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I think Mr. Dayes moved here to
San Diego from Chicago or somewhere in the Midwest
in the late 1950s. We met him in the "Blue Pacific
Fish Store", which was the closest place to our
home that sold tropical fish. Mr. Dayes' home was
just a few blocks from our house, and he invited
us to come to his house and see his aquariums and
fish. We did, and he showed us his garage, where
he had about 25 aquariums full of Fancy Guppies.
The aquariums were probably 10 or 15-gallon aquariums.
Each aquarium had an aquarium
heater adjusted to about 80 degrees, a sponge filter,
and a big bunch of live Java Ferns about 6" to 7"
in diameter and 7" to 8" tall. Some of the aquariums
had 15 to 25 beautiful Fancy Guppy Males, other
aquariums had 20 to 40 large Female Guppies, and
some aquariums were packed with baby Guppies.
Mr. Dayes explained to us that
Male Guppies have brilliant colors on their bodies
and their fins, and that Female Guppies are gray
or tan with much bigger abdomens that are filled
with baby Guppies. We also saw the dark spot, called
the gravid spot, at the rear end of the female's
abdomen. This dark spot is caused by the baby Guppies
showing through their mother's skin.
Female Guppies do not normally
lay eggs like most female fish, instead Female Guppies
release small live babies. Usually they release
a group with about 12 to 30 babies over a period
of a few hours, and they do this again every 3 or
4 weeks. In fact, once a Female Guppy is fertilized
by a Male Guppy, that female can continue to release
baby Guppies for many months without a Male Guppy
in the aquarium.
After they are released by their
mother, baby Guppies float to the bottom of the
aquarium and often swim in a hurky-jurky way for
a few hours. They are probably learning how to control
their fins. But soon they are swimming well and
find their way into the big clump of Java Ferns,
where they look for tiny bits of food. A little
later the baby Guppies swarm around the sponge filter,
and pick bits of food off the sponge.
I think it was Mr. Dayes,
who showed us how to put flake fish food inside
a plastic bag, and crush it into a fine powder to
feed to the baby fish. I remember seeing him put
a tiny pinch of powdered food on the surface of
the water then stir the surface of the water with
his other hand, so the bits of powdered food would
fly about inside the aquarium, and we could see
the baby Guppies swimming to catch a bit of food.
Within a few minutes all the baby Guppies had round
stomachs full of the powdered fish food.
Mr. Dayes said he fed his baby
Guppies at least six times a day. Click
here to read more about making powdered food
for baby fish.
Mr. Dayes had more than 20 years
of experience with breeding Guppies, when we met
him. He could look at a Female Guppy and instantly
tell if she was going to have babies in the next
couple of days. If she was going to have babies
soon, he would very gently move her to her own aquarium
with just an aquarium heater, a sponge filter and
a big bunch of Java Ferns. I never saw any gravel
or ornaments in any of the aquariums that Mr. Dayes
used for breeding his Guppies.
My brother and I have never bred
Guppies. What I have written here in these few paragraphs
about breeding Guppies is just an account of what
I remember seeing many years ago. I hope it helps
you. If you have a comment, suggestion, or question
about what I have written, please send me an email.
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