Just Bought Some Melanzona Guppies

[jason007]

hi all just bought some melanzona guppies and wonderd if any one has bred them befor as i have herd they are quit hard to . any advice would be great

 

[nmonks]

Do you mean Micropoecilia parae melanozona? These have been doing the rounds in the UK shops recently.

These tank-bred fish aren't particularly difficult to keep, but like other Micropoecilia sometimes they seem to fail for no obvious reason, though environmental stress, diet, and perhaps opportunistic bacteria could be to blame. Avoid extremes of temperature, and certainly keep them in alkaline, and preferably very slightly brackish, water conditions, around SG 1.002-1.003. Yes, they do occur in freshwater as well as brackish water habitats, but the use of brackish conditions does seem to have mild tonic effect on Micropoecilia species.

If you only have a trio, get them breeding in slightly brackish conditions, and once you have some fry to play with, you can divide them into ones you're keeping in freshwater and once you're keeping in brackish water. If both sets do fine, then there's nothing lost. If you keep your original trio in freshwater and they don't succeed, you can end up losing everything!

Cheers, Neale

 

[jason007]

cheers for the advice mate i have got them in a normal guppie set up and they seem to be fine i have been watching them in the tank and the males are going for gold on the females i have a pair of reds and a pair of blues and they seem to be feeding fine so fingures cross i will get a resault very soon i will keep you posted on how thing go

 

[PaBucsFan]

Good Luck with them! Do you have any pictures of them? I have never seen or heard of them

 

[nmonks]

There's a photo I took of the specimens on sale at Maidenhead Aquatics in Windsor a few months ago, here:

http/www.tropicalfishfinder.co.uk/article_detail.asp?id=120

Eighth photo down on the right-hand side.

Cheers, Neale

 

[jason007]

i will try and get you some photos of mine PaBucsFan

 

[PaBucsFan]

They looks really neat and Jason007 I would like to see yours too! I wonder if my LFS could get me a few for my community tank.

 

[OldMan47]

One of the challenges that we livebearer keepers face is that a local fish shop will seldom special order fish for us. Unfortunately, rarer livebearers seldom demand a very high retail price so it is very risky for the shop to special order any for you, since they must order at least 50 at a time. What that has meant to me over the last few years is that I must attend all of the local fish club auctions and keep an eye out for livebearers that appeal to me. In the end I have brought home a nice selection of goodeids and other similarly hard to find fish but most of the fish I keep are simply not available in the LFS and they are even unwilling to take my surplus because they would need to devote a whole tank to them. They can make far more profit selling simple platies or guppies from that same tank so I can hardly blame them for not wanting hard to find livebearers.

 

[PaBucsFan]

I can understand that, my "new" LFS is 90% saltwater stock and 5% freshwater. The other 5% is alligators and turtles. He will be opening a new wing in his shop soon. I hope to make a deal with him with my livebearer fry for store credit. I have dipped my fingers into the salty side and obviously the freshwater side so if I could get store credit for supplies I would be estatic. He currently gets his clown fish stock as well as other breeds from a home breeder in Allentown, Pa so I am hoping he will add me to his home breeder list. I wish local topical fish auctions occurred closer to my home. The closest for me is actually this Friday in New York. Another massive local fish store in Lancaster, PA does a coral swap in October but I cannot attend as I have prior engagements.

 

[jason007]

it would be nice if there was a auction down my neck of the woods but my local shop trys his hardest to get me what i want witch i think is great but what i realy want is some show guppies witch he cant get me .im also still trying to get a good picture of the melanzona guppies for you PaBucsFan but they are super fast swimmers go to take a picture and bang they gone lol

 

[OldMan47]

Where are you located Jason? I live in a place that you would not expect to find any auctions but I manage to attend 3 or 4 each year. We do have links to lots of local clubs here and almost any club will have at least one auction each year as a fund raiser for the club.

 

[PaBucsFan]

Jason-

Take you time. I check everyday for some pictures. I look forward to seeing them.

 

[jason007]

old man 47 i live in helston in cornwall. can you belive it my guppies are all dead now i got to go and find some more grrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[OldMan47]

I can certainly believe that you could lose all of your guppies. What kind of water do you have to work with? I have hard and high pH water and find that I can keep almost any livebearer with little effort. If I had low pH and soft water things might be very different indeed for me.
My water suits many of the common and not so very common livebearers, so I specialize in keeping them. I have no particular talent when it comes to fish keeping except that I try to match my fish to my tap water. By doing that simple thing, I enjoy great success with my fish and produce fry that grow into fish that are in high demand at local auctions.
Genetically, my fish are no great thing, but because they are raised in water that suits them, they are great looking fish that demand high prices at the local fish auctions. I will try it once more this coming weekend by offering my surplus fish at auction at a neighboring club. If I once again find that common fish with decent breeding and growth circumstances demand high prices and spirited bidding, I will continue to offer my surplus fish at these auctions.

 

[the biffster]

old man 47 i live in helston in cornwall. can you belive it my guppies are all dead now i got to go and find some more grrrrrrrrrrrrr

whats the stats on your tank