Week 3: The Guppy

This week’s Fish of the Week is the extremely popular Guppy

Also known as the millions fish these small, colourful, tropical fish are ideal for planted or community aquariums. Guppies grow to approximately 3-4cm with females growing slightly larger at 5-6cm. The Guppy is content with tanks 20 litres and larger and is compatible with a wide variety of other community fish such as swordtails, tetras, corys and platies. Guppies aren’t particularly fussy when it comes to aquarium conditions and will be happy in an aquarium with a pH of between 6.5 and 8.5 and a temperature range between 20°C and 28°C.

Guppies are livebearers meaning the females give birth to live, free swimming fry. These fish are easily bred, even by beginners, with the possibility of each female giving birth to anywhere from 4 to 60 babies. Males are easy to distinguish from females with the male usually being smaller in size, more colourful and the big tell-tale sign is their extremely large and colourful tail fin. Females on the other hand are usually larger bodied with far less colour and a much smaller tail fin.

These omnivorous fish will readily eat most fresh frozen and flake foods.