Guppy fish is one of the most popular fish kept as a pet. They are common fish and it is easy to take care of them. Guppies are an excellent addition to the fish tank of both beginners and experienced fish owners at their homes, offices or living places.
Guppy fish is named after an English priest and scientist Robert John Lechmere Guppy. Guppies are native to South America and are freshwater tropical fish. They were originally discovered in Berlin by W.C.H. Peters, where it was overlooked. Guppies can be found in the rivers of Amazon, Barbados, Brazil, Tobago, Venezuela, Trinidad, and Guyana. Mostly they can be found in small streams, lakes, ponds, pools, slow-flowing rivers, and occasionally brackish waters. There are around 300 different types of guppy fish depending on the colors, sizes and tail shapes. In wild all female guppies have colorless and transparent fins. Their body is grayish with an olive-green, green or blue tint.
Nicknames of Guppy Fish:
The other common names of guppy fish are
- The Millions Fish
Guppy fish are named as millions fish because of their unbelievable rate of breeding, where a female may often have 50 baby fish (fries) per month.
- The Rainbow Fish
Guppies are named as rainbow fish because of the wide range of colors they come in.
Types of Guppy Fish:
Guppies can be classified depending on the Species, Color, and Pattern i.e. Tail pattern, Body pattern and Fins Types. Few of them are as follows:
- Guppy types by Species:
- Poecilia reticulate
- Micropoecilia picta
- Poecilia wingei
- Guppies types by Body pattern:
- Cobra Guppy
- Snakeskin Guppy
- Tuxedo Guppy
- Guppy types by Fin Types:
- Delta/Triangle Tail Guppy
- Fantail Guppy
- Flag Tail Guppy
- Fire Tail Guppy
- Lyre Tail Guppy
- Pin/Needle Tail Guppy
- Red Eye Guppy
- Spear Tail Guppy
- Sword Tail Guppy
- Veil Tail Guppy
- Guppy types by Tail Pattern:
- Lace Tail Guppy
- Leopard Tail Guppy
- Mosaic Tail Guppy
- Grass Tail Guppy
- Guppy types by Color:
- Half-Black Red Guppy
- Half-Black Pastel Guppy
- Half-Black Blue Guppy
- Half-Black AOC Guppy
- Half-Black Green Guppy
- Half-Black Purple Guppy
- Half-Black Yellow Guppy
- Red Guppy
- Yellow Guppy
- Purple Guppy
- Multi Guppy
- Red Bi-Color Guppy
- Black Guppy
- Albino Guppy
- Green Guppy
- Female Guppy
- Bronze Guppy
- Blue Guppy
- Blue-Green Bi-Color Guppy
- AOC ( Any Other Color) Guppy
- AOC Bi-Color Guppy
- Solid-Colored Guppies
- Metal Guppies
Why Do You Have a Guppy Fish?
The fun fact about guppy fish that there are no two guppy fish that are alike, making them a very attractive thing to add beauty to your aquarium. It is fun to watch fish with so many different, colors, fins, and tail pattern and body patterns.
Guppy fish can live well at small places even so you can keep them in a smaller tank. Guppies’ peculiarity that they dwell in clean water or brackish nearshore water but not salty they acclimatized in all continents. It is easy to take care of guppy fish as Guppies are not so much fussy about what they eat. Guppies have friendly nature; they are peaceful fish so they like to live in groups.
Guppy fish can be used to control mosquito malaria as they feed on larvae of mosquitoes. Because of this reason, they set free in the water of Asia to fight against the spread of malaria.
It is the best option for the beginners to have a guppy fish in their tank as a pet.
What Is The Size of Guppy Fish?
Guppy Fish are small in size with an elongated body. Male guppy fish are typically 1.5-3.5 centimeter or 0.6-1.4 inches long. The female guppy fish are larger than male Guppy fish; the female is a 3-6 centimeter or 1.2-2.4 inches long. The full size of guppy fish varies depending on the genes, nutrition, food and many more. The male guppy fish body is thin, flattened from sides and elongated wherein the body of female guppy fish; its back side is more flattened.
How to Distinguish Between Male And Female Guppy Fish?
The first differentiating thing is that backside of female guppy fish is more flattened from sides than male guppy fish. Secondly, Guppy males have much brighter colors and have gorgeous fins and tails where female Guppies have pale coloring and short fins.
Thirdly, female Guppy Fish has a bit enlarged abdomen as compare to male guppy fish and you can also see eggs in the anal region of female guppy fish.
How Long Does a Guppy Fish Live?
The lifespan of Guppy Fish is 2 years on average whereas upon getting the best suitable environment such as good tank conditions they can live up to 3 years in a tank. It is to be noticed that as the tank water temperature rises, the lifespan of guppy fish decreases due to the increase in the metabolism processes rate.
How Does Guppy Fish Breed?
Guppy fishes are one of the simplest fishes to breed as guppies are ovoviviparous which means that fish carries eggs inside its abdomen and spawn fully formed fish.
The egg sac is used by the baby fish for nourishment. After absorbing that the baby fish hatch inside the female and the female give birth to live young one. For the first few hours the baby fish lay down and hide somewhere but very soon they start to swim and feed.
Breeding in guppies is so easy that for 3-5 females only one male is enough but you can also keep more than one male as they don’t fight but only compete.
Often you may see the male fish haunting the female fish but it is okay and nothing to worry about. In actual, during this haunting, the male fertilizes the female fish.
Requirements for Guppy Fish Breeding:
What you need to do for guppy fish breeding is to ensure that there is fresh and clean water in the tank. Good and quality food is provided and a couple of hetero fish i.e. male and female fish. Normally, guppy fish breed successfully in a common tank but it is noted that they eat their juveniles and their tank mates either. Because of this reason, it is required to put them in a separate tank.
How to differentiate female fish carrying eggs? There is a spot near the female anal orifice which gets darker and the darker, and then sooner the fish will spawn.
Put these female fish into the separate tank with the same water conditions and the water plants, where new baby fish can hide from her. When the time comes female fish spawn without any issue.
The gestation period usually lasts from 21-30 days, towards the end of her pregnancy you may see the eyes of the babies through the translucent skin of mother fish. This process will repeat again after fish give birth to the live baby fish and last for further 21-30 days. It is mentioned that in the presence of male and female guppy fish breeding take place regardless of any input.
There are two common ways to save fry from their mother fish. Either you put the female fish in the breeding trap one week before she is due to give birth, or you may remove the female fish from the tank after the fry are born to prevent them from being eaten by mother fish.
If you choose a breeding trap for separating the mother fish from the baby fish, it is not recommended to use the small plastic breeding trap, they stress out the fish. It is suggested to make your own larger trap to give her plenty of space to swim freely. Don’t forget to include holes for the fry to swim out of. If you put the mother fish in a trap that is small this will stress her out which may result in the miscarriage.
When you are intended to use a specific breeding tank k, then it is recommended to keep the bottom of the tank bare and try to use live plants that float such as Java moss so that fry can hide in them.