Which Are More Hardy?

[willowstwin]

Hi all

Everything seemed to be going great with my tank, and then randomly I've had problems with guppies, deaths with different symptoms (water parameters and other fish fine), and so I'm starting to give up on guppy keeping. The more I read, the more I find out that guppies aren't very hardy. I know different people who have had guppies from the same lfs and even though they all have different tanks, water hardness, etc, the deaths of the guppies are random, and without a clear cause. Some people seem to be able to keep them, some dont, and although I'm in love with guppies, I'm seemingly one of the unfortunate ones.

As such, I've decided to try and keep a couple of either mollies or platies. Can anyone recommend which would be best for a 48 litre with 4 neon tetras?

Willow

 

[fluttermoth]

Platies, without a doubt. People don't realise how big mollies grow (should be about 4 inches), so they would be too big for your tank.

 

[willowstwin]

I was thinking about platies anyway, but its good to know bout the mollies

Are they like guppies, where the males are more colourful than the females? If I kept a same sex group, would they all have to be the same colour? Or could I have a mix, like with my male guppies? (I like to tell them apart)

 

[snazy]

Guppies are hardy fish.
I just don't know why people can't manage to keep them alive.
From my experience, they are so hardy, that they may not exhibit the visual signs for a lot longer than you would normally expect from other fish. Also, people tend to keep guppies in overcrowded tanks without controlling their breeding habits.
Take for example a simple sickness like ich. I have had guppies that don't show any signs of the sickness besides hiding from time to time for more than a week before the actual ich spots appear and at the same time other fish were already dead.
Hexamita is another guppy disease I have treated, and it can be in the tank for months. You may have a dead fish a week for many weeks before the sickness really shows itself in full glory.
So if there are dying fish, to me that means there is a cause other than some legend about guppies being inbred.

 

[snake007]

Guppies seem to be getting weaker and weaker and more and more people are having guppy problems, must be linked together.

 

[snazy]

Before I see proper statistics, I won't believe guppies have become weaker. Maybe I was really lucky then?
Consider the fact that guppies mostly go into uncycled tanks, being recommended by the LFS to beginners.
Most stories I have seen on this forum for example is that guppies die within the first 24 hours of being introduced to someone's tank. Strange that they don't die after a while as if they were weak in general, that doesn't really mean they would die the moment they change tanks, but rather have short life instead full of diseases.

 

[OldMan47]

My own experience with guppies in general is that they are tough as nails fish. I have lived in the south west an now in the midwest in the US and in eastern Canada and always kept guppies in whatever water came from the tap. Over the years I have seen guppies live through heater failures and diseased tanks while other fish that they were with were busy dying off. I keep my present colony in a 10 gallon tank and allow them to colony breed while removing most adults every few months to sell them at club auctions. This means my population varies from quite crowded to reasonable and back to quite crowded again. The colony has been inbred for at least 6 years and just keeps thriving and reproducing. I add in an occasional pair of fish that happen to catch my fancy but they just breed into the general population producing some interesting results.

A few differences: Unlike many people, I do not stress feeding high protein diets. Instead I use a good quality food that is heavy in vegetable matter and I switch foods quite often. I figure that no single manufacturer makes a perfect food, so by changing around I provide my fish with a better overall diet. I also keep my guppy tank cooler than many people do at a mere 73F,23C. It makes for better oxygenation of the water and is well within the acceptable range for guppies.

 

[seabear]

Hi all

Everything seemed to be going great with my tank, and then randomly I've had problems with guppies, deaths with different symptoms (water parameters and other fish fine), and so I'm starting to give up on guppy keeping. The more I read, the more I find out that guppies aren't very hardy. I know different people who have had guppies from the same lfs and even though they all have different tanks, water hardness, etc, the deaths of the guppies are random, and without a clear cause. Some people seem to be able to keep them, some dont, and although I'm in love with guppies, I'm seemingly one of the unfortunate ones.

