What are the types of guppies?

Guppies have a slender body, a flat back, and a very beautiful tail. The size and color of the male and female fish are quite different. Today we will introduce relevant knowledge about all aspects of guppies!

1. Morphological characteristics of guppy

The fish has a slender body, a flat back, and a very beautiful tail. The size and color of the male and female fish are quite different. The male fish has a thin body, 4 to 5 cm in length. The dorsal fin is long and pointed, the caudal fin is wide and long, accounting for more than half of the total length, and the caudal fin is long and larger than the height of the caudal fin. According to the shape of its tail fin, it is divided into upper tail, lower sword tail, double sword tail, fiddle tail, needle tail, round tail, flag tail, fan tail, triangle tail, scissor tail, pointed tail) and large tail. The colors of its body, dorsal fin, and tail fin are colorful, mainly including red, blue, black, yellow, green, tiger skin color, and variegated colors. Some male fish have small blue-black spots on their tails, which look like peacock's tail feathers, hence the name. The body of the female fish is thicker: the body length can reach about 7 centimeters. The body color is dull, flesh-colored, and slightly transparent. The color of the dorsal fin and tail fin is much inferior to that of the male fish.

Guppies are the most common and most common tropical fish. The most popular fish that people keep. It is small and exquisite, lively and active. The male fish is about 3 cm long, and its caudal peduncle and caudal fin account for about 2/3 of the body length; the female fish can be up to 6 cm long, and its caudal peduncle and caudal fin account for 1/2 of the body length. above. The body color of male fish is colorful, including red, orange, green, green, blue, purple and other colors. The basic colors are light red, light green, light yellow, red, purple and peacock blue. There are blue-red round spots on the tail fin and body belly, and there are light rings around them, which resemble the color of peacock tail feathers, hence its name. The dorsal fin is short and high, the tail fin is wide and long, and has various shapes such as fiddle tail, round tail, upper sword tail, lower sword tail, forked tail, square tail, torch tail, toothed tail, big tail and so on.

The body color of female fish is much inferior to that of male fish. Most of them are single silver-grey. Although there are some patterns on the tail fin, they are not as bright as the male fish. The fins of the female are shorter than those of the male, but the body length is about twice that of the male.

Guppies have very strong fecundity. After long-term cross-breeding and breeding, many varieties of colors have been produced in various forms

2. Reproduction of Guppies

Guppies It is an ovoviviparous fish. It has strong fecundity and early sexual maturity. The young fish will enter the mature stage after being raised for 3-4 months and can reproduce offspring. The sooner or later sexual maturity is closely related to the water temperature and feeding conditions.

When breeding guppies, you should choose a larger aquarium and keep the water temperature at 26 degrees Celsius. The pH is 6.8-7.4. At the same time, some aquatic plants should be planted, and then the breeding fish should be prevented according to the ratio of 1 male to 4 females. After the fish comes into estrus, the female fish's abdomen gradually expands and black fetal spots appear; the male fish chases the female fish for a long time at this time. When the male fish's copulator is inserted into the female fish's cloaca, the sperm is discharged for internal fertilization. When the female's fetal spots become large and black and her anus protrudes, she can be fished into another aquarium to wait for delivery.

After the female fish gives birth, it should be fished out immediately to avoid eating the larvae. Or you can use plastic sheets to form a funnel-shaped isolation wall, invade the water, and place the larvae female fish in the funnel, so that the larvae will fall from the hole under the funnel into the water body outside the funnel after they are born, and the female fish will not be able to eat the larvae.

Guppies give birth once a month, and depending on the size of the female, they can give birth to 10-80 larvae each time. The number of larvae produced in a year is quite large, so it is known as the "million fish". When breeding, attention should be paid to not keeping brood fish in the same nest for more than three generations, to avoid continuous inbreeding leading to breed degeneration, resulting in smaller and smaller fish bodies and shorter tail fins in the offspring. It is best to introduce fish of the same species for purposeful distant hybridization to prevent sub-breeds from degenerating and achieve the purpose of improving the species. But the life span of guppies is very short, usually only 2-3 years.

3. Habits of Guppies

Guppies have a gentle temperament and can be kept with other tropical fish. They are usually lively and active. Female fish can easily jump when frightened.

