# Guppy keepers



## GuppyFan (Jan 3, 2011)

Happy new year everyone,

I have been reading this forum for quite a while and I don't see many threads related to guppies. Do you keep guppies and where do you get them? I am quite crazy about guppies and want to start a discussion on them. Any photos? I attach the strain that I'm most crazy about and breed. I want to connect with other hobbyists that share the same craziness on guppies


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## plantedinvertz (Apr 21, 2010)

I keep a few guppies ( nothing fancy ) Got them from sponsors


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## Prelude2Life (Jun 22, 2010)

Im on the fence with guppies... i have a spare 10G i was thinking about using for guppies. Had them before in a 5 gal. They had babies, 1 survived didging in and outta java moss but a few weeks later the 3 adults just did over a few days. Water perams were good and water changes were frequent. Great thread, can never have to much info.


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

I set up a 10 gallon planted guppy tank for the wife.

The start up was a bit rough, variety of issues:
1) initial stock had ich
2) gravel buffered the PH too high while the KH remained too low
3) Plants hated the higher PH coupled with the hard water i was aiming for.

So once i tackled the ich, replaced the gravel and kept the tank at a neutral PH with a 3 dKH and 5dGH, the fishies and plants started to recover. Lost the initial stock over the recovery period, and the last male i used for breed stock. But managed to get 3 batches of fry in the process. I made no effort to seperate from the adults, let nature ween out the weak.

Fishies Purchased:
5 High mix Females, 2 died from ich, 2 died after birth, one survivor
1 Tequila sunrise male, died from bloat after ich
1 black moscow, died probably due to water instability.

The tank has been stable for about a month now. I removed all the guppies and put them into my 5 gallon, moved the male cobra guppy i had in my 29 gallon into the 10, then i moved the fry and lone remaining adult female into the 29 gallon. As fishies matured, i removed the males and put them into the 10 gallon tank. Then the test of patience, waiting for some females to morph into males in the 29 gallon, seemed to have 3 or 4 of them morph so far. The 10 gallon now is a mix of guplers, tequila mixes, and moscow mixes. 

interesting experience, no room to really breed out features, so waiting out the females until the last few wont morph then i'll find them a new home, as i prefer them not to be in the 29 gallon.


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## josephl (Apr 21, 2010)

I would love to keep guppies unfortunately for me, I cannot keep them alive for more than about 24 hours


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## April (Apr 21, 2010)

ive always loved guppies. definitely need harder water than ours to keep them healthy. i got some great ones . very large and strong . im keeping some to make more.  well trying..people keep wanting them. 
i just keep a small planted tank and alot survive. 
gotta keep your water good or they get fungus very easy and it spreads like wildfire.


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## Prelude2Life (Jun 22, 2010)

hmm never had fungus. Ill have to come buy and get some off ya ater the big tank is done. Whats the cause of fungus? Never really had any.

So i guess hard water is key for guppies?


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## Elle (Oct 25, 2010)

We've just started a fancy guppy tank a week and a half or so ago. Lost quite a few even though water params seem fine. Grrrrrrr.....

4 babies appeared on about day 3, they are now in the shrimp tank and doing well.


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## logan22 (Sep 6, 2010)

i have a 20 gallon full of female guppys and one male lepord tail guppy he is really nice to look at i did originally lose alot of guppies until i got the water were i needed it to be..but now they are having babies im having a hard time trying to keep the babies m still learning...they are so cute..guppies are fun to watch..they seem to know who iam now.. they all greet me at the tank...i think the idea of a discussion on guppys would be a great idea..i would love to hear everyones thoughts and experiences.

Cheers


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## InfraredDream (Jun 24, 2010)

My guppies are in the cray tank, so lots of Equilibrium to keep them all happy, I mean more then it is recommended. I lost none of the guppies, but I got them as babies from a member, so they were raised in my tank and my water. I have babies now and they do well. But the first couple of times when the female was still very young I only had 2-3 babies and they all ended up with fungus a few days later. So I guess she got mature and the babies are stronger. No lost during last 2 months or so. I don't wanna breed them though, so I plan to stop removing babies from the main tank.


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

I love endlers, which many consider to be a kind of guppy. They're not long-finned, though, but they're colourful.

I've found endlers to be very hardy and also prolific, with the parents not seeming at all interested in eating the fry, in my experience. The result is that no matter how many homes I find for my endlers, I always have too many. But they are lively and easy to look after and their fry are extremely hardy and self-sufficient from birth. I add Equilibrium to their water to keep the gH up, and they seem to like that.


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## Elle (Oct 25, 2010)

Well, I thought the fry would be fine in the 10 gallon shrimp tank, but Djamm caught one of the ghost shrimp eating one last night.  Ooops. The ghost shrimp may end up going in with the betta as a punishment! Fortunately the cherry shrimp don't seem to notice them, and the tetra aren't big enough to eat them.

We're still losing adults...time to do some more testing. They're in a 6 gallon planted Fluval Edge tank, water params are all zero. KH test again tonight. What is the ideal for fancy guppies in terms of KH?


