Fancy guppy

Archive for the ‘Guppy Care’ Category

The fishes come in all varieties, and most are pleasing to the sights. Of course, not all can be kept at home because of acclimatization and the true lovers have to short-list their choices by quite a bit. Fancy Guppy is one of the fine fishes to keep.
Fancy Guppy, a very cut name, belongs to a very cute specie of fishes. They are very gregarious (they love to live in groups) and can accommodate in all environment, freshwater even brackish.
They have the appearance of being quite busy and very rarely are they found resting in peace for a long period. Quite notorious by nature, Fancy Guppies love to trim the fins of fellow fishes and play with the additions the owner adds to the aquarium like shells, algae and barbs.
The aquarium is a house to the fishes and necessary care has to be taken before replenishing it with Fancy Guppy. It is advisable to keep the quota per fish of the breed at 3 gallons. Lack of water may be detrimental to the aquarium’s population as Fancy Guppy has the tendency to turn territorial.
Some salt addition to the water keeps them conditioned and comfortable with the water content. Fancy Guppies may be fed flake food randomly with partially freeze-dried stuff. It should however be kept in mind that the fish finds freeze-dried food indigestible. Tubiflex and bloodworms are other nice tries for the parents and fries.
The parents also have the ready and bizarre option of eating their own fries if the situation demands so. Thus it is always beneficial to keep an eye on the safety of the fries, at least till they grow big enough to fight for their own existence.
Suitable hiding grounds, barbs and small dens are very handy in gaining the fries some security. An additional joined aquarium may also be handed over to them to feel at home. The fries should only be fed brine shrimps till they are no more fries.
Disease, a proximal certainty in the lives of every creature, is a big worry. And care should be taken in this regard. Since Fancy Guppy is an aquatic animal, and water diseases are quite often very infectious, the affected fishes should at once be separated and put in a fresh medicated tank.
The number of different species should be carefully sieved after checking out that none are natural disease transmitter to the other. Books and a little expert advice should be checked for to analyze whether there is outbreak of any disease.
One should always be conscious of keeping quality stock. The week ones should be eliminated without hesitation as the result would be production of stronger breeds. The quality breed needs an eye to ascertain and here also, experts should be consulted.
The males should ideally be kept with females in ratio of 2:1 to keep the atmosphere alive. The females die due to repeated mating attempts id they are one to one in the glasshouse.
This too needs care!

Fancy guppy is very beautiful hardy fish to keep in aquarium.  But to keep it healthy is not so easy. Here are few Tips how to Keep Fancy Guppies.

1. When you start, get one or two trios in the same line. In order to maintain and keep a single pure strain, will need about 8 to 10 tanks. It is best to use small tanks of 5 gallons for breeders and fry.  Fancy Guppies can live in a wide range of water conditions. The chemistry of water is a pH of 7.2 and moderate hardness, but will be adapted to water is between 6.4 to 8.6, while acclimated. The first thing to do is to put your newly acquired livestock in a clean environment (do not use soap), that the container is large enough to support each trio, big enough so you can add an equal quantity of water tank. DO NOT  FLOAT UNOPENED BAGS. After placing his trio in this aquarium, which are set to leave for a short period of time.

After a short period of time (approx. 15 minutes) from start to add about 3 to 4 ounces of water slowly into the Guppy aquarium. Do it slowly over a period of approximately one hour, until almost doubled the volume of water. Do not rush  in this important process of acclimatization. Make sure the fancy guppy can not jump from the aquarium. When you are done, your fancy guppies settled down, carefully transfer them to new tank. Do not feed. Observe and be patient. After about an hour feed a baby guppies brine shrimp or a pinch of dry food is a lot.  In about a month you will start getting baby guppy. Be ready to take tank space available for each drop of raising guppy babies. After 3 – 4 weeks is starting to get rid of virgin young women for future breeders.

2. Keeping young guppy fry in small tanks, allows them  much easier to find food without burning too much energy. If your baby guppies are more than 60 , it is better to raise them in 10 gallon tanks.

3. The daily diet of newly hatched brine shrimp to guppy babies for least 4 months is required for proper growth.

4. Inside the box are all filters that are required and are the choice of most of the best breeders. A layer of polyester with cotton balls or gravel is all you need for the filter material. I use dolomite gravel because it helps neutralize the effects of water. Dolomite can be found in most pet stores that sell saltwater fish. alternative to dolomite is shells of oysters. Sponge filters are another type of filter that works equally well when used properly. Filters sponge should be rinsed sometimes without destroying the living bacteria.

5. Changes in water: 30-50% weekly or biweekly water changes are necessary for the development and size. Always siphon tank to the bottom. Avoid adding water to tanks lost by evaporation. It is important to purchase a reliable water test kit to see what your tank or tap water conditions. pH Test Kits, hardness test kits and ammonia test kits are easy to use. First time fish maintenance managers must understand the chemistry of water and its effect on keeping Fancy Guppies.

6. Small periodic feeding is best for your young baby fancy guppies. Overfeeding your fancy guppies is probably the main cause of death. Small pinches of shredded good quality flakes is better if fed every hour. Fancy guppy can not digest freeze dried food so better not feed them this type of food. If  fancy guppies are not aggressively searching for food, simply do not feed them.

