How many Guppies are too many?

[solomani]

I bought my daughter a 30l fish tank which I would like to populate with Guppies. Can any one with experience with guppies let me know what a good number would be for this size tank?

The tanks been cycled already and I have a pleathora of testing kits. So I can monitor the water quality. Was just wondering what the bio limit is and if guppies have a social limit (that is at what point do they get stressed by too many other guppies. If at all).

Thanks in advance.

 

[DaisyGirl]

sorry, how many gallons is 30l? Im really bad with metrics

 

[Ems]

So you have a 30 L tank, thats almost 8 gallons. Before you decide how many to put in, you need to decide if you are going to have males and females together, or just one or the other. If you are going to have just males or just females, I wouldn't put anymore than 6 in the tank. If you are going to have both, I'd put even less because it is possible they will breed and some of their babies (that they don't eat) could survive leaving you with a lot of guppies. Also I wouldn't recommend putting all of them in at once. Hope that helps!

 

[solomani]

Great. Thanks. How do you tell the sexes apart? Or do I need to depend on the retailer?

 

[Ems]

It is pretty simple to tell them apart. The females (usually, not always) aren't as colourful, and normally don't have as large of a tail. The males are smaller in the belly area and tend to have a larger, more colourful tail and body. Some retailers will separate them into different tanks for you, and sometimes the prices of males are different from prices of females. If it's hard to tell, the retailer will be able to let you know.

 

[amosf]

Guppies tend to self regulate their population a bit. Sure they breed like mad, but the females eat most of the fry and the males fight to the death at times. I'f have maybe 5 or 6 in a tank that size, but you might want to start with just 3 breeders... Or even just one mature female. Before you know it you have a tank full...

So to answer, they are a high bioload so you don't want to many, but the fry you bring up are pretty tough and do fine with regular water changes. As for crowding... Well the males will have their disputes regardless of tank size. Two males alone in a 200litre/50g will fight just the same as in a 30litre

 

[chrisinha]

i have 12 feeder guppies (you know, the microscopic ones) in a 10 gallon tank. i cant tell you how many males and females, because everytime i try to count them, i end up losing track of it! i've seen the males fighting; it's pretty ugly!

 

[tricksterpup]

I hope these help with the sexing of the guppies. diagrams always help.

Also remember to always do regular water changes. These guys are very tolerant of bad water but like it clean. So remember to do weekly water changes and you will have very healthy Fish.
Here is a great resource page for Livebearers and it has plenty of links.
http://tcoletti.tripod.com/thelivebearer.html