I stepped out of my box

[FroggyFox]

Hey all. After having only experience with Danios...I stepped over the bridge yesterday into a new fish...aren't you proud of me? haha

Anyway I got 3 guppies (as suggested I have two females and a male) and they are happily checking out their 10 gallon tank.

Have a few questions (I'm hope the rest of the freshwater crew will have some input too)

1. Any kind of schooling fish go particularly well with guppies? I was going to try Harlequin Rasboras if no one else has a better suggestion. (I don't particularly want to go with platies or mollys...was thinking a kind of tetra maybe?)

2. Danios are way more active than these appear to be...I left the lights out on them when I left for work this morning and they looked practically comotose when I got in this afternoon. I turned the light on and they perked up a bit. Do you guys notice that they like to have the lights on...or are they always lethargic?

3. If I got these two females out of a tank with a bunch of other guppies...what are my chances that both of them are prego? They both seem VERY fat...but here again I'm used to little slim danios, so maybe they're just always fat...

4. If a female is pregnant will the male leave her alone? It looks like the larger of the females is staying away from the other pair...and she swims slower too...but it could just be my imagination.

Anyway...comments would be appreciated Thanks in advance!

 

[sailfinmolly]

Guppies

I've kept guppies before with neons, platies, and swords, bottom feeders leave them alone too. I'm guessing some types of tetras wouldn't work out but the neons really complimented mine.

I don't think I have ever gotten a female guppy at the lfs that wasn't "prego" They breed fast and often.

Seems about every four weeks they give birth.

sailfin

 

[theeyrietrainer]

I would say not to get agressive tetras (no duh!) like Glolithe because when I put 4 of my Guppies in, they began looking hungrily at them as if they were food and the Glolithe began biting chunks off their tails! (Guppies tails are biten if confused)

 

[420Loach]

hey congratz froggyfox! guppies are fun to take care of, and reproduce like lightning. down here a lot of kids have guppy competitions to see who can make the most colorful ones! the farm down the street from my house gives guppies away for free too! they have a 150 gallon tank thats filled with em!

hhmmmmm.... (glances at old 10 gal)

 

[FroggyFox]

LOL thanks Loach.

Actually this morning when I woke up and the larger female that was staying away from the other two yesterday and not moving a lot was dead Apparantly she was sick when I got her, because the water parameters are just fine, and the other two guppies are doing wonderfully. Hey least I hadn't named her yet hehe

 

[Angelfish]

The guppy I have is very active, I hope the other two of yours arent sick. I'd guess that theres a 99% chance that your female is pregnant, and if not, will be soon
I dont know if your trying to stay away from them for this tank, but danios seem fine with guppys (at least mine does) so you could put some danios in for company, or neons or my fave bloodfin tetras would be a nice addition.
Have fun!

 

[FroggyFox]

haha thanks Angelfish. Actually my original plan was to move all of the danios out of my 15 and put something else in the 15...but they're having so much fun that I don't want to take them out (and I don't want to try and catch them!)

I think I'm going to keep the danios out of the 10 though...just in case the guppies breed i'm sure the danios would enjoy the snack, and I'd kinda like to have babies sooner or later.

I was going to get harlequins and tetras to put in the 10...but liked the guppies when I went in this weekend...so I think I've decided to get the harlequins to finish off the 10, and I still want the tetras so I guess I'll have to get another tank! -=snicker=-

Actually I would like to get some green neon tetras and some gold neon tetras...and since my lfs says they're really seasonal I can take awhile to set up a tank for them. I think it would be cool to have a whole neon tetra tank of different types of neons...if I can ever find them!

 

[FroggyFox]

Well...two out of the 3 guppies have now died. I have NO IDEA why. My water parameters are great...

The first one that died (above) was a female...and now the male died. This morning I was going to pull him out and put him in my quarentine tank because he was acting LOOPY. But my quarentine tank isn't finished cycling and I didn't want to kill him...just in case he was being wierd. BUT I guess I should have...because when I came home he was upside down on the bottom of the tank.

This morning he was hovering just above the gravel and kinda waving back and forth...then when I left for work he was swimming about...but stopping and swimming in circles like he was chasing his tail...showing no interest in the females or anything.

Last night he was ignoring the females and swimming with the baby harlequins instead.

I also added a new female last night out of the same tank that I got the original three from.

SO hey should I do a water change?

Do you usually just have fish kick the bucket like that after you've had them for a few days??