IV. Water Temperature

The acceptable water temperature for guppies is from 18℃ to 34℃. If it is lower than 18℃, some conditions are more likely to occur, such as: loss of appetite, mental weakness, It is also susceptible to diseases such as saprolegnia, so it depends on personal circumstances to decide whether to use a heater.

As for the room temperature in summer, which is often higher than 30℃, and the weather is hot, owners are usually too lazy to change the water. Therefore, the concentration of feed residues, excrement, nitrite, etc. in the water will increase rapidly, posing a threat. The point where guppies survive. Moreover, high temperature is accompanied by an excessively fast metabolic rate of guppies, resulting in a large loss of calcium in the body. Therefore, large old female fish are prone to spinal curvature. The greater the curvature, the easier it is to compress the internal organs and threaten the survival of guppies. The way to solve this problem is to lower the temperature. There are many ways to lower the temperature. The simplest method is to turn on the air conditioner at home. The disadvantage is that you have to bear more electricity bills. The other method is more economical but more laborious, which is " "Change the water often." If you can change the water every day, the temperature can be lowered to some extent, and it can also make the peacock grow quickly and the fish be healthy. It can be said that it kills several birds with one stone.

5. PH value

The most suitable PH value for guppies is between PH6.5 and PH7.5. The pH value in the water has a great impact on guppies. The pH value is in logarithmic form, so water with PH5 is ten times that of PH6 and a hundred times that of PH7. Therefore, for humans, the difference is only a small "1", but for guppies, it may be tortured to death. .

Another thing to note is that if the breeder changes the water less often, the water quality will have turned acidic due to various factors over time. At this time, if a large amount of water is suddenly changed, it will inevitably cause a considerable impact on the guppies.

6. Hardness

Guppies like hard water, with a hardness of about 10 to 15 degrees. Even so, the moderator personally believes that the hardness of water is not good for guppies. It will have a huge impact. Take two countries with a long history of raising peacocks: Germany and Japan as examples. The water in Germany is hard water, while the water quality in Japan is soft water. These two completely different conditions are Peacocks can be raised very well. It can be seen that peacocks are very adaptable and do not need owners to bother adjusting the hardness of water. This is one of the reasons why many people often say that guppies are easy to keep.

7. Nitrite concentration

The level of nitrite concentration also has a considerable impact on the survival of guppies, although peacocks are much more adaptable to nitrite concentrations than other fish species ( According to data, the nitrite concentration that guppies can tolerate is about 100 times that of discus.) However, once the nitrite concentration is too high, it is always a harm to peacocks, especially the aquarium is a completely enclosed water body, and usually We also raise fish at too high a density, so if we are not careful, the guppies may die collectively in a short period of time. As fish owners, aquarists cannot ignore the importance of this issue. There are many tests on the market. Nitrous acid concentration reagents are sold, and the approximate value can be easily measured.

To solve the problem of excessive nitrite concentration, the fastest way is to immediately replace it with fresh water without chlorine. However, if the nitrite concentration is too high for a long time, you must consider whether the filter is too effective. Poor or the fish stocking density is too high.

8. Guppy feed

1. Artificial feed

There are many types of artificial feed currently on the market, which can be roughly divided into three types. Types: 1. Flake feed; 2. Pellets feed; 3. Frozen feed. These feeds are among the easiest to obtain and feed. In addition, there are feeds specially developed for guppies, which should be the staple food of most guppy owners. The nutritional content is also quite complete.

2. Live bait

The use of live bait has always had mixed reputations, because the nutritional value of live bait is of course far better than that of artificially processed feed, but it comes with But it is a matter of safety. As owners, we must not be careful, otherwise the sequelae will make you feel that it is better to just feed the feed!

The safest live bait at present is probably brine shrimp (nano larvae)! The preparation time does not need to be too long, and it does not require too many procedures. However, after hatching, you should feed it as soon as possible, because the most nutritious part of the nauplii is when it is just hatched and still has a yolk sac. If it takes too long, , the yolk has been completely absorbed by the nauplii larvae, so the nutritional value will be slightly reduced. If netizens have the habit of hatching brine shrimp to feed peacocks, and if there are more than one hatched brine shrimp, they can be frozen. When feeding next time, they can be used as long as they are thawed.

