Guppy Fish FAQ: Care Breeding and Compatibility
Guppies are the gateway fish for half of Singapore’s aquarists, and the questions they raise — why are babies appearing daily, why are males chasing females to exhaustion, why is the colour fading — recur in our shop weekly. The guppy fish faq below answers each in turn. This guppy fish faq reflects the most common counter conversations at Gensou Aquascaping in 5 Everton Park. Read each as a standalone snippet; this guide answers the eleven questions Singapore aquarists ask most about guppies.
What Tank Size Do Guppies Need?
A trio of guppies — one male, two females — fits comfortably in a 30-litre tank. Stocking density follows the standard one-cm-of-fish-per-litre guideline, but guppy reproduction means today’s three becomes thirty within four months. Plan tank size around the population you will have in six months, not the population you bought. Sixty litres is a more realistic working size for breeding setups.
How Often Do Guppies Breed?
Females drop fry every 28-30 days once mature, with broods of 20-40 fry per cycle. They store sperm and can produce three to five broods from a single mating. This is why a male-and-female purchase from the same shop tank is effectively a population explosion in slow motion. Single-sex tanks are the only true population control.
What Is the Best Male-to-Female Ratio?
One male per two or three females reduces female harassment. A single pair stresses the female to exhaustion as the male chases continuously. Heavy plant cover, particularly floating plants, gives females escape from male attention. All-male tanks work well in show setups since males carry the colour and fancy finnage.
What Water Hardness Do Guppies Want?
Guppies prefer harder water than most Singapore tanks provide naturally. Aim GH 8-12 and KH 4-8. PUB tap water at GH 2-4 is too soft for long-term guppy health, leading to fin rot and reduced lifespan. Add crushed coral in the filter or remineralise with Salty Shrimp GH/KH+ from the water care range.
Why Are My Guppies Dying One by One?
The most common cause in Singapore tanks is soft water leading to chronic fin rot, followed by guppy disease (a bacterial-protozoan complex), columnaris, and inbreeding-related immune weakness in mass-market shop stock. Test water first, harden if needed, and quarantine all new fish for three weeks. Wild-strain guppies live two to three years; show strains often less than eighteen months.
What Tank Mates Work With Guppies?
Avoid fin-nippers like tiger barbs and serpae tetras — guppy tails are irresistible targets. Safe community partners include corydoras, otocinclus, neon tetras, harlequin rasboras and Amano shrimp. Avoid bettas, larger gouramis and angelfish, all of which view guppies as prey or competitors. Females tolerate broader tank mate selection than males.
Will Adult Guppies Eat Their Fry?
Yes — guppies are not protective parents. Adults eat any fry small enough to fit in their mouths. Fry survival in a planted community tank is around twenty per cent without intervention. For higher yield, move pregnant females to a breeder net or birthing tank, return mum after drop, and grow fry in a separate 20-litre with sponge filter and crushed flake.
How Do I Tell Pregnant Guppy Females?
Look for a darkening gravid spot near the anal vent and an increasingly squared-off belly profile in the last few days before drop. Some females become reclusive 24-48 hours before giving birth — this is the cue to move them to a separate birthing space. The whole process takes 2-6 hours.
What Should I Feed Guppies?
High-quality flake or micro-pellet two to three times daily, with frozen brine shrimp and daphnia weekly as enrichment. Fry need crushed flake or specialised fry food until they reach 1.5cm. Skip overfeeding — uneaten food drives ammonia spikes that wipe whole guppy tanks within days. The fish food range stocks guppy-specific lines.
Are Endlers Different From Guppies?
Endler’s livebearers (Poecilia wingei) are a closely related species, smaller and brighter than fancy guppies. They interbreed readily with regular guppies, which is why pure endler lines are increasingly rare. For colour purists, source clean endler stock from dedicated breeders rather than shop tanks where crossbreeding has occurred.
How Do I Stop the Guppy Population Explosion?
Three options: keep all-male tanks, add larger tank mates that eat fry such as angelfish or larger tetras, or accept the population growth and rehome surplus through Carousell or local shop trade-in. Singapore aquarists routinely list excess guppy fry at $1-2 each on Carousell.
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Still Have Questions About Your Tank?
Drop by Gensou Aquascaping — most walk-in questions get answered in under 10 minutes by someone who has set up hundreds of tanks.
5 Everton Park #01-34B, Singapore 080005 · Open daily 11am – 8pm
