How to Keep Fancy Guppies

1. When starting out, only acquire one or two trios of the same line. To maintain a single strain and keeping it pure, you will need about 8 to 10 tanks. It is better to use smaller 5 gal tanks for breeders and fry. Guppies can live in a wide range of water conditions. The ideal water chemistry is a pH of 7.2 and moderate hardness but they will adapt to water that is between 6.4 to 8.6 if acclimated properly. The first thing to do is place your newly acquired breeding stock into a clean (do not use soap) container that is large enough to hold each trio, plus large enough so you can add an equal amount of water from their new tank. DO NOT FLOAT UNOPENED BAGS. After placing your trio into this container, let them settle down for a short time.

After a short time (app. 15 minutes) start adding about 3 - 4 ounces of water slowly into the container. Do this slowly over a period of about one hour, until you have almost doubled the volume of water. Do not rush this important acclimation process. Make sure the fish cannot jump out of container. When you are done and they fish have settled down, carefully pour them into their new tank. DO NOT FEED THEM. Observe them and be patient. After about an hour you may feed them ever so slightly, a little baby brine shrimp or a pinch of dry food is plenty. Do not feed again until the following day. In about a month you should start having fry. Be prepared to have tank space available to raise each drop of babies. After 3 - 4 weeks you must begin to separate virgin females from among the fry for your future breeders.

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