How to Breed Guppies at Home

Guppies breed readily when provided with the right conditions. They are a good choice for people new to tropical fish care and breeding, as your chance of breeding success is high. Guppies regularly breed in community tanks with no human intervention, although other fish often eat the baby fry. To breed guppies and ensure most of the fry survive, you need two tanks or one tank with a floating breeder box. Only keep guppies in the breeding tank.

Things You'll Need

  • 20-gallon or larger tank with light, heater and filter
  • 10-gallon tank with light, heater and filter, or breeder box
  • Gravel
  • Aquatic plants
  • Flake food
  • Live food
  • Buckets
  • Gravel cleaner
  • Small plastic container
  • Net
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Instructions

    • 1

      Set up a tropical fish tank with gravel and aquatic plants. Allow the tank to settle for at least a week. Include floating as well as submerged plants.

    • 2

      Introduce at least one male and one female guppy, but preferably a larger, mixed group of males and females.

    • 3

      Feed the guppies two or three times a day on a mixture of high quality flake food and live food, such as daphnia. The live food improves their condition for breeding.

    • 4

      Conduct partial water changes once a week. Remove about a quarter of the water with the gravel cleaner and bucket, and replace with fresh, dechlorinated water. Dechlorinate water by leaving it in a bucket for 24 hours. When removing water, focus on removing debris along with the water.

    • 5

      Transfer gravid, or pregnant, females to the breeder box or to the second tank. A dark mark below the tail, coupled with increasing girth, shows a female is pregnant.

    • 6

      Transfer the females back to the main tank once they have given birth.

    • 7

      Feed the fry on very finely crumbled flake food.

    • 8

      Release the fry from the breeder box after about six weeks, when they should be big enough to survive in the main tank.