Showing posts with label male. Show all posts
Showing posts with label male. Show all posts

2.18.2013

Guppy Behavior - Power Outage

As the power went out in my house (for a good hour) and my aquariums shutdown, I laid in bed watching how my guppies would react to the motionless water that then lacked a light source aside from what was coming in through the windows.

I have 2 guppy tanks in my room, one 10-gal which houses male guppies and the other 10-gal which houses female guppies. The power outage really did not seem to phase the male guppies as they continued their daily mating rituals with the other males in the aquarium. The power outage in the female aquarium however, well that made a big behavioral change...

The females began to group/school together as they sank down to the bottom of the aquarium as if they were ultimately terrified. Their body movements were brief as they moved themselves inch by inch about the tank in search of what was happening. The behavior continued for about half an hour as they began to realize they were all still okay. When I got out of bed they quickly relaxed as they knew I was about to feed them and after that point they no longer seemed afraid at all (to a guppy I suppose I am its means of positive well-being and a sign of their food source).

Overall, this makes me wonder if female guppies are perhaps better suited for survival over the male species. Which wouldn't be all too surprising since females aren't as colorful as males, thus aiding them in camouflage if/when hiding from predators. For more info on that topic checkout this article.

9.17.2011

Guppy Updates

Today my first guppy (the original store bought pregnant guppy that started this strain) gave birth to her sons fry (yes, that sounds weird but true). I now have at least 20+ new fry and I believe her daughters are also pregnant from there brothers so, I'm sure I'll end up with more fry at some point in the near future. I am hoping that with my new fry I will be able to perfect the strain a bit however, there are many other factors to consider but I'd rather not make things too complicated. In the mean time, I have 3 months before the new fry has mature males to breed (from my past experience it usually takes the females twice as long to fully mature for breeding) and I have put the mature males into a separate tank from the females and new fry as I don't want them to breed together again. Keep in mind that a female guppy can continue giving birth months after she has dropped one batch of fry without having mated again (this additional batch has always been a low number of new fry for me though as it's generally just one fry born but I'm sure it could vary).

1.03.2010

Sexing Guppies

I've bred guppies long enough to be able to give you 5 basic ways to determine which guppies are male and which are female.#1 Generally male guppies are much more vibrant and females are duller in color(although I've been breeding my females as photographed here to have more color then a lot I've seen). You may even see your male guppy doing an awkward dance during courtship to show-off these possible colors.

#2 The females gonopodium is typically fully expanded outward, and the males is usually tucked up toward his body and really only comes down during brief moments before mating with another guppy. The gonopodium is an anal fin used to impregnate. However, both sexes are capable of expanding and contracting their gonopodium.#3 At the end of the abdomen you may notice an often dark almost circular area which is called the gravid spot, if your fish has one then its a female. The gravid spot tends to change colors from pink to almost black(sometimes a combination of both), the color differs depending if the guppy has eggs inside of her or not. When the female has eggs/fry inside her the under belly will appear fuller and her body more rounded in shape(as seen above) and she may even start to develop a hunched/slumped spinal appearance.

#4 Males and females tend to act differently, the females being more submissive and independent and the males are more often found schooling together, perhaps acting a bit more aggressive and generally sexually mature males chase after the females.

#5 Adult females are generally larger then adult males, it also seems as most females continue to give birth their bodies seem to continue to get larger, where as the males seem to stop growing.
*Note* Some say the dorsal and caudal fins are usually bigger on males then that of the females. Although I believe I've seen some females with a fairly long dorsal fin.