How fast do guppies reproduce

Guppies are livebearers, which means that their babies are born live, not from eggs like many other types of fish, including goldfish. Guppies breed rather freely, so you can quickly go from a single pair or a trio to dozens of pet guppies if you choose to keep males and females together. Find out more about how guppies mate. The breeding process is fairly straightforward and lightening quick. When conditions are right, a male guppy will try to approach a female with the goal of inseminating her.

The female rarely remains still for this activity, and she typically darts away and a chase ensues. When the male gets close enough, he extends his gonopodium towards the female's anal vent.

The gonopodium is actually the male's anal fin. It is shaped like a rod and slightly pointed, and it's located just behind his ventral fins. The gonopodium contains a tube that actually delivers packets of sperm to the female. Guppy mating takes less than a second, and it looks just like he is stinging her at her vent where her gravid spot is located.

This is the dark spot just behind the female's abdomen. Although the breeding is extremely quick, numerous breedings will take place to ensure the female has been fertilized. The gestation period for a guppy varies a bit, and how long she remains pregnant depends a lot on her environment.

The average length of the pregnancy is between 22 and 28 days. However, a female can remain pregnant even longer if her water is too cold because it slows development of the babies, also known as fry.

She may also delay delivery if there are too many fish in her tank harassing her. A guppy can start to reproduce at only 2 to 3 months of age. Guppy physiology and behavior also contribute to their rapid rate of reproduction. Males constantly try to mate with females.

On top of this, a single mating can produce multiple batches of offspring -- a characteristic called super-foetation. This combination of frequent mating and super-foetation means female guppies are more or less constantly pregnant as soon as they reach maturity. Once a female guppy is 2 or 3 months old, she tends to start giving birth. A female guppy under optimal conditions can give birth every 30 days -- and each batch of fry can range from 20 to 50 baby guppies.

This combination of maturing rapidly, birthing live young and almost constant reproduction means guppies reproduce very rapidly. However, we have vetted every program in this guide and believe they are the best for generating affiliate revenue. You can read our full affiliate disclosure in our privacy notice.

Guppies are a staple in tropical aquariums notably kept by beginner and experienced hobbyists alike. Also called million fish, the guppies popularity is courtesy of their widespread outside their natural range in Northeast South America. There is also the feeling that guppies are a hardy fish, which will flourish even when neglected. As such, this fame has also caught up with breeders who develop and market guppies as easy to keep fish for first-time aquarium owners.

Plus , together with bettas, tetras , and danios , guppies are also sold as ideal fish pets for kids. Guppies are livebearers that breed rather freely, meaning you can quite easily and quickly go from a pair to dozens of pet guppies. The females can give birth to around 30 or even 40 fry every month.

However, because of the ease of and prolific breeding, the fish have been victims of overbreeding and inbreeding which results in a myriad of health issues. For that reason, I made this article to help you understand how to breed a healthy and colorful stock without much hassle and gamble. Guppies are livebearers, and a female can give birth to a considerably large number of babies, which is quite easy and fast to achieve. However, most breeders lose many of their fry to adult guppies, which are notorious for feeding on their youngs.

Hence separating an adult from the young is the fastest and easiest way to ensure you get the most out of your breeding guppies. To keep them from each other, consider breeding them in a breeder box. A breeding box, also called a breeder box or a breeding net is essentially a small container that sits in a fish tank, and isolates a pregnant female guppy from the rest of your community.

Usually, the female is put in the box when she is close to giving birth. This way, they will remain safe until the breeder can extract the adult guppy. Another easy and quick way to ensure success, in case you do not want to use a breeding box, is to breed your guppy fish in an aquarium with loads of hiding spots.

You can either use live or fake plants like guppy grass to create safe spaces. I also recommend having two or three females for each male guppy you have instead of a single pair. This way, while one of the females is pregnant, the male will breed with the other female. This will then give the pregnant guppy an easy time in the tank without the male chasing her trying to mate again.

A sponge filter will develop healthy bacteria fast and easy, and small food pieces will stick on the sponge, and your fry can feed on it. Typically, the gestation period of a guppy is anywhere from 21 to 36 days, with the average being 28 days. Moreover, female guppies can become pregnant again immediately after giving birth, which then means you can have a group of newborns every month, and more when you breed more than a single female.

Once you put your male and female guppy in a breeding tank, you can expect the female to get pregnant a day after, but may take up to three 3 days with a male that has not bred before. Most female guppies first produce young ones at between 10 to 20 weeks of age, while males can mate and breed at seven 7 weeks.

After the first breeding, your guppies can reproduce after every 30 days and continue reproducing up to around 20 months of age, which closely coincide with guppies average lifespan. A guppies age also correlates with its body size with males typically growing to between 0. Generally, the fishes attain this size at around 6 months, at which point, they are already fully developed adult and can breed. The mating process in guppy fish is pretty straightforward, though it happens quite fast several times a day.

While mating, the male guppy extends his reproductive organ called the gonopodium towards the female anal vent the female reproductive organ. For the male to mate, three modified fins swing forward together and make a temporary tube through which sperm are transferred.