Guppies: reproduction, maintenance, feeding and care

As their first aquarium fish, amateurs often choose bright multi-colored guppies. Reproduction of this species is not difficult, it can be kept in a wide range of conditions, thanks to which the craps live and live without the special participation of a person, constantly producing offspring of the most diverse forms and colors.

Of course, there are thoroughbred high-resolution members of the family who are not only able to breed but also contain more difficult than many traditionally capricious aquarium inhabitants, but ordinary "mongrels" without a clan and tribe-mixed guppies-often reproduce themselves. Despite this, the process is curious, especially for the naturalist, who is interested in what and how in nature is arranged.

Contents of fishes

Guppies survive in the most intolerable conditions, but is it worth it to arrange such a hard labor? Healthy, beautiful creatures are found only in a loving and caring owner who provides them with a sufficient volume (at least 2 liters per male and 4 for a female), an optimal temperature (24-26 degrees), full-fledged feeding (combined dry feeds of the firms "Tetra" And "Sulfur" and live food), a cyclic change of day and night (light not more than 12 hours a day), filtration and aeration of water.

If, in addition to the guppies in the aquarium, no one else lives, you can add salt to the water at a rate of 5 grams per 10 liters, diluting the right amount in a glass, and then adding a thin trickle into the aquarium. This will help to avoid some infectious diseases and will promote the prompt restoration of damaged tails in males. Pecilia and swordfish to such an increase in salinity will also react positively, but catfishes may not survive. Some whimsical freshwater plants also react poorly to salt, ask in the reference literature about the attitude of your underwater flora to it.

Reproduction of guppies

In viviparous fish, including guppies, reproduction takes place in the following way: the male fertilizes the eggs inside the body of the female, the fry develops in the same place, after which, when spawning, fully formed individuals appear, only small ones. The male can participate in the process once for the entire life of the producer: the seed is stored in the female guppy, the reproduction continues even without the presence of the "father".

Pregnant female is placed in spawning grounds - a vessel with abundant vegetation, crushed to the bottom by stones or other cargo. Instead of grass, you can use a mosquito net, only without any impregnation. Spawning lasts from a few hours to a day, the fry falls to the bottom, then they begin to swim on the top, avoiding a meeting with the parent, ready to eat them. After the end of the process, the female is returned to the place, and the young begin to feed live daphnia or dry fodder for fry.

Business on guppies: breeding and sale

Theoretically, this is a very profitable business: selling own-grown young. Initial investments are almost none, but one female produces 15 to 50 fingerlings per month, which in 60-70 days reach sexual maturity and proper coloring.

Having bought 10 females at 25 rubles in 3 months, you can sell 200-300, earning 6-7.5 thousand rubles. To keep the farm will need a place, a lot of aquariums (at least one for each female), feed, preferably live or quality dry, which is quite expensive. Of course, you can feed and cheap, but the young on them will grow slowly, the sexual function in adults will decrease. In addition, it is necessary to work out and the implementation system - a specific product. Beautiful craps will always be taken by pet stores, but hardly at the same price for which they can be sold on the market. But at once and a lot, and the bazaar - an unpredictable business, you can sell all, but you can and no one.

Still, as in any farm, there is a possibility of moraine from infections or other causes. If you provide for all possible nuances, then this kind of business is quite capable of generating revenue, although it is unlikely to become its main source for an amateur. A huge advantage of breeding fish can be considered a very small amount of time, which is spent on it by a person, especially if the process is maximally automated.