There is another kind of water fleas, which can be reproduced in green water. It should be noted that it is best not to feed water fleas that have just been collected from the wild directly to fish, because water fleas are caused by Camelid nematodes. Once the intermediate host is parasitized by Camelina elegans, it cannot be solved with just a few words! Moreover, water fleas collected in the wild may have a high bacterial load in the water in the wild. If they enter the fish tank rashly, they may infect the little baby guppies in the greenhouse. Also, pay attention to which type of water flea you get. If it is a water flea, it is not suitable because of its hard shell.

The most commonly used live bait in some aquariums is silk earthworms. The nutritional value of silk earthworms is very high. If you put some in the fish tank, they can survive for a long time and keep your peacocks eating. Therefore Guppies will grow very quickly and can also be used as medicinal bait. Feed the medicine to silkworms first to turn it into a bait, and then feed it to the guppies. The effect is quite good. From this point of view, silk earthworms should be the most perfect feed. However, since silk earthworms are collected from the wild, although some aquariums will sterilize them first, there is no way to guarantee that silk earthworms will not contain bacteria in their bodies. There are parasite eggs, so users have to be careful.

9. How to feed guppies

From the time when a baby guppy is born, friends who love fish must be busy preparing a variety of food. You can swim and look for food soon. If you find that the female peacock is about to give birth, you can start preparing to hatch brine shrimp. Soon after the baby fish is born, you will have a hearty first meal, but remember to pay attention to the amount of feeding. If it is too late, Eating too much feed will pollute the water quality and cause counter-effects. If you do not have brine shrimp eggs on hand or have no hatching experience, you can also take the flake feed that you usually feed adult fish and grind the flake feed into small pieces. Fish can also eat it, but it should be noted that the amount of bait fed should not be too much to prevent small fish from not being able to finish it and polluting the water quality. Another method is to use cooked egg yolk, wrap it in a net, and shake it slightly in the water. The quantity does not need to be too much. Because it is too nutritious, the contamination of leftover bait will be even more terrifying. If necessary, you should be ready to change the water immediately after feeding.

Usually, before the gender of the peacock is determined, you can try to feed high-protein food as much as possible, but after the male and female fish can be raised separately, it is best not to let the male fish eat too much high-protein food to avoid If the waist of the male fish becomes too thick, the female fish does not need to worry. You can feed the female fish as much as possible to make the body shape of the female fish more rounded. However, if the amount of feeding increases, the frequency of water changes should be adjusted accordingly to avoid deterioration of the water quality. The speed is too fast, causing diseases to breed in it and harming the guppies. Usually mature guppies will be happy to eat various feeds, but it should be noted that it is best not to use the same feed for a fixed period of time. You can occasionally change the taste, mainly to prevent problems caused by nutritional imbalance.

10. Temperature control system

The temperature range that guppies can tolerate is quite wide, from about 18 degrees to 30 degrees, so a temperature control system is not necessarily needed. However, if it is really hot in summer, it is best to keep the place where guppies are raised well ventilated. Otherwise, too high a temperature can easily cause guppies to have a too fast metabolism. For mature female peacocks, too fast a metabolism can easily cause damage to the body. Calcium loss accelerates. If there is postpartum disorder, spinal curvature may occur. Therefore, it is best not to let the temperature exceed 30 degrees. As for winter, because the water temperature decreases, the growth rate of peacocks slows down, but it can control guppies. The speed of growth will not lead to premature exhaustion of life due to long-term heating.

Always keeping guppies at a constant temperature has some side effects. For example, it is very sensitive to changes in water temperature. If there is a power outage or a heater failure, it will cause considerable problems.

11. Substrate

The substrate commonly used for raising peacocks should be regarded as the silica sand commonly used in aquatic tanks. In fact, guppies are very adaptable and usually only need to use neutral sand. There is no problem with bottom sand. Some people like to use coral sand to raise peacocks, because coral sand can make the water hard and alkaline, creating an environment that peacocks like. However, you must also be careful not to make the PH quality too high, otherwise there will be Counterproductive; if you want to plant some aquatic plants, you must consider whether the water quality is acceptable. As far as the moderator is concerned, the moderator raises guppies in a naked tank for the purpose of breeding peacocks. Without laying bottom sand, it is counterproductive. It is convenient to change the water and can remove the accumulated feces. However, in this way, there is no bottom sand to buffer the changes in water quality. It is more suitable for friends with a little experience in fish farming. It is also best to change the water frequently and take care of it, otherwise the peacock will not be happy. Life.