Breeding fish entails many opportunities and difficulties, and guppy breeding is not exceptional.
These fish reproduce quickly. Most of the time, males attempt to pair with females while pregnancy occupies a considerable part of females’ life.
Guppy males typically chase and rub their bodies against a female to fertilize her in breeding behavior.
If you want to learn more about Guppy mating behavior, let’s scroll down this article to get into details!
Contents
Guppy Mating Behavior
Knowing this species’ mating behavior can increase the fry’s survival rate and guarantee the health of females.
If you plan to keep some Guppies, it’s best to learn about this aspect first.
What Does It Look Like?
You may find it interesting that Guppies do not deposit eggs like other fish. These creatures belong to the live-bearing species.
It means the mother Guppies will keep them inside their bodies until the fertilized eggs have grown into living, free-swimming young Guppies.
This species is a highly active breeder. Males spend all of their time either eating or attempting to mate!
The male guppies release their sperm into the female one to fertilize the eggs during the physical act of mating.
The males accomplish this utilizing a gonopodium, a modified anal fin.
The male fish must be next to and considerably beneath the female one to accomplish this behavior.
The female one will only accept this act to occur if she’s receptive to the male’s advances.
Mating behavior
How Can A Male Attract A Female Guppy?
The Guppy males seem to be show-offs! They have long, wavy, vibrant tails for one purpose: to dazzle the female guppies.
A male fish may dance for a female to persuade her to pair with him.
He will swerve and twist in her direction as he swims around her. He’ll shimmy toward her while waving his tail.
Many beginners of guppy breeding get confused between the behavior of mating and aggressiveness.
Guppies typically do not exhibit aggression during breeding, although the males are highly persistent.
What Happens If The Female Isn’t Receptive?
Female guppies may reject the approaches of the male fish.
That’s because she may well already be pregnant. Besides, they might think the man competing for her attraction is not attractive enough.
The male fish frequently tries stealth fertilization if she is not receptive.
He swims up to the female one and slips his sperm over before she may swim away. Males that are smaller frequently try this fertilization method.
Try giving the female fish a better diet if she won’t respond to the guys’ approaches. She’ll probably become more eager to breed as a result.
How Long Do Female Guppy Pregnancies Last?
The female guppies may be pregnant for 28 to 35 days after they are successfully fertilized, depending on the temperature of the water in the tank.
She will keep developing healthy eggs in her body. The newborns will be delivered as entirely autonomous, free-swimming fry when ready.
Guppies don’t have any parenting responsibilities for their babies.
Pregnant period
Care Guides For Guppy Fry
The guppy fry doesn’t indeed require much special care. Nevertheless, it would be best to keep the following things in mind.
Guppies do not have any colors and are approximately 0.25 inches long when they are born.
These newborns’ mouths are so small that they can’t take just any foodstuff. You need to give them powdered food.
You must perform routine water changes if you prefer to keep healthy guppies to maintain healthy development.
A weekly 30 percent water change is mandatory to remove the accumulated waste generated by the guppy babies.
Keeping the fry in a mating container for more than 2 weeks is not a great idea since it may dramatically slow down their growth rate.
You may need to transfer the fry into a giant aquarium or place them in a different tank once they reach a good size.
Tips For Breeding Guppies In Aquarium
If you want to breed Guppies in an aquarium, the following guides may be helpful for you. Let’s check them out!
- Set up a breeding tank
Tank size: 10 – 20 gallons of water
Filter: sponge
Substrate: fine sand, gravel, bare bottom, tile substrate
Decorations: ava moss, guppy grass, subwassertang
- Consider water parameters
Hardness: 15 – 30 gH
Temperature: 78 – 82℉
pH level: 7 – 8
- Start breeding
Pick the breeders. It is ideal to breed one male guppy for a ten-gallon tank and two or three female ones.
You must know how to distinguish between males and females to get the exact breeding ratio.
Compared to females, males have greater and brighter pigmentation and intense body coloration on their fins.
Females often lack any coloring on their bodies and have weaker colors on their fins. They also have anal fins that are triangular in appearance.
The mating behavior will happen and the female Guppies will release babies.
FAQs
How Do You Tell If Your Guppies Are Mating?
Male fish will sag their spines and start to flare, dance, and jiggle when they encounter female ones.
How Long Does It Take For Guppies To Mate?
The mating process occurs in less than one second. It looks like the male stings the gravid spot of the female.
How Fast Can A Guppy Get Pregnant?
In ideal circumstances, a female fish may give birth once every 30 days.
How Often Do Guppies Mate?
Guppies can have many mating bouts every day. However, this process is relatively stressful for both.
Therefore, it’s best to provide a suitable ratio in a breeding tank.
Why Are My Guppies Chasing Each Other?
These creatures may chase each other for many reasons. Among the causes, mating and aggressiveness are primary.
For this reason, it’s better to distinguish the differences between the two behaviors to have proper solutions.
In A Nutshell
Learning about Guppy mating behavior is essential for all novice aquarists as it guarantees the female’s health and the survival of the babies.
However, you should know how to detect the signs of this behavior to take suitable actions to get healthy Guppy fry.
Please comment below to let us know if you have any further questions. We’ll answer all of them. Thanks for reading, and see you in the next post!
Alex is a pet freelance writer and editor with more than 10 years of experience. He attended Colorado State University, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Biology, which was where he first got some experience in animal nutrition. After graduating from University, Alex began sharing his knowledge as a freelance writer specializing in pets.
