Almost every single customer I have ever seen or aquarium I have ever cleaned will have at one time or another had Guppies in it.
And why wouldn't they? For instant colour and constant movement... ticks all the boxes.
They are often the first fish to go into a new aquarium, they are relatively inexpensive, breed easily and are available in a huge amount of colour combinations and tail shapes.
Tick.. tick... tick!
The Guppy (Poecilia reticulata) is without doubt one of the most popular aquarium fish in the world and probably one of the most widely distributed. They originate from south America, but are now found in almost every continent on the planet through their adaptability either by accidentally releasing fry into natural water courses or used as natural mosquito control.
They prefer slightly harder water and a temperature range of between 22-26 degrees Celsius and are often found in pools and ponds as apposed to fast flowing streams and rivers.
Male Guppy have a silvery body ending in the most elaborate tail you will ever see in the fishey kingdom. Some of the tails are so large and fancy they almost seem to large for the fish. They commonly reach a maximum size of 1.5" with females a little larger at 2". Through selective breeding, there are now hundreds of colour variants and shapes. Snakeskin, Blue Neon, Yellow Laser, Tuxedo, Pink Flamingo, Delta tail, half moon, sword tail... I don't think I could name them all. Female have less fancy tails but again through selective breeding, more and more variants are becoming available.
Aquarium sizes can be on the smaller side, 30 litres upwards. Provide plenty of planting, especially if you are going to be looking at mixing males and females... but we will come to that in a minute. A decent internal filter is more than adequate for these fish, it also allows you to adjust the water flow as these fish don't do well in strong current due to those amazing tails.
Tank mates do need to be chosen carefully. Due to that long tail, many fish such as barbs, some Danios and certainly Cichlids find them an easy target for a good nibble. I have always seen the greatest success from aquariums keeping them with other live bearers.
One of the biggest appeals of Guppies is there easy of breeding. Often called "The Million Fish" due to the amount of offspring a female can produce, a single female can give birth to 20 plus tiny but fully formed versions of their parents. I always recommend out numbering males at least 3 to 1 as males will pester the females constantly. I have seen many cases of groups of males chasing a female to death.
Provide plenty of hiding places and plants to give the females a rest and places for the fry to hide as other fish will predate the young as soon as they are visible. Floating plants also provide good nurseries for young fish, Java Moss, Guppy Grass, Duckweed are all common choices.
There are various breeding traps and nets to allow you to separate the young and grow them on to a size unlikely to be eaten, and a wide selection of fry food to keep them in optimum health and get them growing quicker!
Adult fish benefit from a varied diet of dried food and frozen foods such as Bloodworm and Daphnia to keep them in optimum condition.
Being a live bearing fish, they do have a shorter lifespan than other families, commonly a year to 18 months seems to be a good average but there have been people saying they have had them for 4 years!
Guppies are an amazing group of fish to keep, and there is nothing more exciting in fish keeping than seeing your fish reproduce.... these are a great place to start and with minimal effort.
