Amaze your kids with this Fish Science Experiment where your kids will breed guppies while learning about genetics, fish life cycle, and so much more! This guppy science fair projects is perfect for kindergarten, first grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade, 6th grade, and Jr High students. We’ve included not only the procedure for the fun science project for kids, but a free printable observation book to help your students write down observations too. So make science for kids outrageously fun with this living, breathing science experiment for kids. Simply print pdf file with science notebook and you are ready to explore and learn!
Guppy Science Fair Projects
This science project is a little involved, but teaches kids so many things about animals, life cycle of a fish (see all our life cycles printables), building an experiment, using the scientific method with kids, how genetics work in a simple way kids can understand, plus a big WOW factor. And other than time, all you need is an aquarium and a couple guppies from the pet store. This EPIC science project for kids is perfect for kindergarteners, grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, grade 4, grade 5, grade 6, grade 7, and grade 8 students too. This homeschool science experiment if fun for the whole family and will be a fun science activity you remember for a lifetime.
Breeding Guppies
In typical Beth fashion, one day I just decided – hey let’s breed guppies! My hubby knows by now that once I get an idea in my head it’s best to just go with it. So we set up a 10 galloon tank (we had spare in the garage) in the kitchen (because we’d walk by more often). We went out and bought 3 female and 1 male guppy and we waited. I made a Guppy Observation Book & our Kindergarten Guppy Breeding Science Experiment began.
Fish science experiment
We read information about guppies online. We fed, cleaned, and cared for the guppies. We named and charted on the guppies. And we waited. Learn more about fish for kids in this science lesson.
Guppy Science Fair Projects
Apparently guppies aren’t as hardy as they once were – the pet stores tell me it is from over breeding. Whatever it is we lost a couple females, bought a couple more, and bought a different male because ours seemed unable to perform his purpose.
- Day 1+ We wrote in our note book about what we observed. We noted what they liked to eat, how they swam, how warm they liked the water, how much they poop (let me tell you it was a LOT), and came up with questions that we then looked up (such as how long do they live).
- Day 31 days we had 2 babies. Not sure if the rest were eaten or what, but we had 2. (they kinda look like tadpoles)
- Day 34 we only had 1 baby – the other one was eaten.
- Day 42 we had 2 more babies. Again, not sure if the rest were eaten. We now had 3 babies
- Day 47 – EUREKA! I noticed about 10 new babies in the tank. I quickly removed all the females (and put them in our 30 galloon community tank)except for the very large female who I put in a small goldfish style bowl to make sure she didn’t eat the babies. I took out the large fern (which really hadn’t served its purpose anyway) we had put in for the babies to hide in as there were no mommies in the tank to hide from & we could see them better. I went back to check on the Mommy & noticed there were babies in the bowl with her. The kids & I watched her give birth – so cool! After she had 20 she seemed to stop. The bowl was getting crowded so I emptied it back in the 10 galloon nursery tank. I pulled the Mommy back out so she didn’t eat the babies. I went about making lunch & taking care of Tinkerbell & she had 20 more!! Again, I emptied the babies into the nursery & removed the mother. The Mommy guppy didn’t have any more & I placed her in the community tank. After careful counting I discovered we had the original 3 babies plus 55 new babies!!
- Day 85 – the 54 babies are growing a lot. They no longer look like miniature tadpoles. They look like miniature fish, about 3/4″ long. The fish are starting to show some color. The baby guppies eat a LOT – like all babies! They are finally eating normal food (no longer baby fry food) 4-5x a day.
- Day 114 – The guppy fish breeding babies are full grown! They are 1 1/4” long & have all the color they are going to get. I decided our observations should be done to get the fish to a better home.
Fish Science Experiments
Not that we don’t enjoy watching them…. but 58 fish in a 10 galloon aquarium isn’t really the best home. It means I have to change the water every 5 days or so! Since it is really hard to count fish when they are one big mob in the small tank, we separated them into bowls – 5 to be exact. This was also a great chance to practice counting by 10s! There were 10 fish in each of the 5 bowls with 8 fish remaining in the aquarium.
Graphing Guppies
Then we counted how many fish of each color there were & graphed them 3 ways:
- Graphing Guppies in Color on Graph Paper
- Graphing Guppies with cuisenaire rods
- Visualizing Guppy Babies on a pie graph
Fun Science Experiments
I thought it was neat to see his little brain process the information. He couldn’t conceptualize what the numbers mean, but when we graphed the colors he looked at me with amazement and said – there are WAY more red than any other color! It was pretty cool to see him “get it”
It was a really fun experiment and we learned a lot! Students from preschoolers, kindergartners, grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, grade 4, grade 5, grade 6, grade 7, and grade 8 will love trying this science experiment. I’d really like to try egg layers next…..
