Singapore is one of the world’s largest producers of guppies, where strains such as neon tuxedos, blue diamonds and many unique guppy strains originate.

Most guppy farms are located in the Western part of Singapore, with some scattered in the Eastern parts. Sexing, selecting and packing will take up the bulk of the time of local guppy farmers thus due tight time schedules, most farms do not entertain visitors.

The strong regional competition, the lack of successors and increased costs had resulted in a severe reduction in the number of guppy farms in Singapore. The guppy heritage is left to the still existing farms. Each of these farms have an niche over their competitors, e.g. new strains, lower mortality rates and better quality.

Guppy labs is happy to have the opportunity to visit a guppy farm on the 3rd week of June.

Guppy Labs: Good Afternoon, your farm is quite big. Could you give us some insight into the scale of your operations?

Guppy Farmer: Our farm consists of many “ponds” where we breed, raise and prepare our guppies. We have about 300 6ft X 9ft ponds, 420 net cages of the same size and 800 3ft X 5ft ponds. The water depth is between 8-12inches.

	Clockwise: small ponds, large ponds and net cages

Guppy Labs: Your operation is mainly outdoors, could you give us some insight into how the weather will help you in the raising of guppies?

Guppy Farmer: The weather of Singapore is especially beneficial for raising guppies. The sunlight helps our guppies gain vibrant colours and rapid growth; the rain helps us to maintain the water levels in our ponds, if not, we have to top up from our water storage pond.
As a practice, we top up our ponds once a week and our net cages twice a week in dry periods.

Guppy Labs: Does the water temperature in your ponds get too high for guppies?

Guppy Farmer: The concrete ponds are able to regulate the water temperature! It maintains an optimum stable temperature for guppies. When it gets too hot, the heat is dissipated through the walls.
The water levels of our ponds is kept low so that there is no heat differentials between the surface and bottom of the ponds, such heat differentials will shock the guppies. Moreover, a low water level will sterilize the pond floor through the UV rays.

Guppy Labs: Could you tell us the stocking levels for each type of pond?

Guppy Farmer: The small ponds can hold about 300 guppies each, the big ponds can hold up to 900 guppies each and the net cages can hold 2000 fry each. The fry are raised in brackish conditions as they grow better.

The guppies are fed a mixture of commercial feed and tubifex worms. Some people say that tubifex worms are dirty and harmful to guppies but as long as you wash the worms thoroughly, they are safe to feed. We use a premium commercial dry feed from Japan which our guppies like very much.

Male guppies in a pond, ready for selection.

Guppy Labs: We are interested in the processes which guppies will go through before being sold, please let our readers know more.

Guppy Farmer: There are generally 5 stages: Collecting fry, sexing, growing out, selection and packing.
For the first stage, we collect fry from most ponds every morning and transfer them to net cages. We also add salt to the breeding ponds on an occasional basis due to the daily stress of fry collection. Raising of the fry will take 6 weeks.
For the second and third stage, we sex the maturing guppies and transfer them to the big ponds to grow out. They will spend an additional 6 weeks to grow up to saleable sizes. We usually experience about 10% die-offs during the grow-out stage.
For the fourth stage, the saleable guppies will be transferred to the small ponds, disinfected and ready to be selected. Next, selected guppies will be placed in plastic basins or styrofoam boxes, ready to be packed for sales or for breeding. By this time, the guppies will be between 3-4 months old.

Guppy Labs: Regarding breeding, could you give us some information about your breeding methods?

Guppy Farmer: We keep all our breeding stocks in the big ponds, at a ratio of 30 males to 100 females. All our guppies are fed twice a day and breeders are fed well with tubifex worms. We do not follow any rigid breeding methods as there is diversity from a large breeding group. We prepare new breeding stock regularly, it is a cyclical change in our breeding stock from old breeders to new breeders.

Guppy Labs: Will you share some tips about guppy keeping with our readers?

Guppy Farmer: In my experience, the key to successful guppy keeping is water management. One must be able to control the water in such a way that it can regulate the health, grow rate and size of your guppies. If you are unable to control your water, your guppies will not live up to your expectations.
Control of the water is not only through water changes but also the manipulation of the levels of organics, amount of trace elements and minerals and the oxidation-reduction potential.
I believe that there must be a certain amount of organic material in a fry environment. It aids the fry to grow faster, healthier and more robust. How can you manipulate the level of organics? If it is too high, use an oxidizing agent e.g. potassium permanganate or bleach; if it’s too low, reduce the frequency of your water changes.

Guppy Labs: Thank you today for allowing us to speak to you about guppies and for sharing with us what is involved in guppy farming.