How to Breed Guppies Selectively

Guppies are small, colorful fish that are easy to keep and breed. They mature quickly and give you the chance to establish your own strain of guppies. Selective breeding controls color, size and tail shape in these fish. Tails grow as fan, veil, top sword, bottom sword, lyre and spade. Colors include blue, green, red, yellow and black. Breeding for the type of guppy you want is interesting and fun.

Things You'll Need

  • Several small aquariums
  • Large aquarium for raising the males
  • Air pump and air hose
  • Filters
  • Fish net
  • Thermometer
  • Fish food
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Instructions

  1. Get Breeding Stock

    • 1

      Buy the type of guppy you want to start with. Chose the color and tail shape you want to breed. Purchase fish from more than one source to avoid starting out with inbred fish.

    • 2

      Place all the fish in one aquarium and let nature take its course.

    • 3

      Remove the gravid (pregnant) females from the community tank about a week before they are due to give birth.

    • 4

      Return the female to the community tank as soon as she has given birth. Guppies are live-bearers, so the baby fish come out whole and ready to go.

    • 5

      Feed the babies a good starter food and offer them frozen or fresh baby brine shrimp.

    • 6

      Separate the male from the female babies as soon as the gondopodium (male sexual organ) develops. Keep the females from being bred because they can store sperm and have several batches of babies from one fertilization. These virgin females are the beginning of your guppy strain.

    • 7

      Place the males back in to the community tank or into a separate larger aquarium where they can grow.

    Create Your Strain

    • 8

      Keep records of which fish you breed with each other.

    • 9

      Chose a male with the characteristics you want and put him and a virgin female in a tank of their own.

    • 10

      Cull your breeding stock. You will get many guppies that are not good enough to use in further breeding. These should be removed from your program. You may be able to sell them to a pet shop.

    • 11

      Remove the male from the tank.

    • 12

      Separate the female as soon as she has finished giving birth. The little darlings will eat their babies.

    • 13

      Raise the babies. Separate the males and females as soon as you can determine the sexes or as soon as you see any mating behavior, whichever comes first.

    • 14

      Repeat these steps until you obtain the type of guppy you want.