PROFILE OF A GUPPY BREEDER
PROFILE: Ed Richmond
I have been raising guppies for over thirty years, during these years I have won numerous first place awards, Best of Show and a World Class Championship. I am also an official International Fancy Guppy Association (IFGA) judge. I breed my guppies to meet the IFGA standards. I breed all my fish for showing and only sell a small surplus supply.
I currently maintain thirty ten gallon tanks, twelve five and a half gallon tanks and five two and a half gallon tanks. I am currently breeding half black aocs (any other color), half black pastels, red albinos, blues, greens and purples. I will generally let a female drop her young in a five and a half gallon tank, with a sponge filter. The temperature in these tanks that house these newly born babies is about 80 degrees for the first five weeks. I change about 75 percent of the water twice a week, right from the tap(you must understand your water supply, this might not work for you, it is advisable to treat your water if you have chlorine or other chemicals in your water supply that might be harmful to your guppies) mixing hot and cold water to the correct temperature. I add one tablespoon of salt to five gallons. The salt helps keep the brine shrimp stay alive longer(up to twelve hours).
My feeding schedule is live brine shrimp two times a day, once in the morning and again in the evening. After the first two weeks I start feeding beef heart and finely crushed food. At the end of five weeks I will cull my fish and generally move eight males and four females to a ten gallon tank. This ten gallon tank has a box filter in it, the box filter contains marbles and filter floss. These tanks are located on the middle row of my fish rack and the temperature stay in the desired range of degrees. The other fish from the drop are disposed of. This heavy culling method removes all but the best fish. I will not take young from this tank until the fish are about four months old at this time I can be sure the females were hit (impregnated) by the males they are with. I can do this as I have had my guppy lines for years. I also find that with certain lines if you separate the females from the males and keep the females virgin for three months or more, it becomes impossible for the females to get hit. In some cases I will save a few virgin females in case I want to make crosses. With the virgin female I will set up a trio in a two and a half gallon tank(the smaller tank helps the male in his chase of the females. In most cases I find that inbreeding is the fastest way to improve and purify your line so that you become familiar with it. I generally try to save drops from three to four sisters and will keep the best two drops. If I start to see a loss of size or deformities, I will then cross the females of one line with the males of another line.
You have to be persistent with your lines and not be quick to go to an outside line, as you can never be sure of the purity of another breeders line, even though that line might look great. This can be the fastest way to destroy your own line. After the first month I try to change about thirty percent of the water twice a week up until about five months. It is at this time that when the fish go into the bottom tanks. The temperature in these bottom tanks are about 72 degrees and water changes are reduced to fifteen percent twice a week. Brine shrimp and beef heart are eliminated from their diets. From this point in time these older fish only get fed dry food two to three times a day, this helps prevent the males from getting to chesty.
For more information: email Eddie Richmond at edgups@aol.com