Hello , we have 11 guppies that are about 6 weeks old and some look pregnant - does anyone know if they could be at this age?

If they are too young at the moment then does anyone know at what age they reach maturity? - God knows what i'll do if they are!!

Thanks to all in advance , Kate

http://www.guppies.com/breeding.html

Yep!  Plenty old enough!

oh yikes !
How do i tell the females from the males - they all look the same

Males are the ones with long colourful tails and the females have shorter tails.  Guppies breed like mad, I remember my sister having loads although they do get eaten really quickly by the other fish so you might not end up with so many unless you separate them in one those net tanks at the top of your tank to keep them safe whilst they grow a bit. :-)

The male guppy has a little spike type thing, this on his underside,
right by the tail :-) (think its called a gonopodium (sp) !)

Donna

Hope you hav a lot of spare tanks - seperate out the adult males and females.
Then seperate out the babies - a cheaper way to do all this is, if you have a big enough tank, to use tank dividers, although you might have to diy one as the ones i have seen have fairly large holes, normally being used to divide tanks wtih largeish predator fish in them.

Then when the babies from the current babies arrive, repeat the process...

Your best bet although probably wont go down well, is to get a fish or two that will eat the babies but not the adults, and just keep males and females seperate, or cull all the babies and keep male n females seperate.

Guppies are popular, but generally only when they are nice distinct colour types - interbreeding different ones will result in 'mongrel's which are im afraid worthless except as feeder fish (guppies arent the most valuable fish in the world anyway).

Em (who only owns ONE guppy)

Word of warning - even once you take the males away, the females might still get pregnant several more times from their last mating!

And I recommend South American Bumblebee Catfish for fry-control :D