for now, if you really want the babies, I would just let her get used to being in the box and try to keep stress down to a minimum. She should drop them sometime. If however she starts to look physically bad I would remove her and just let nature take its course.

 

ive tryed that for about six months already and i never have any new babys thats why i got the a tank with a v thing in side so i can get some. im not very worryed about be overrun with guppies as i have chiclids that i feed them too but they are not so cheap at 2.75 for just one thats why i bought a bunch so they could breed. the tank i bought for the guppy to have her babys in is the medium size one so its not very small also i have her surrounded by plants on three of four sides so i can see her and she can have her space with out the other fish bothering her i leave the top off so i can feed her easy with out moving the tank to much and i put her in it well before she ready to have the babys so she isnt stressed out so i dont know what else to do

 

the fact that she is confined to the small space for so long is probably leading to her hold off on the birth. she shouldn't go into the breeding trap until the very last minute. she'll be stressed the whole time she's segregated from the other fish.