If you recently added guppies to your fish tank without doing a little research, you probably found out the hard way that they multiply. . . a lot. So now that your once peaceful aquarium is being overrun by a horde of guppies, you need to know how to slow down guppy breeding.
Since guppies breed so easily, the best way to slow down or stop guppy breeding is to keep the male and female guppies in separate tanks. If you only have one tank, then you should keep only male guppies.
Just because guppies are such fast breeders shouldn’t scare you away from keeping this amazing little fish. Remember, keeping an aquarium is all about balance. Keep reading to find out how to keep your guppies while keeping the rest of your aquarium healthy.
The Problems with Too Many Guppies
You’ve probably heard the proverb ‘the more the merrier’. When it comes to guppies, not true. Many fish breeds, including guppies, can easily produce several offspring as very few of them survive to adulthood.
If you have a smaller tank, then it will be easily over-populated. A crowded tank can easily host disease that can kill each fish you have in the aquarium. Algae growth may also increase due to the increased organic material in the water from the fish. You will eventually lose the chemical balance of your aquarium.
If you allow your guppies to breed unchecked, your aquarium will become overpopulated and a mess.
Guppy Fish Breeding
Guppy fish, as you might already know, are one of the most popular and widely distributed aquarium fishes. They are also known as million fish. This name is perfect for them as they are live breeders and have the propensity to over-breed.
Guppies can reproduce every 30 days, and there can be anywhere from 20 to 200 fry at a time. A typical guppy can do this as many as 20 times in a lifespan.
How to Stop Guppy Fish from Breeding?
The best way to stop guppy fish from breeding is to separate the males from the females in separate tanks. If you only have one aquarium, then it would be best to keep only male guppies.
It is very important to understand that as soon as you put a guppy in your aquarium, the risk of uncontrolled breeding occurs and multiplies instantly. Guppies tend to produce a lot of fry in very short time.
Let’s take a closer look at each option.
1. Keep the female and male in a separate aquarium:
This is one of the best options and the easiest way as well. You should not take any kinds of risks. You will have to ensure their limited breeding and avoid unpleasant surprises.
By keeping the female guppies and male guppies in a separate tank, you can easily avoid the fry production and prevent the overstocking as well. if you do not want to see any unnecessary fry in your aquarium, then you need to stick to this plan and avoid mixing genders.
Logically and scientifically, if the two genders do not have a chance to live together then the fry production will be impossible. But there is a chance that some of the female guppies you have purchased were already pregnant before you took them home. You cannot do anything about this matter.
Apart from this, there is a chance of misidentification of gender at the time of purchasing and separating them. If they are still young, then it is truly difficult to tell the differences between males and females since the visual traits of their sexual dimorphisms have not developed.
2. Keep the male guppies only:
It is very difficult to maintain and manage two separate tanks. So, there is a simple option for you. You can keep the male guppies only. So, you need to eliminate the other gender from the aquarium.
You should not purchase any females to begin with. You can set up a 100% male guppy tank. By following this option, you do not need to be ready for any kind of unpleasant future surprises.
But, there is the risk of misidentifying the gender. This is an unfortunate mistake. Many of the aquarists love to have the male-only aquarium, as male fishes display and show a brighter range of colors than the female guppies.
3. Keep the female guppies only:
This is another option that you can go for. But it is not at all a trending option to keep the female guppies only in one aquarium. The reason is guppy males look better.
But if you want to do this, then you need to eliminate all the male guppies from the tank and decorate the aquarium. Also, in this case, you need to pay extra attention to identify the gender of the guppies to avoid an unwanted mix-up and surprise pregnancy.
Conclusion
Now you know how to handle the problem and find the easy solution. You just need to follow the instructions as stated above. You can easily take back control of your aquarium and stop guppies from unwanted breedin
By knowing and following the tips and tricks, it is very easy to control and slow down the guppy breeding and you can also easily avoid the unwanted fry. Above all, guppies are the best choice for the aquarium. You need to remember that removing one gender from the aquarium is the best solution to stop the unwanted breeding of guppies.