Any Tips On Keeping Guppies

[adamspeedofsound]

Any tips to help me get started would be great.

 

[littlelegs]

I have 3 guppies. Had no experience of keeping them.
3/4 weeks later I now have babies, so I think they are really easy to keep.

 

[stang1]

Guppies are generally easy to care for.
We keep them in a tank with the temperature at about 24-25C. Our PH is about 7.5 and we usually feed them bloodworms or flake food.
We don't have any females, mainly because the males are more colourful but also because we haven't got room for guppy fry!
Hope this helps.

 

[kribensis12]

Just add water and feed the. About 8 years ago I kept them and the breed like crazy and all I did was change the water and feed them.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Guppies are happy with standard sort of temperatures-24 C or so. Since they are quite active little creatures it helps to have a tank big enough- I'd say at least 10 gallons. They appreciate things to interact with- plants, ornaments to swim in and out of. Male guppies prefer not having a very strong current as they are not brilliant swimmers.
They will really benefit from a varied diet- alternate ordinary flakes with spirulina flakes and/or vegetables (cooked peas, broad beans, sprouts, broccoli whatever) and the occasional treat of livefood, like bloodworms or daphnia (frozen or jellied is fine, doesn't actually have to be live).
You can keep either all females in any numbers (which I like, as they are stronger and less sex-fixated) or all males (at least 5 of them to spread aggression) or mixed genders, in which latter case a ratio of 2-3 females per male is best. Expect fry if you leep any females at all, and remember that if they have once mated, whether in your tank or the shop, they can make the sperm do for an awful long time...

 

[nmonks]

Nothing major to add what dwarfgourami's posted above, but I will say this: guppies are not hardy. Wild guppies, it is true, are very adaptable fish, but the fancy guppies sold in virtually all pet stores are seriously inbred and far, far weaker fish.

Keeping them in the right water conditions is important. This means the pH should never be below 7.5, and the hardness must be "hard" or "very hard" on whatever scale you're using. If you're keeping them alone or with other hard water fish, then adding some coral sand to the substrate will make your life a lot easier. Some aquarists add marine salt mix to the aquarium to create slightly brackish water. While this certainly isn't essential, it does inhibit some problems, and the guppies don't mind in the least.

Guppies kept in the wrong water conditions tend to develop things like finrot or die for now explainable reason.

If you're planning on keeping guppies, some broad advice might be:

• Set a tank up just for them.
• Add only species tolerant of hard and/or brackish water, such as mollies, glassfish, or gobies, rather than soft water fish like Corydoras, plecs, or tetras.
• Provide them with plenty of algae.
• Use proper livebearer flake food, not generic flake food.
• Leave out any fish that are aggressive or nippy.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[adamspeedofsound]

How often should i do a water change and what amount to replace?

 

[donna123]

How often should i do a water change and what amount to replace?

i do water changes once a week at 20 %, unless ive put in a treatment then i do 30%.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

just to re-iterate guppies really aren't hardy at all, years of inbreeding to get those pretty colours have taken they're toll on the gene pool

be very careful when you buy them, make sure there are no dead or weak looking fish in the tank, only buy brightly coloured, active healthy looking fish, if your not sure then don't get them!

an alternative is endlers, IMO prettier and with many of the same characteristics as guppies, but much hardier

 

[nmonks]

Exactly so. Also, some aquarium shops actually have wild guppies. Wholesale Tropicals in London gets them in, and they're sold as "Trinidad guppies" or whatever, depending on where they've come from. Though not as garishly coloured as the synthetic forms we usually see, they more than make up for this in vigour and hardiness. Some other stores sell somewhat equivalent animals as feeder guppies; again, nature has been left to take its course, and a nice mix of genes ensures these fish are tough and lively. I had a female feeder guppy once that grew so big she almost looked like a molly. It's really quite striking what a difference good genes can make.

Cheers,

Neale

an alternative is endlers, IMO prettier and with many of the same characteristics as guppies, but much hardier

 

[adamspeedofsound]

ok 20% water change a week how should i treat the water, leave it to sit for a few days? also how do i warm it?

Endlers never seen them any pics?

 

[donna123]

hi,
if your in the uk i recomend stress coat as a water treatment , this added to the water makes it safe straight away, to get the water to the correct temp i use my mixer tap. or you could use boiled i suppose.