accidently bred jewels, need info

[ilovebillwillia]

as the title says i came home one day to about 300 swimming fry. ( i thought i had two females, duh...) they are about a month old now, doing great but i have two questions.
how old til the get some real color?
how old do they have to be to breed?
im getting worried because i have a couple that are alot smaller. dont know if they're "runts" or the fry may have been fooling around. i breed guppies and i know how young they can breed. how about jewels?
need answers asap please, cant find them anywhere on the web.
thanks guys! *laughingc

 

[Orion]

Congrats on the fry!

I would ballpark it and say that around 4-6 months of age before they start to show color. Mabey a little less than a year for them to mature enough to breed? I'm really not sure on either. But a month is too young for them to be breeding on their own.

I've found that its normal to have some runts in the bunch. Especialy with such a large brood. This is where culling comes into play if you want to, or just let nature take its course.

 

[ilovebillwillia]

thanks so much. having bred guppies, i was alittle scared, they breed so easily and so young, i was a fraid i may have a never ending breeding ground in my home. im hoping to be able to sell them to a distributor in chicago, im working with my lfs. they are too young to sex, so separating them m/f would be impossible for quitte a while.
thanks, you eased my mind.

 

[LongTime]

They tend to color and mature at the same time. I don't remember the time frame.