7. 4 to 5 weeks, juveniles must be separated by sex. Eliminate or just enough to isolate the female guppy that you need to configure your next set of breeders. Guppy female are easily distinguishable from guppy male because they have a dark area just above the anal fin, where fertilization takes place. This region is also known as the “Gravid spot”.  Discard all disabled or inferior guppies. If you were able to acquire a strain of high quality, it should be compulsory to discard. If you need to discard more than 20% of litters then you are not having pure strain.

8. Keep bare their tanks, it is easier to monitor and maintain and avoids the problems caused by gravel and plants. Most guppy books explain fancy guppy life cycle. If you have never raised live bearers I suggest you buy a good book on the tropical fish. Female guppies will look bigger and rounded, once impregnated. Just prior to the female having birth they take on a squared-off appearance. The area just above the anal fin, called “gravid spot” will be darker.

9. Keep your guppy breeders and guppy fry at temperatures between 76 and 82 degrees. Fancy Guppies can be kept at temperatures higher among 72 to 76 degrees.

10. Do not overwhelm you in the beginning starting with too many fish. Remember that if fancy guppies are  in good health, every 28 to 35 days they breed and give birth to guppy fry. A good idea is not to mix different fry (or even the same strain), and until they are at least 3 months. You may pay more for your breeding stock than you expect, but starting with young, top quality breeding stock can save you a great deal of money if purchased from a reputable guppy breeder.

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Credits to original article published at http://guppyz.tripod.com/guppy_tips.html

Fancy guppy is very hardy, very easy to maintain, so choice of beginners. Here are some information about fancy guppies and how to set guppy aquarium.

It’s very exiting to set up your first aquarium or fish tank. One has to learn how to setup fish tank before to bring your guppies to tank.

Lets get hand on some information. To begin with here is list of items you should have to setup new aquarium.

Recommended aquarium supplies

• Appropriate size aquarium
• Aquarium cover
• Decor
• Aquarium light
• Water conditioner
• Water test kit
• Thermometer
• Heater
• Filter
• Net
• Airstone
• Air Pump
• Substrate
• Aquarium salt
• Flake Food
• Blood worm
• Brine shrimp
• Book about freshwater Aquariums like Tropical Fish Secrete, katys Tropical Fish – A Complete Guide
• Optional : breeding tank
  

Once you are done with this list, you are ready to go set up your guppy tank. Fancy guppies requires less space than other fish i.e. almost 1 inch of fish per gallon of water. (there are various methods to calculate no of fish per tank) Means you can have more guppies in less space. But my suggestion is to give more space to your fancy guppy keeps it happy and hence colorful. Guppies like a little barkish water so add some salt to your tank. You do not need salinity as much as scat or mono fish, but a little salt will keep your fancy guppies happy.

Beginner’s setup

Rinse substate well then add it tank. (if you have puchaseed ready to add then no problem) Befoe you pour water in tank keep all decor you have. Then add water by tube or watering pipe. Add water conditioners. This will soften water and remove clorine from water. Let water set there for a day or two. Insert airiating tube and heater to tank. Install filter and heater. Now you are ready to put your beloved Fancy Guppy in to your aquarium.

Compatibility

Fancy Guppies are suitable in many community aquariums. Keep them away from fin nippers barbs and gourami. They are friendy with most of tetras, (some tetra will trouble them), other live bearers,  catfish, rainbow fish. Even you can add Barbs to this tank provided you add more than 6 barbs.  them barbs are busy in chassing each other and don’t nip fins. Mostly all guppies are peaceful but they might turn territorial. to keep good peace in tank you should keep 2 females guppies per 1 male guppy.

Environment

Fancy guppies are peace loving schooling fish. Suggested number is 5 or more. Guppy like little barkish water, hence maintain proper salinity level in your tank. They like hard water and salinity upto 150% of normal sea water. They can not sustain sudden change in temperatures. But can live in wide range of temrature 23 °C to 30 °C or 73 °F to 86 °F and prefer 27 °C or 82 °F. They can inhabitant in all levels of aquarium. Plants and caves for hideout is great advantage. Newly born guppy fry get advantage of plantations and caves in aquarium.

Feeding

Guppies can eat variety of food. They like both live and frozen food. They can eat tubifix bloodworm, baby brine shrimps (live or frozen), tropical flakes, floating food or sinking food.As far as feeding is concern do not worry as they can eat lot of variety food. Feed your fancy guppies 2 / 3 times a day varying each time. e.g. give live food in morning and flake in noon and bits in night.

Maintenance

Check temperature, filter, other equipments daily. Change about 15% water every week or 2 weeks. Check water condition at least once in a week. Add or remove new fishes to guppy tank gradually.

Diseases

Guppies mainly suffer from following diseases. but there are many other diseases and will be discussed later in detail.

Fin Rot :- Fins appear opaque

Ich :- Fish rubs against hard surface

Fungus :- bacterial growth on fish body

White spot :- white colored spots on body

When you observe your Fancy guppy is ill, immediately take it out from main tank and put it in separate tank. Raise water temprature to 30 °C to 32 °C or 86 °F to 90 °F, add some addtinal salt, add appropriate medicine brought from fish store, add 1 capsule teramicine (or equivalent) 200mg per 50 liters.

This is very primary level information about starting your Fancy Guppy aquarium. Keep exprimenting as you gain more and more exprence. Do take care of all your guppies