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, due to which gupeshki live and live without much human involvement, constantly producing offspring of various shapes and colors.
Of course, there are thoroughbred highly decorative representatives of the family, which are not only difficult to breed, but harder to maintain than many traditionally fastidious aquarium inhabitants, but in ordinary “mongrels” without a clan and tribe - mixed guppies - breeding often occurs by itself. Despite this, the process is curious, especially for a naturalist who is interested in what and how it works in nature.
Keeping fish
Guppies survive in the most intolerable conditions, but is it worth it to arrange such hard labor? Healthy, beautiful creatures are found only with a loving and caring owner who provides them with a sufficient volume (at least 2 liters per male and 4 per female), optimal temperature (24-26 degrees), full feeding (with combined dry food from Tetra firms) and “Sulfur” and live food), a cyclical change of day and night (light no more than 12 hours a day), filtering and aeration of water.
If no one else lives apart from guppies in the aquarium, you can add salt at the rate of 5 grams per 10 liters, diluting the right amount in a glass, and then adding a thin stream to the aquarium. This will help to avoid some infectious diseases and will contribute to the speedy restoration of damaged tails in males. Pecilia and swordsmen will also react positively to such an increase in salinity, but catfish may not tolerate it. Some fastidious freshwater plants also do not respond well to salt, take a look at the reference literature about the attitude of your underwater flora to it.
Guppy breeding
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 develop 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 kept by the female guppy, reproduction continues even without the presence of the “father”.
A pregnant female is placed in a spawning ground - a vessel with abundant vegetation pinned to the bottom by pebbles or other cargo. Instead of grass, you can use a mosquito net, but without any impregnation. Spawning lasts from several hours to a day, the fry fall to the bottom, then begin to swim on the top, avoiding meeting with the parent who is ready to eat them. After the end of the process, the female is returned to the place, and the young begin to be fed live daphnia or dry food for fry.
Guppy business: breeding and sale
Theoretically, this is a very profitable business: to sell young hand-grown young animals. There are almost no initial investments, but one female produces from 15 to 50 fry per month, which in 60-70 days reach puberty and a suitable color.
Having bought 10 females for 25 rubles in 3 months, you can sell 200-300, earning 6-7.5 thousand rubles. To maintain the farm you will need a place, a lot of aquariums (at least one for each female), food, preferably live or high-quality dry, which is quite expensive. Of course, you can feed cheap, but young animals will grow slowly on them, sexual function in adults will decrease. In addition, it is necessary to work out a sales system - a specific product. Beautiful gupeshkes will always be taken by pet stores, but hardly at the same price for which they can be sold on the market. But immediately, and a lot, and the bazaar is unpredictable, you can sell everyone, but you can also anyone.
Still, as in any farm, there is a likelihood of pestilence from infections or other causes. If you consider all the possible nuances, then this type of business is quite capable of generating income, although it is unlikely to become its main source for an amateur. A huge plus of breeding fish can be considered a very small amount of time that a person spends on it, especially if the process is as automated as possible.