How many fancy guppies and nerite snails

[xxamyxx85]

Hi,

My Betta Zilla passed away a few weeks ago I have completely outed his old setup, it’s now a heavily planted tank, bright light, fast flow and I’ve added co2. I would like some fancy guppies and a few nerite snails, can anyone advise a good quantity for each? Also after some googling I’m undecided on sexes for my guppies, do I have male and female and try to offload the fry or do I have a male only tank? All advice is much appreciated, Thank you

Amy

 

[xxamyxx85]

Sorry it’s a 10 gallon lol

 

[Essjay]

Endlers instead of guppies? The males are smaller and the tank is on the small side for guppies. And definitlely only males of either guppies or enders. Even a female only tank would most likely be overrun with fry as females can carry sperm for months and the majority of shops keep in mixed sex tanks.

But before you commit, do you have hardish water? If it's soft guppies & endlers won't do well.

 

[xxamyxx85]

Just had to google endlers, yes, if they are better suited? Right I’ll stick to make only. My GH is 7 my KH is 3.

 

[Essjay]

Most endlers in shops are endler-guppy hybrids, but they are smaller than guppies and tent to be hardier. Since the tank is 10 gallons, their size is better suited than larger guppies.

But your GH is a bit on the low side for endlers and guppies. What about a shoal of ember tetras? They are small soft water fish.

 

[xxamyxx85]

I thought my water was considered hard. Tbh I was going to leave the tank fish free but my kids saw the fancy guppies in the shop and loved the rainbow tails lol, if the water is too soft then I probably won’t bother.

 

[AbbeysDad]

As with all hobbyists, the choices are totally up to you. Now I'm not really a fan of high tech as I think that although it may be great for plants, it can be very hard on the fish. I've participated in a planted tank forum for quite some time and lost track of the times a CO2 system malfunctioned and killed all the fish (and suffocation has to be a terrible way to die). Then there's the 'famous' EI (Estimative Index) method of dosing large amounts of ferts to better ensure plants have all they need. Just can't see how that's good for fish as anything and everything in the water invades the livestock through osmosis.
And then you mention FAST flow (filter?). Good filtration is about how well we filter water, not how much or how fast we push water through media. And bio-filtration happens best with a slow, steady flow of water. Oh, I know manufacturers tell us we need 8x to 10x water flow relative to tank size, but that's largely self serving marketing hype that hobbyists tend to parrot all over the internet.

Okay, perhaps that's enough of a 'rant'...maybe.

When it comes to numbers, very often more of a species can be better than few numbers, but may be limited based on tank size and setup. An all male population may promote aggression but frankly I colony breed my fish and have no real population control experience.

Best wishes in your hobby adventure.

 

[Essjay]

I thought my water was considered hard

Water companies always make it sound harder than it really is. GH 7 is soft.

 

[xxamyxx85]

As with all hobbyists, the choices are totally up to you. Now I'm not really a fan of high tech as I think that although it may be great for plants, it can be very hard on the fish. I've participated in a planted tank forum for quite some time and lost track of the times a CO2 system malfunctioned and killed all the fish (and suffocation has to be a terrible way to die). Then there's the 'famous' EI (Estimative Index) method of dosing large amounts of ferts to better ensure plants have all they need. Just can't see how that's good for fish as anything and everything in the water invades the livestock through osmosis.
And then you mention FAST flow (filter?). Good filtration is about how well we filter water, not how much or how fast we push water through media. And bio-filtration happens best with a slow, steady flow of water. Oh, I know manufacturers tell us we need 8x to 10x water flow relative to tank size, but that's largely self serving marketing hype that hobbyists tend to parrot all over the internet.

Okay, perhaps that's enough of a 'rant'...maybe.

When it comes to numbers, very often more of a species can be better than few numbers, but may be limited based on tank size and setup. An all male population may promote aggression but frankly I colony breed my fish and have no real population control experience.

Best wishes in your hobby adventure.

Thank you, the tank was meant to just be a planted tank, no fish but the kids made me think about it.
Sorry When I said fast flow I meant compared to a next to no current Betta tank, that is ALL I have experience with. I think I’ll just concentrate on the plants for now. Thanks again

 

[xxamyxx85]

Water companies always make it sound harder than it really is. GH 7 is soft.

Ah okay, thank you.

 

[sepuku]

What about a shrimp tank? My kids LOVED looking for the shrimp in our tank after we put them in.
We initially thought they'd all been eaten when we first put them in as I was silly and didn't do my research before buying, so the excitement was warranted when we saw a couple of shrimp after about 6 weeks of nothing. Now they are everywhere. I barely have to do anything to keep algae under control. I so also have a siamese flying fox, a small shoal of oto's, and 6 - 7 nerite snails in the tank though.
I recently bought 3x armoured shrimp too, but haven't seen a peep from them since putting them in (too many places they can hide).

 

[xxamyxx85]

What about a shrimp tank? My kids LOVED looking for the shrimp in our tank after we put them in.
We initially thought they'd all been eaten when we first put them in as I was silly and didn't do my research before buying, so the excitement was warranted when we saw a couple of shrimp after about 6 weeks of nothing. Now they are everywhere. I barely have to do anything to keep algae under control. I so also have a siamese flying fox, a small shoal of oto's, and 6 - 7 nerite snails in the tank though.
I recently bought 3x armoured shrimp too, but haven't seen a peep from them since putting them in (too many places they can hide).

That’s a cool idea, definitely something I’ll think about, thank you!

 

[Essjay]

I agree with shrimps - I have a 6 gallon with red cherry shrimps. It sounds boring, but they are so colourful against the plants. Chery shrimps also come in orange, yellow, blue, black and so on, but keep only one colour as a few generations later, they'll all be brown.

 

[xxamyxx85]

@Essjay I want to weigh up all options, what GH do endlers and guppies need? I do have seachem equilibrium from when I used to use RO water so I could raise the GH without affecting the KH or PH. Also how many endlers would be suitable with how many snails?

 

[Essjay]

In ppm, they do best at 200 ppm or over - or 11 dH.

Seachem make 2 products, Equilibrium and Replenish. Both increase GH but one is better for plants, the other for fish according to what Seachem told Byron. He explains it all in post #18 here

Water trouble!

Yeah @essjay said you use 100% osmosis water. Did you buy your own RO filter or do you buy it somewhere? Is it expensive for to do waterchanges? My water is also very hard so maybe diluting it with RO water could help lower it or using RO and adding aquasafe to remineralize it a bit maybe? I...

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