 

[tetra girl]

hmmm... guppies are a pretty hardy fish so they usually dont die after a couple of days. the harlequins are harressing the guppies are they? maybe the guppies have a disease thats slowly killing them. try looking for some signs and add some salt to the water if your waters not too hard.

go for the water changes

 

[FroggyFox]

water is pretty hard...but I tested my nitrates and everything tonight, nothing seems out of whack. The harlequins are LITTLE TINY babies lol about half the size of the guppies and no they're not doing anything to the guppies.

Got a new male from a different store tonight...so we'll see, maybe it was just the two of them, a weak strain or something?? who knows. Maybe he died of a broken heart after the other female died...

I've heard both directions about guppies being hardy...and then about them being not so hardy...after this week I'm not so sure...

 

[sailfinmolly]

I think guppies are prone to get sick. It seems like they get stressed over anything. I had a pretty good colony going, and I decided to add 1 tequilla sunrise male to add some new genetics to the mix, and wiped out half of the lot.

 

[catfishmike]

next time your at your lfs ask for feeder guppys.these are hardier that the line breed fancy kinds.they may not have fan tails but they do have random colors and kinda remind me of endlers livebearers.just make sure to grow them out so the other fish don't eat them.

 

[FroggyFox]

I doubt the harlequins would bug anything. Thanks catfishmike...I actually have looked...but the stores that I go to don't seem to have anything except fancy ones. If these ones kick the bucket I don't think I'll get anymore fancy ones though. Maybe I'll at least still have a fancy female left and can cross her with a feeder male or vice versa so I can get some babies that wont die??

 

[tetra girl]

why dont you try adding some stress coat or something along those lines to help the guppies relax abit. i would also turn off the light for a few days (hope u dont have any plants ) as too much light can lower a fishes immune system, turn up a temp a couple of degrees as well, maybe add some salt but that may not be an option due to your water being hard.

hope the rest live*SICK*

 

[FroggyFox]

thanks tetragirl...I just might do that. The new male I got is actually looking horrible tonight, almost as if he is so stressed out that he started shredding his tail (no one else is bothering him...he's literally pacing back and forth in one tiny spot of the tank like he's lost his mind). The light has been off since earlier this evening and I'll see if he makes it through the night. I did a 4 gallon water change this afternoon and added some extra stress coat. I can't overdose them on that stuff can i?

The two females as well as the rest of the tank inhabitants seem to be doing just fine...so I guess I just need to keep my fingers crossed that everyone will stop stressin out and get down to business of livin lol

OH and no I dont have any plants...I can't even keep houseplants alive...so I decided not to try aquarium ones just yet haha

 

[tetra girl]

hehe i also cant keep houseplants alive and it took me a while before i could get aqua plants to live

I hope your male makes it. na i dont think you can overdose on stresscoat but a water change between doses wouldnt hurt.

good luck

 

[FroggyFox]

he didn't make it...and now i'm down to 5 harlequins and a female guppy...and some ghost shrimp. I'm treating the tank with some meds that are supposed to treat fin rot and columnaris (fungal infections)

wheres the frustrated face....

 

[myfishnorton]

I didn't think that guppies were such a hard fish to keep. Mybe yours were just sick. Are you going to try some other ones? perhaps feeder guppies like suggested earlier?

 

[FroggyFox]

Eh...I think perhaps its a common misconception that it is easy to keep guppies I'm pretty sure that it has been a combination of factors that made this first attempt at guppies turn so ugly.

I currently have 3 little harlequins in the tank with one female fancy guppy.

Short answer. YES. I will get some more guppies. Its obvious that this one female is doing alright, so my water cant be funky or anything right?
I was going to wait a week or so (been almost a week now I believe since the last fish died) and then see what I can find. None of the stores I go to have had anything besides fancy guppies. The guppies I started out with were as close to feeders as I could find...but apparantly they were just lower quality fancy ones. Then I introduced more guppies from different places to replace the ones that died and I think I had some very sick, stressed out, diseased animals.

I do like the guppies though, I think they're very cute. Now that I have more room I think I will lean towards the guppies and try again. I don't know though lol I'm almost scared to now...I hate it when these fish keep dying for seemingly no reason. BUT yes the plan is to get a male and a female from somewhere...maybe petsmart this time?? (I didn't get any from petsmart yet lol) and see how they do in the tank after these fish have been OK and stable for a week or so.

 

[crook]

all the guppies i get die within a day or 2 (i get my guppies from petsmart) i read somewhere that alot of guppies die after a are shiped because they are sometimes druged during there shiping so they can last the shiping one time i bought a guppie it swims to the the corner of the tank 2 hours later its dead i i put the bag on top of the water for like 20min fixed the ph i just cant keep guppies alive i have had 4 dies so far doing the same thing