So you have seen the vividly coloured Guppy at your aquatic centre and have decided they will make a beautiful addition to your community aquarium, indeed you are right, and the flamboyant colours of the male Guppy look stunning and are the easiest fish to keep in your tropical setup.

However there are some things that you need to know about Guppys before rushing off to buy them.

Guppys are live bearing fish which means that they give birth to free swimming fry, they also breed very quickly, imagine them like the rabbits of the water.

Once a female Guppy has mated she will give birth for up to six months consecutively, therefore you must have a large enough tank to be able to handle to the vast amounts of new fish that the Guppy will introduce to your tank.

The first brood will be delivered after 25 to 28 days and will usually be around twelve to twenty fry, the second can range from twenty to fifty and consecutive deliveries of up to a hundred or more fry can be delivered, all within twenty to ninety days apart.

However not all the fry will survive, the mother will begin to eat her babies after she delivers her last fry if they are not separated, and they will be of course vulnerable to other tank mates who will be looking for a free meal. The larger the brood that is delivered, the more fish that will survive.

You can however help the survival of the fish along. Breeding traps are fairly cheap, come in various designs and are very effective. Floating traps are both reasonably priced and are simply floated within the tank, the pregnant Guppy is placed within the trap near delivery time and the fry simply fall into a chamber below the female safely. Once the female has delivered all of her fry she can be released back into the tank after a resting period of twenty four hours, any longer will stress the fish.

So how do you tell if you have a pregnant Guppy or not? It is actually very easy to distinguish female and male Guppys, the male usually has vivid colouring along its belly and fins, his anal fin will be long and narrow. The female are usually much duller in colour and have a rounded anal fin. When a female becomes pregnant you will notice her belly becomes rounded and bloated with a dark spot towards her rear called a Gravid spot, as the fertilised eggs develop this spot will become almost black.

Watch the female every day, they dont all act the same way but in my experiences they tend to hide away and try to find a good place for delivery, this of course is not always possible with the male Guppy chasing her around the tank. Because of this it is important to have a ratio of at least 3 female Guppy per one male. It should take around four to six hours to complete the delivery but it has been known to take around twelve to fourteen hours. Also in stressed females they have been known to deliver some of their fry then stop and give birth again a few days later. It all sounds very complicated but as long as you keep an eye on your pregnant fish everything will be fine.

Although a great fish for stocking your aquarium there are dangers of interbreeding, the quality of the fry produced by interbreeding deteriorates through the generations and therefore a new stock of male Guppys from you aquatic store is advised to help prevent this.

If you find that you have too many fish than the aquarium can handle your local pet store or aquatic centre will usually be prepared to take them or buy them from you.

Often nicknamed the millions fish because of their ability to breed and produce so many fry, the Guppy is an ideal fish for the community tank and because it is almost impossible not to breed, Guppys are great for the novice aquarist.