As such, I've decided to try and keep a couple of either mollies or platies. Can anyone recommend which would be best for a 48 litre with 4 neon tetras?

Willow

interestingly I have the same problem you have. 6 out of 8 of my guppies died one by one with different cause, some had physical damage and some didn't (one was totally fine but died in 2 hours after I fed them, looked like he had a car accident and broke his bones..). Water parameter and other fish (except one platy) were fine. I've been monitoring the 2 survivors very closely, and the only thing I see is one of them has very little damage on the tail. And just like you, I read many posts saying guppies are hardy fish but it's not working for me.

 

[*pete*]

Hi all

Everything seemed to be going great with my tank, and then randomly I've had problems with guppies, deaths with different symptoms (water parameters and other fish fine), and so I'm starting to give up on guppy keeping. The more I read, the more I find out that guppies aren't very hardy. I know different people who have had guppies from the same lfs and even though they all have different tanks, water hardness, etc, the deaths of the guppies are random, and without a clear cause. Some people seem to be able to keep them, some dont, and although I'm in love with guppies, I'm seemingly one of the unfortunate ones.

As such, I've decided to try and keep a couple of either mollies or platies. Can anyone recommend which would be best for a 48 litre with 4 neon tetras?

Willow

interestingly I have the same problem you have. 6 out of 8 of my guppies died one by one with different cause, some had physical damage and some didn't (one was totally fine but died in 2 hours after I fed them, looked like he had a car accident and broke his bones..). Water parameter and other fish (except one platy) were fine. I've been monitoring the 2 survivors very closely, and the only thing I see is one of them has very little damage on the tail. And just like you, I read many posts saying guppies are hardy fish but it's not working for me.

After keeping cichlids for many years I went back to keeping Guppies again two years ago, after about a year or so I gave up, I cant seem to keep them alive for more than 3/4 months, I opted for Platy's and Swordtails and had no problems at all and have had a lively mixed 3ft community tank of them going for over a year now.

I've scanned the forums for advice and found the answers I've been seeking and would like to try again with wild strain but they are proving difficult to source.

 

[Liam2368]

you dont want guppies from Thailand, Indonesia or even America they have been bread and bread and bread fir specific colours etc and now are from a very week gene pool.

 

[fish48]

I agree 100% with oldman they are tough as nails when kept at the lower temp-. a good verity of quality foods and live foods should be fed I have some wild guppies that have been inbred for 20 years i feed them on live foods almost daily. even at a temp of about 70f , they just breed and breed with know problems

 

[fish48]

 

[Akasha72]

I was thinking about platies anyway, but its good to know bout the mollies

Are they like guppies, where the males are more colourful than the females? If I kept a same sex group, would they all have to be the same colour? Or could I have a mix, like with my male guppies? (I like to tell them apart)

Hi, You can mix and match different variants of platies with no problems. You'll need to keep 2/3 females with a male to avoid stress but having said that I've not found either of my males to be as persistant as male guppies. They are really easy and you can get some really pretty colours if that's what you like. The standard platy will grow to around 5 or 6 centimetre's, males are always smaller than females. I have a red wagtail 'spitz' male. He's red with a black tail which tapers out and they can be really lovely in colours. Beware of swordtails (also a platy breed) they get much bigger so may be too big for a 48 litre. I'd say you'd get away with maybe 5 or 6 platies so long as you keep an eye on the water.

Good luck

 

[seabear]

Nice guppies you have!
So you are saying they will become weaker in temp of 80-82f? I can't keep the temp lower than this.

 

[nehpets81]

Ah, this post seems to be on the same theme as mine- didn't see this before I posted but I seem to have come to the same conclusion as the OP. I wonder if there is a common theme for which Guppies seem to be weaker - are the fish sold in UK shops less hardy than those sold in the US or Australia for example? Perhaps it is a certain breeder?

To Snazy - how did the Hexamita manifest itself in your Guppies?