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Prevention And Introduction

© Shannon Beelm

First of all, I must mention that I breed to sell, not for show. That means that my breeding methods are very different from the methods instructed in books. I essentially started learning from those books, and from my mother who is a former breeder. However, I began to create my own method when I was constantly losing fish, and never raising any to adulthood.

Part of the reason I had such a hard time with my fry, is because I usually lost the mother just before her delivery was due. Another reason is because I was purchasing breeders from pet stores, and the fish were very stressed.

The first step to ensuring that your fish will make it through the night, is to devise a plan in which the stress is kept to a minimal. Question workers at the stores, and find out when their fish shipments are delivered. Never purchase fish on the same day they are delivered, this enhances your chance of fish loss. Always wait two to three days before selecting your breeders from a pet store.

Another way to prevent the stress of your fish is to keep the water temperature in the bag from dropping drastically in the transport home, and to keep the fish in darkness where oxygen isn't used as quickly. Some grocery stores have special brown paper bags in the frozen section to keep food frozen for a half hour. This is the best way to go if you don't have a foam 'box' as I do. Using a cooler is a good idea if you can't obtain the above.

The most important thing is to select the healthiest looking fish. Don't mistake a darty, over-excited fish as being active, and look for bright colors on the body. Not only is color a indicator of ill health, you also want to most colorful specimen to pass it's color genes* to the offspring.

Breeding Fancy Tail Guppies to each other didn't work for me, so I considered breeding Fancy males to 'Wild' (Feeder) Guppies. This worked very well! However, it takes a few months to weed out sickness in the Wild Guppy as they are very diseased.

To perform this method, you need a ten gallon tank, set up seven to five days before you plan to purchase. Wild Guppies will spread every disease imaginable (in fish) to a community tank, if you value your community fish be sure to keep Wild Guppies out until you are sure they are disease free. I suggest waiting until the second generation before adding to a community, or to cross with a Fancy. The purchase of one to two dozen Wild Guppies will ensure that you will have at least ten remaining by the time you finish weeding them out, or they start dying. Adding medicines to the water will ensure a higher survival rate as well.

The copyright of the article Prevention And Introduction in Breeding Tropical Fish is owned by Douglas DuHamel. Permission to republish Prevention And Introduction in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.