new to guppys
- Thread starter Kaatz
- Start date
You would need a hood/light,gravel is optional, I don't use it I spray the bottom with spray paint. You can add some plants if you plan on keeping any of the fry. Remember to have a 1to2 ratio of males to females when you do get them. Unless you are keeping just males or females.
Maybe I should mention I don't spray the inside I spray the outside of the bottom
Maybe I should mention I don't spray the inside I spray the outside of the bottom
Tokis-Phoenix
^_^
Well first of all you need to learn about cycling a tank and correctly stocking it and learning about the basic water chemistry- these are not difficult things to learn and if gone about correctly can save you many fish lives and make your tank and fish alot healthier and happier.
Here is a link about cycling your tank with some water chemistry stuff too you should read;
http
/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=10099
and a few words on choosing the right fish from your lfs(local fish store);
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=46271
....
You have all the basics of the tank like the tank itself, the filter and the heater apart from dechlorinator/water conditioner which is very vital for keeping the tank and your fish healthy.
If you read the articles you will now understand it is important to buy test kits for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites as well - even the most experienced fish keeper will have these and test their water for these stats every now and then if they are any good
.
The quickest way to cycle your tank and the safest is to do a fishless cycle- this means you are basically getting the tank ecosystem ready to handle fish before you actually get them and is much safer than cycling with fish, heres an article on how to do it;
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=73365
After you cycle your tank you are ready for fish. We will need to know how many gallons or litres your tank holds as so to advise you accuratly how many fish it can handle and wether they'll be happy with the space they get.
Livebearers like guppys are notorious for breeding like rabbits and are somtimes called "millions fish" which they live up to as well. A single female guppy can produce well over 40fry a month and can store sperm in her for up to 7 pregnancys so even if you don't have a male in the tank with her she can still continue to get pregnant and produce fry. Male guppys have very high sex drives and will mate with almost anything that swims in the absense of females and can often harrass a female guppy to death- the minimum ammount of females per male is 2-3females per male because of this, more if you multiple males and this is the basic rule of gender stocking for the majority of livebearers out there.
The more females your male has the more his attention will be spread out between them and the less stressed they will be in turn but as a consequence, but the more likely you are to have even more fry(baby fish). You can stock all male tanks but these in general have to be a bit bigger as a minimum size and have more males as so no one male gets picked to much, or at least that is the aim.
If you decide to go for females and/or males in your new tank, try to avoid buying any heavily pregnant ones as these are less likely to survive as the whole transportation and settling into a new home thing is twice as stressful for them and not a good idea- when females are pregnant they display a dark patch towards the back of their tummy called the gravid spot/patch and is actually the frys eyes inside the female which are darkly colored you are veiwing on the outside of her.
Whatever fish you buy for a new tank in any situation, stock the tank slowly- this means buying only 1 or 2 fish per week max for the tank to let the tank ecosystem adjust to their presence and avoid the tank going into a mini cycle or getting an ammonia spike and killing all your fish or making them sick.
As far as tank maintanenece is concerned, when your tank is finished doing its fishless cycle i advise you do at least a 30% water change with dechlorinator once a week- never clean the tank filter sponge out in tap water but only in old tank water from water changes and never do it more regualy than once every 10days- don't clean it too thoroughly either but simply just remove the large gunky bits as you don't want to kill off all your beneficial bacteria; it also goes without saying never buy a new sponge and never use any ammonia/nitrate or nitrite removal products as these will cause major issues for your tank and fish.
Here is a link about cycling your tank with some water chemistry stuff too you should read;
http
/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=10099and a few words on choosing the right fish from your lfs(local fish store);
http
/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=46271....
You have all the basics of the tank like the tank itself, the filter and the heater apart from dechlorinator/water conditioner which is very vital for keeping the tank and your fish healthy.
If you read the articles you will now understand it is important to buy test kits for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites as well - even the most experienced fish keeper will have these and test their water for these stats every now and then if they are any good
. The quickest way to cycle your tank and the safest is to do a fishless cycle- this means you are basically getting the tank ecosystem ready to handle fish before you actually get them and is much safer than cycling with fish, heres an article on how to do it;
http
/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=73365After you cycle your tank you are ready for fish. We will need to know how many gallons or litres your tank holds as so to advise you accuratly how many fish it can handle and wether they'll be happy with the space they get.
Livebearers like guppys are notorious for breeding like rabbits and are somtimes called "millions fish" which they live up to as well. A single female guppy can produce well over 40fry a month and can store sperm in her for up to 7 pregnancys so even if you don't have a male in the tank with her she can still continue to get pregnant and produce fry. Male guppys have very high sex drives and will mate with almost anything that swims in the absense of females and can often harrass a female guppy to death- the minimum ammount of females per male is 2-3females per male because of this, more if you multiple males and this is the basic rule of gender stocking for the majority of livebearers out there.
The more females your male has the more his attention will be spread out between them and the less stressed they will be in turn but as a consequence, but the more likely you are to have even more fry(baby fish). You can stock all male tanks but these in general have to be a bit bigger as a minimum size and have more males as so no one male gets picked to much, or at least that is the aim.
