New at taking care of guppies?

Question

I am not sure about taking care of guppies but my kids have decided they would like fish. I purchased a small tank the kids would all like their own fish and we decided on guppies both male and female so they can tell their fish from the others. I realize that they will breed by doing this and need information on guppies. Although I do not plan to breed them on purpose I would like to know if you can leave the fry in the tank with the male and female adults or if this is harmful to the adults. If anyone can suggest a site that would provide information about everything on dealing with guppies I would appreciate it.

Answer 1

I'll give you my favorite Guppy link rather than directly answer your questions. The site listed below will answer all the questions you have now and all the questions you'll come up with in the future! Just hit the Guppy forums.

Answer 2

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
New at taking care of guppies?
I am not sure about taking care of guppies but my kids have decided they would like fish. I purchased a small tank the kids would all like their own fish and we decided on guppies both male and female so they can tell their fish from the others. I realize that they will breed by doing this and need...

Answer 3

Guppies are fairly easy to take care of, they're pretty forgiving about water hardness and acidity, the important thing is NO SUDDEN CHANGES. As long as they're used to the water and look healthy, that kind of water is ok for them. Having said that, you'll have to do the same cleaning that comes with any fish, I clean up the bottom of the tank and remove some water once a week and pour in water that's been sitting and treated and that keeps the water nice and clean.

Guppy males are more flashy than females, so if you don't want to deal with breeding you might want to stick to just males. The problem with breeding is that each female can produce about 30 fry once a month or so, and if you decided to try to save all of those fry you'll soon be drowning in fish. If you want to let nature take its course, you could just keep the tank planted well and see which fry survive best (yes the adults will eat their babies). Something else I found out though, is that once the fry are too big for the adults to eat, they can attack the adults! I had separated all the fry at birth from their mom, and when they got big enough put the females back in with their mom (she was the only adult I had left). Next day I see mom's fins are all tattered from the fry darting up to her and taking a bite! I'm sure if its a big enough tank (mine was just a 10) with a lot of plants and more adults the smaller fish would be less likely to attack, but its something to think about. So for the first part of the fry's life its more dangerous for them to live, but after a month or so, its dangerous for a lone adult vs. the fry.

If you have a really small (like a 5 gallon tank) then you'll probably want to stick to just three males or so, since that leaves very little space for babies to hide, or even for females to evade annoying males.

If you're concerned with telling the fish apart, you really should just get some males that have different coloring, it was really easy for me to tell mine apart since I had one with a sunset looking tail, and the other one was red and blue. Its amazing how many colors they come in, so it really shouldn't be much of an issue.

As someone else mentioned, regardless of which guppies you buy (or any fish for that matter) you should have a tank up and running for at least a week, during which you buy just one or two hardy looking guys. That way ammonia is introduced to the tank and bacteria that eats the ammonia grows enough to support the fish. (expect the tank to get cloudy during this time for a few days, this is normal) When buying more fish, just get one or two more at a time, its dangerous for all the fish if you dump in more than that. Also, when introducing the new fish to their tank, its a good idea to pour them out of the bag into a container of some sort (that's very clean but not soaped up, soap will kill fish) and slowly add some of the tank water to their container a bit at a time, so they get used to their new :"air" and the new temperature. Keeping them in that tiny plastic bag while acclimating isn't that hot an idea, since there is no new oxygen coming in and they're stuck in water with all the stress hormones in it.

Hope that helped ya out a bit.

Answer 4

Well, Guppies breed like rabbits. If you leave the fry in the same tank, they get eaten sometimes. You can have all males if there are hiding places and the tank is big enough. If your tank is 10 gallons or bigger, consider a community tank with 2 or 3 species of fish. I have had a starter tank with guppies, zebra danios and platys that worked out great. Good Luck.

Answer 5

guppies are really cute and pretty strong for as little as they are. You need to get a book on guppies when you get them it is really helpful. I fished the baby guppies out and used a seperate container for them. The others were eating them. And they are little. Good Luck

Answer 6

Get the kids,and your self a good book,learn how to cycle a tank, just putting fish in a tank is not the way to start,and usually just kills fish. If you don't want to get a book,check out a lot of web sites until you know what the right questions to ask are. Good luck.-----PeeTee

Answer 7

DO NOT PUT THEM UNDER DIRECT LIGHT. i did that with mine. i had one (we think she died giving birth). then i got another and put that on the night stand and that died but i didnt know why so i got 2 (so they would have company) and they died the night i took them home b/c i put them under the light. poor fish...i felt so bad when i realized why they died.