# Fancy Guppy breeding



## Redshrimp2709 (Mar 21, 2016)

So I had a trio of blue Japanese lyretail guppies (2 females one male) that I decided to put into my 24 gallon cube with pea puffers. FYI, it wasn’t that bad an idea - similar water parameter prefs, similar food prefs, and they still get along. 

Now the guppies have spawned three times over in just 5 months. Still... that’s not the problem. The problem is... all my fry appear to be females, including the first generation of fry that are now in their adolescence. I know all livebearers will have fry without developed sexual dimorphism and appear “female” until they mature. Well, the first generation is pretty close, and out of the 20+ fish, none of them appear to be males at all... 

I chatted with someone over at April’s Aquarium who suggested water temperature might have something to do with it. I’ve only started the online research and only found one article on Google, and it was still not entirely clear. Anyone have any experience or insight with this?

Cheers

Drew.


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## Knowyourtank (Jun 14, 2019)

If it’s temp related it wouldn’t hurt to bump it or down a couple degrees and see what happens on the next batch


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## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

I used to have the same problem with guppies, platies, and mollies. I was never able to figure it out. If you spoke to Mike (at April’s), he would know. Let me know if you figure it out, Drew.

Best regards,

Stuart


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## barvinok (Nov 20, 2011)

I have opposite problem - more males then females. My tank temperature usually 20-22C, low pH.


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## Redshrimp2709 (Mar 21, 2016)

So I talked to the guys at April’s Aquarium. There are also remote rumours about how temperature may affect the sex of the fish. There is an article that you can google of a study done a very long time ago that concluded for its purposes, that this did not appear to be the case.

It is now 2.5 months in, and two of my adolescent fry have now developed male genitalia and colour quite rapidly. I guess it takes time when you are not heating your water over 26C, and pumping who knows what else into the water as some fish farms might in order to meet demands. I think I’ll be selling most of the fry.


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## hth313 (Sep 30, 2019)

Redshrimp2709 said:


> So I talked to the guys at April's Aquarium. There are also remote rumours about how temperature may affect the sex of the fish. There is an article that you can google of a study done a very long time ago that concluded for its purposes, that this did not appear to be the case.
> 
> It is now 2.5 months in, and two of my adolescent fry have now developed male genitalia and colour quite rapidly. I guess it takes time when you are not heating your water over 26C, and pumping who knows what else into the water as some fish farms might in order to meet demands. I think I'll be selling most of the fry.


I have limited experience but I went through something similar. It appears they are all females for long, then suddenly it happens. I get about 50-50 in the end. It takes several month as they grow and develop slow (3-4 months at least). I suppose those that get it to happen faster have more favourable conditions than I have.

I do not heat the water, except for what the light might do. It is typical indoor room temperature plus perhaps a degree or two.


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## kivyee (Oct 15, 2016)

Hey Drew, I'm surprised the dwarf puffers didn't help themselves to some of the fry! Did they leave the fry alone?


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## Redshrimp2709 (Mar 21, 2016)

Surprisingly, they didn’t really care for them, or couldn’t catch them. Fry, especially without any developed, long fins, are quite skilled at evading predators LOL. 

Now my puffers just want to rest and hide at the back because of all the guppy commotion. Fortunately, I’ve been able to alleviate that by selling off most of my fry that have matured into adults.


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## Redshrimp2709 (Mar 21, 2016)

Anyone else keep Japan Blue Lyretail guppies? Would love to expand my gene pool just a bit.


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## theguppyfarm (Jan 20, 2021)

I breed all kinds of strains of guppies and I have had all sorts of moments where I have more males then females and sometimes more females but there isnt any specific science to it. I belive it might have todo with the environment they live in. Try a higher temp of 25-26 and feed lots of live food like baby brine shrimp and high quality food like NRD for Guppies (i sell it). However im going to say it might be a genetic issue since some strains dont perform and other perform evenly, so culling is important!


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