Guppy Stress Reliever Tips?

[Ritingyou]

I was going to breed guppies to use as feeder fish for my dinosaur bichirs, and so far had a bad start. Bought 8 from a bad local pet store.. all were sick and died a day later. Pet store claimed my tank as fault but my water tests were perfect! So I got a new tank and had it cycle for a month so I could get 3 more and try again. One guppy gave birth to 5 fry and died the next morning (never knew she was pregnant).

But now my cat broke the tank and I had to make an emergency tank replacement! They are all at the top and 3 fry died already from stress. Is there anyway to help them? I spent 70 bucks to save them.. I would hate to lose them because of a new tank

 

[SusanFish]

There are some medicaments which lower the stress of the fish. We use them when we moved our fish into a new tank.
Do you have plants in your tank? Maybe if they can hide somewhere, they could start to feel better. But it is suspicious, because guppies are very hardy... This is why I think, that the best is to find someone who has a lot of guppies at home and he would like to give few of them away...

 

[Ritingyou]

I have 7 plants in the tank. I also added a bubble wand into the tank so I knew they were getting enough oxygen. The tank came as a kit and gave small packets for stress that I used. The male seems better, swimming around like normal again going after the female. But the female and 2 fry are still at the top in the corner of the tank. I made sure the tempeature stayed at 78 since I read they prefer that temp.

No one in walking distance has a lot of guppies so I'm only able to buy them from the stores. But if my guppies survive the cycle and breed like I hope I wont have to do that anymore. I just have to find a way to get them through it..

 

[fish48]

temp way to high if you want them to live a long life then drop the temp between 72-74f

 

[Ritingyou]

temp way to high if you want them to live a long life then drop the temp between 72-74f

Are you sure? Ive read a lot of forums and I mean a LOT that have said around 76-78 when you want to breed them because the warm temperature makes the males more active.

Which so far seems true. My male is very active. It's my females staying at the top.. they only swim down when they try to get away. Once he stops they go back to the top in the back corner.

 

[fish48]

When keeping them at 78 you are shortening there life span a female can produce fry every 3 or 4 weeks it also can put a lot strain on the the females most People will keep them at such high temps and only feed them on flacke foods guppys need some live food in there diet to do well .

when keeping them at 72 they will take longer to produce fry which can take up to 6 weeks this then will put less strain on the females and males will be a little less active in the term guppys kept at a lower temps will usually become a stronger fish and live longer .

 

[lilfishie]

no fish should be used as feeders, they contain little nutrients and can carry disease which is then caught by the fish eating them, best foods would be prepared pellets/live bloodworm etc even prawn which you can buy by the bag load and keep frozen. Please do not use the guppies as feeders


I have also found keeping guppies at a lower temperature makes them 'stronger' so to speak, i used to raise all my fry with no heater at room temperature, they took a little longer to grow but were much healthier and able to fight disease

 

[This Old Spouse]

I keep both my guppy tanks at around 75, and all guppies are happy and doing well. I lost one fantail that I got from a friend along with 2 just like it, and the other two are fine. I have no idea what happened, and can only think it might have been old age! But indeed, drop the temp in the tank by a few degrees. They'll be much better off.

 

[Ritingyou]

Ok I have the temp down to 73-74 now. I hope that will help them. I feed my guppies frozen blood worms 2 days out of the week, and crunched up sinking pelets (for the fry) and some flake food every day. I would be feeding them live brine shrimp but I dont have the supplies for that yet. Hoping to get that if not this weekend the next.

As for not using guppies as feeders, I didnt want to because their so beautiful but I really have no choice. my lfs does not sell any type of live food (besides rosy red feeder fish)to give them and everything frozen is so small it barley feeds them. But the feeder fish is becoming to expensive, plus theres a lot of negitives on using the feeder fish at my lfs. It's safer to breed my own and they told me to use guppies because they would be just the right size.

 

[fish48]

try them on fresh Earth worms they will like them
its a very good live food feed them it whole or cut them up

 

[Ritingyou]

try them on fresh Earth worms they will like them
its a very good live food feed them it whole or cut them up

I tried that about 2 weeks ago but they refused to even try them. Ive tried giving it to them whole, cut up, with the light on and off. But all they did was swim away.

 

[fish48]

try them on fresh Earth worms they will like them
its a very good live food feed them it whole or cut them up

I tried that about 2 weeks ago but they refused to even try them. Ive tried giving it to them whole, cut up, with the light on and off. But all they did was swim away.

stop feeding them for a few days and then try again

 

[Ritingyou]

I find it funny how we start talking about guppies and onto what to feed dinos..

Also I cant stop feeding them, I learned that lesson long ago when I first got them. If they are hungy they will snack on my other fish's fish food and snack on their fins and it only got worse. I lost 3 gouramis that way! Thats how I found out they needed feeder fish in the first place.

But the guppies seems to be doing better, the females are more relaxed now. I am wondering if I should skip cleaning the tank and doing a water change next weekend though because its still in the cycling process. I fear that will put them in more stree. Plus the temp in the tank keeps going up. I have the heater unplugged so it cant be that. Is there any ways to cool a tank down and keep it down? It seems my house is warming it up. :\

 

[OldMan47]

A nice high protein food like worms will be well accepted by most guppies, as Fish48 has said. Please consider following his advice on temperature too. I keep my own guppy colony at about 74F and find that they reproduce so fast that I must sell off the entire adult population every few months just to control the population in my tank. My 10 gallon, 38 litres, tank becomes overpopulated very quickly even with selling off all adults about 4 times each year. At 2 months after the last sale, there are so many adult guppies that it concerns me. By the time 3 months rolls around, both me and my fish welcome the population reduction of a major sell off. The fish thrive right after that and I have less concerns about population size at that time.

 

[Ritingyou]

A nice high protein food like worms will be well accepted by most guppies, as Fish48 has said. Please consider following his advice on temperature too. I keep my own guppy colony at about 74F and find that they reproduce so fast that I must sell off the entire adult population every few months just to control the population in my tank. My 10 gallon, 38 litres, tank becomes overpopulated very quickly even with selling off all adults about 4 times each year. At 2 months after the last sale, there are so many adult guppies that it concerns me. By the time 3 months rolls around, both me and my fish welcome the population reduction of a major sell off. The fish thrive right after that and I have less concerns about population size at that time.

Ive been trying to keep the temp around 73-74 like i had it last night. But I checked on it two hours ago and it was back to 80 again. My heater was unplugged so I know that wasnt it. Is there a way to keep a tank cool?