Ocean Activities for Kids
Looking for more ocean activities for kids? You will love these clever, free resources and ideas:
- Ocean Color by Number Printable
- 50 Amazing Ocean Crafts for Kids
- Build an Ocean Scene with this fun Fractions Activity
- Simple Under the Sea Coloring Pages
- Pearl Color Matching Ganes
- Try this Watercolor and Crayon Ocean Craft
- Breeding Guppies – an outrageously FUN Fish Science Experiments
- Read and Dab Kindergarten Sight Word Worksheets pdf
- Ocean Animal Counting and Trace Do a Dot Printables
- Alphabet Go Fish Game
- Color Matching Octopus Activity for kids
- Cute Hands & Feet Lobster Craft
- Shell Letter Matching Ocean Activities for Preschoolers
Ocean Theme
- Sharks for Kids Reader
- Sea Turtles for Kids Reader
- Free Printable Whale Writing Prompts
- All About Fish Printable Reader
- Ocean Counting Clip Cards
- Cupcake Liner Octopus Craft
- O is for Ocean Weekly Theme for Prek / K
- Tons of ideas for a weeks worth of fun learning with an Ocean Theme
- Cute One Fish Two Fish Pdf
- Ocean Printable Multiplication Game
- Fun to play with Ocean Slime
- FREE Ocean Coloring Pages
- Cut and Paste Fish Craft
- Printable Crab Contraction Ocean Activity for Kids
- Kid favorite Goldfish Printable Counting Activity
- Goldfish Subtraction Games for Kindergarten
Beach Theme
- Sand Volcano – EASY Summer Science Experiment for Kids
- Disolving Seashell Activities – a Summer Science Experiment
- Super Simple Sand Slime
- Crack the Code Worksheets with ocean themed pages
- Under the Sea Lego Challenge Printables
- 50+ pages of Ocean Worksheets for practicing math and litearcy with pre-k, kindergarten, and first graders
- Sandcastle Subtraction Craft
- Fun Sandcastle Letter Matching – Summer Activities for Kindergarten
- Hands-on Sandcastle Colour Matching Activities
- Sandcastle Letter tracing Summer Activity for Preschoolers
- Count and Trace Numbers 1-10 Sandcastle Summer Activities for Preschoolers
- Sandcastle Number Playdough Mats to count and trace
- Summer STEAM – Sandcastle engineering with tp rolls
- Ice Cream Sandcastle Summer Snack Idea
- Sand Bucket & Shovel Letter Matching – Summer Activities for Kindergarten
- Beach Summer Experiment with a Density Tower
- Free Beach Worksheets for Preschoolers, kindergartners, and grade 1
Don’t miss the other animal studies we’ve created!
- Discover All About Whales Worksheets pdf
- All About Pinnipeds – seals, sea lions, walrus life cycle, and more
- Learn About Herps – sea turtle worksheets, sea snakes, aquatic frogs, toads, salamander, and more!
- All About Fish, Sharks, and Rays
- Get to know Mollusks, Cephalopods, & Crustaceans for Kids (crabs, lobsters, octopus, bivalves, clams)
- All About Echinoderms and Cnidarians (Jellyfish, Sea Stars, Sand Dollars, Coral)
- Huge Ocean Animals for Kids Unit (250+ pages)
Fun Science Experiments
- 30 Simple Machines for Kids Experiments
- Launch this experiment and record your findings with this Coke and mentos experiment worksheet
- Lots of FUN Solar System Project Ideas for kids
- Printable Solar System Worksheets (free) or planet worksheets for kindergarten
- Grab these free printable solar system coloring pages
- Life-size Human Body Project with free printable body parts
- Colorful Capillary action science experiment (also known as walking water)
- 100 Amazing Food science experiments – arranged by type of science
- Free Printable Human Body for Kids Playdough Mats
- Leak proof bag fun science experiments
- Older students can dive deeper with these free skeletal system worksheet pages
- Amazing Why do leaves change color experiment
- Learn about seasons with this cool free 4 seasons printables
- Animals and their Babies matching puzzles
- Take a closer look at animals with this free printable animal report for for kids
Science Exeriments for Kids
Looking for lots more fun, science experiments for kids? You’ve GOT to try some of these outrageously fun science experiments for kids! We have so many fun, creative and easy science experiments for elementary age children:
- How to Make a Lava Lamp – super easy and SO cool!
- Weather Unit for prek-3rd graders filled with experiments, activities and weather worksheets
- Make it rain and write your observations in these cloud in a jar experiment worksheet
- Learn about our moon with these activities and moon worksheets for 1st grade
- Free Water Cycle Worksheets for kids
- Discover a world of geology with these rock worksheets for kids
- Free printable states of matter activity with clip cards
- Discover what lies below the surface with these free Layers of Earth Worksheets
- Make playdough earth layers with this super cool geology experiment for kids
- LOTS of year-round Science Experiments for Kids
- Kids will love this outrageously fun pipe clean constellations activity
- This look inside a volcano experiment for kids takes learning to a whole new level
- Chromatography Butterflies project for kids
- Learn about the kingdom Animalia with over 20 Zoo Scavenger Hunt free printables
- Harness the power of fruit with this simple Lemon Clock for kids
- Easy Bernoulli’s principle experiment at home
- Amaze kids with this simple burning candle experiment with free worksheets
Easy Science Experiments
- Gross and so cool Digestive System Project for kids of all ages
- Amazing Rainbow in a Jar Experiment for Kids
- Epic Baking Soda and Vinegar Rocket Experiment
- Cool Milk and Vinegar Expeirment making plastic!
- Learn about your amazing brain with this activity and brain worksheets
- How do hands work project for kids
- Super cool and easy-to-make, working lego balloon car
- Plants for kids lesson
- Explore magnets with these EPIC magnet experiments for kids
- Popsicle Stick Catapult for kids – simple STEM project
- Simple light bulb experiment (it actually lights up!)
- Easy-to-make balloon hoovercraft
- Bouncy Eggs and eggs in vinegar experiment worksheet
- Learn about density for kids with these simple balloon solid, liquid, gas hands-on activities
- Create your own super simple bot
- Beautiful, color changing capillary action experiment with flowers
- WOW your kids with how to make a Newton’s cradle project
- Heat-sensitive, Color Changing Slime is SO COOL!
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