Sexing Fancy Guppies: Separation, Sexing, and Care

Fancy guppies are a freshwater fish. They are around one inch long. They are very inexpensive fish, which makes them a very popular freshwater fish. They are also live bearers, which means they reproduce very quickly and they do not lay eggs. When it comes to sexing guppies, you will need to be able to tell apart the males from the females.

Female guppies will never have color on their bodies. Only their tail will display colors. They are never as colorful as the males. Males will have a fin on their back with color. Females will be missing this fin. If you see a guppy with color on it's body, this is a male guppy. Female guppies are a lot less colorful but they will often times be larger than the male guppies.

Usually, pet stores will keep the males and females separated. You can look up pictures of male and female guppies online to get an idea of what each guppy will look like to be able to differentiate the two from one another. You should always have a certain ratio when it comes to guppies. You should have three females to each male guppy. This is because males love to chase around the females.

If you are trying to breed the guppies and you want a certain color you will need to keep the parents together by themselves. If you want black babies for example, you will keep the black female and black male together until she is pregnant. Plus, make sure she isn't already pregnant before you place them together.

You will be able to tell the female is pregnant because she will have a dark colored spot right in front of her tail. You will be able to see her get larger and larger over the next 30 days. Female guppies usually give birth within 30 days. They usually have anywhere from around 1-60 babies. Older guppies will sometimes have up to 150 babies or more. Guppies usually live to be around 2 years old.