If you decide to go for females and/or males in your new tank, try to avoid buying any heavily pregnant ones as these are less likely to survive as the whole transportation and settling into a new home thing is twice as stressful for them and not a good idea- when females are pregnant they display a dark patch towards the back of their tummy called the gravid spot/patch and is actually the frys eyes inside the female which are darkly colored you are veiwing on the outside of her.
Whatever fish you buy for a new tank in any situation, stock the tank slowly- this means buying only 1 or 2 fish per week max for the tank to let the tank ecosystem adjust to their presence and avoid the tank going into a mini cycle or getting an ammonia spike and killing all your fish or making them sick.
As far as tank maintanenece is concerned, when your tank is finished doing its fishless cycle i advise you do at least a 30% water change with dechlorinator once a week- never clean the tank filter sponge out in tap water but only in old tank water from water changes and never do it more regualy than once every 10days- don't clean it too thoroughly either but simply just remove the large gunky bits as you don't want to kill off all your beneficial bacteria; it also goes without saying never buy a new sponge and never use any ammonia/nitrate or nitrite removal products as these will cause major issues for your tank and fish.
dwarfgourami
Fish Connoisseur
Tokis, if he's doing a fishless cycle, where is the point of stocking with only 1 fish/week? Surely that will mean that the bacteria will start dying off again, and the tank will go through an unnecessary mini-cycle. You have already got the bacteria from adding ammonia, and this bacteria needs to be sustained as you can't go on adding ammonia after your first fish is in- so you need to add enough fish.
I did a fishless on my livebearer tank and then stocked with 2/3 of the tank's capacity in one go; worked fine and no ammonia spikes after stocking.
I did a fishless on my livebearer tank and then stocked with 2/3 of the tank's capacity in one go; worked fine and no ammonia spikes after stocking.
Tokis-Phoenix said:Well first of all you need to learn about cycling a tank and correctly stocking it and learning about the basic water chemistry- these are not difficult things to learn and if gone about correctly can save you many fish lives and make your tank and fish alot healthier and happier.
Here is a link about cycling your tank with some water chemistry stuff too you should read;
http
and a few words on choosing the right fish from your lfs(local fish store);
http
....
You have all the basics of the tank like the tank itself, the filter and the heater apart from dechlorinator/water conditioner which is very vital for keeping the tank and your fish healthy.
If you read the articles you will now understand it is important to buy test kits for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites as well - even the most experienced fish keeper will have these and test their water for these stats every now and then if they are any good
The quickest way to cycle your tank and the safest is to do a fishless cycle- this means you are basically getting the tank ecosystem ready to handle fish before you actually get them and is much safer than cycling with fish, heres an article on how to do it;
http
After you cycle your tank you are ready for fish. We will need to know how many gallons or litres your tank holds as so to advise you accuratly how many fish it can handle and wether they'll be happy with the space they get.
Livebearers like guppys are notorious for breeding like rabbits and are somtimes called "millions fish" which they live up to as well. A single female guppy can produce well over 40fry a month and can store sperm in her for up to 7 pregnancys so even if you don't have a male in the tank with her she can still continue to get pregnant and produce fry. Male guppys have very high sex drives and will mate with almost anything that swims in the absense of females and can often harrass a female guppy to death- the minimum ammount of females per male is 2-3females per male because of this, more if you multiple males and this is the basic rule of gender stocking for the majority of livebearers out there.
The more females your male has the more his attention will be spread out between them and the less stressed they will be in turn but as a consequence, but the more likely you are to have even more fry(baby fish). You can stock all male tanks but these in general have to be a bit bigger as a minimum size and have more males as so no one male gets picked to much, or at least that is the aim.
If you decide to go for females and/or males in your new tank, try to avoid buying any heavily pregnant ones as these are less likely to survive as the whole transportation and settling into a new home thing is twice as stressful for them and not a good idea- when females are pregnant they display a dark patch towards the back of their tummy called the gravid spot/patch and is actually the frys eyes inside the female which are darkly colored you are veiwing on the outside of her.
Whatever fish you buy for a new tank in any situation, stock the tank slowly- this means buying only 1 or 2 fish per week max for the tank to let the tank ecosystem adjust to their presence and avoid the tank going into a mini cycle or getting an ammonia spike and killing all your fish or making them sick.
As far as tank maintanenece is concerned, when your tank is finished doing its fishless cycle i advise you do at least a 30% water change with dechlorinator once a week- never clean the tank filter sponge out in tap water but only in old tank water from water changes and never do it more regualy than once every 10days- don't clean it too thoroughly either but simply just remove the large gunky bits as you don't want to kill off all your beneficial bacteria; it also goes without saying never buy a new sponge and never use any ammonia/nitrate or nitrite removal products as these will cause major issues for your tank and fish.
[snapback]896841[/snapback]
Tokis-Phoenix
^_^
Yeah whoops my bad, stock the tank well then- sorry somtimes your get a little mixed up in long posts 
)
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