Hello there everyone! Today we are going to discuss fish breeding tips. Below is the outline of what you can expect in this post. Let us get started!

  • Fish that are easy to breed based on experience.
  • Male to female ratio.
  • To keep parents or babies in the tank or move them to another.
    • Hiding places for babies.
  • Line breeding/strain breeding.

Fish that are easy to breed



The first fish we are going to talk about is by far one of the easiest fish to breed and is a very well known and popular fish. It’s the Guppy or Fancy Guppy. The female guppy can take between 26-30 days to give birth and usually has between 1-50 babies/fry. You can tell a female guppy is pregnant based off of her squared off like belly. Guppies are livebearers so expect the babies to start moving almost immediately after they come out of the mother. The signs to look for when you think the female guppy is going into labor is trying to stay secluded in plants or just completely away from other fish. Hanging out near the heater or just a warmer part of the tank. In some cases, the female may even refuse to eat. Something to keep in mind is, Guppy babies can take a long time to mature and gain color. The timeframe varies on how often they are fed, how healthy they are, etc.


The second fish we are going to talk about is the Molly. Mollies are also a very well known and popular fish. The Molly can have just as many babies as the Guppy can, but both the adult Molly and the baby Mollies are much larger than a Guppy and Guppy fry. Mollies are a good choice of fish to breed because their babies/fry come out much larger and in turn, have a slightly better chance of survival from the parents or other fish in the tank. Mollies can take a while to give birth, somewhere between 3-5 weeks. Just like with Guppies, it is a good idea to try and separate the adults from the babies as it is common for them to try and eat them. It can take around two months for the babies to mature enough to be able to sex them. Usually, Molly fry gains their colors much faster than Guppy fry.

Cory Cats

The third fish is the Cory Cat. The Cory Cat or Corydoras are such cute little fish. These guys can get a pretty decent size and can be very colorful if you find the right kind. They are also very easy to breed because they usually lay between 20-80 eggs! If you want to successfully breed these fish, I would recommend separating the parents after the eggs have been placed on the glass or your plants. As most fish including the parents, will try and eat the eggs. The most common Cory Cats you will find are, Emerald/Bronze Corys, Albino Corys, and Pepper Corys. These fish do really well it medium to large schools. I would recommend anywhere between 3-6 for beginners. For more advanced fish keepers, keep as many as you want/can handle. I personally have about 25! Cory Cats are my favorite fish because they are so relaxed and can be quite the little characters.

Zebra Danio

The fourth fish is the Zebra Danio. Zebra Danios are a pretty famous fish due to discoveries and advancements in scientific research. Did you know Zebra Danios can regenerate their organs? Male Zebra Danios during breeding mode will give off a golden shimmer and can create quite the show in your aquarium. These fish do not get very big which means you can have a whole lot of them in your tank. It is pretty common to keep between 5-25 in a school. Zebra Danios are egg layers/spreaders. They will try and spread their eggs out across gravel in your tank. Our local fish breeder often has baby Zebra Danios when she comes into work every morning. However, the adults tend to eat them. So be sure to provide many hiding places for the fry!

Male to female ratio

Now it’s time to talk about having the proper breeding conditions when it comes to the male to female ratio. Generally, it is a good idea to have two to three females per male. With this ratio it allows the mail to have plenty of options and reduces the stress amongst all of the females. Also, this allows getting pregnant females to give birth to babies without being disturbed by males. So if you’re going to buy in bulk, we recommend trying to keep more females than males.

Separating babies from parents or moving them

Sometimes it is a good idea to separate the baby fish from the parents or provide lots of hiding places. Now, this is a highly debated topic amongst the fish keeping world. Some people like to separate their baby fish from the adults and put them in their own tank. Personally, I usually do not do this. The reason I don’t do this is that I provide lots of hiding places for the baby fish and I’m pretty successful in doing this. When I’m reading guppies, for example, I have the unique plants that I bought from Amazon provide plenty of hiding places for the baby fish and prevents adults from getting in in most cases.

Line Breeding

The idea behind line breeding is, keeping the most colorful or cool looking fish with each other and separating out the not so attractive ones, so when they breed again, the babies have an even higher chance of looking exquisite. A lot of specialty guppy breeders for example, do this in order to get their most colorful results. These more colorful fish tend to be more attractive and in turn make them worth more money.

We hope you enjoyed this post about fish breeding tips and we hope that it was helpful to you!

Also be sure to check our homepage on a regular basis as we plan on releasing more detailed posts on performing maintenance on your tanks, understanding fish aggression, fish breeding, clear water tips and product reviews. View our guides section here.