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## logan22 (Sep 6, 2010)

i believe it's 6-11 Dgh


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## Shell Dweller (Jul 11, 2010)

I picked up a few guppies along with a tank I bought. They were in a 33gal. One female looked like she was about to burst so I put her in a semi bare 10 gal and 2 days later she had about 50 babies. I grew them out, but did loose a lot. About 2 months ago I bought a very nice blue tailed fancy male and left him in the 33 with all females as an experiment to see if we could raise a lot of fancy blue tailed guppies. About 3 weeks later we started collecting 1/2 dozen to a dozen or more babies just about everyday for the next 2 weeks. We put the babies into another 33 gal. We now have 3-33gal tanks with guppies ranging from babies to near adult. The babies are still growing and we dont know yet if we are going to end up with more blue tailed fancy guppies. Time will tell. Last week I could not resist and bought 3 more fancy males, light blue to black tails. They are in with our other male and we will see what happens. We also have swordtails, mollies and platies in the same tank which also breed and we just keep collecting babies and put them into our 33 baby tank. When they get an inch or so we transfer to another juvenile tank. I think i am going to have to get a bigger tank, soon.


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## trevorhoang (Oct 13, 2010)

Shell Dweller said:


> I picked up a few guppies along with a tank I bought. They were in a 33gal. One female looked like she was about to burst so I put her in a semi bare 10 gal and 2 days later she had about 50 babies. I grew them out, but did loose a lot. About 2 months ago I bought a very nice blue tailed fancy male and left him in the 33 with all females as an experiment to see if we could raise a lot of fancy blue tailed guppies. About 3 weeks later we started collecting 1/2 dozen to a dozen or more babies just about everyday for the next 2 weeks. We put the babies into another 33 gal. We now have 3-33gal tanks with guppies ranging from babies to near adult. The babies are still growing and we dont know yet if we are going to end up with more blue tailed fancy guppies. Time will tell. Last week I could not resist and bought 3 more fancy males, light blue to black tails. They are in with our other male and we will see what happens. We also have swordtails, mollies and platies in the same tank which also breed and we just keep collecting babies and put them into our 33 baby tank. When they get an inch or so we transfer to another juvenile tank. I think i am going to have to get a bigger tank, soon.


lol wow thats awsome. i picture a big tank with a whole lot of little babies swimming everywhere. hands up for a request for a 1 minute video!!!!

i raised guppies ever since i was young and i find them to be very hardy, low maintenance fish. i raised a guppy inside a 1g cidar jar once and he lived for a very long time. i now have a 35g tank with guppies and a bunch of other community fish.


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## GuppyFan (Jan 3, 2011)

It is very exciting to know that many forum members also keep guppies. I started keeping guppies as my first fish and never stopped since then. Guppies nowadays seem harder to keep. The guppies given to me by my friend years ago were so strong and forgiving that they survived all my beginner's mistakes.

Over the years, I find that slightly hard water is absolutely minimum for guppies while salt can do without. I still have difficulties raising babies as sometimes a batch will all survive while another batch will only be left with very few survivors and am still puzzled by it.

Anyone care to share some photos of your favourite guppies?


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## InfraredDream (Jun 24, 2010)

Years ago when I was in the hoppy back in Europe, guppies used to be the most tough and hardy fish given as the bery fisrt fish as they were forgiving and survived all the mistakes. I was very surprized how gentle and sensitive they are now. Maybe because they are so fancy or because of the so popular soft BC water, I have no idea. Once I got some babies from a member and they survived and now breed, I am back to feeling guppies are hardy ones  I have some offsprings in my snail breeding tank - unheated and probably not the best water, but it is really hard for sure. ALL babies grow FAST. They reason I keep them there is that I have endlers in other tanks and I don't wanna mix them, but still don't want to leave them in the guppy tank ans parents and the cray will snack them fast.


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## Momobobo (Sep 28, 2010)

My Guppys are incredibly hardy...Un heated, algea encrusted tank with perhaps 2x the recommended guppys in there and its my healthiest tank xD Not to mention when I cull, i toss the fish into the Cichlid tank they end surviving weeks o_0. Breed like crazy. Recently I finally have a male that is a cross between my mosaics and half red blacks, Interested in how it will turn out.


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## bamboo (Apr 28, 2010)

I just started doing a guppy tank in a 20gal planted. Very nice colors, yellow, blue, snakeskin, orange, red.....etc
Let's see how well it goes *crossing fingers*


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## PeteAce (Oct 23, 2010)

Good, I've been wanting to start a thread just like this. 

I have 2 tanks for my guppies. One for mixed adults (25g) and the other for their fry (20g). I have mixed feelings for guppies. They are easy to breed and look pretty but to me they get sick way too easily and it's definitely not a beginner's fish.

April's right that good water quality is a must... last week I changed 30% water without adding more Equillibrium to maintain the GH (dropped from 12 to 7 degree, it's the other thing i hate about our soft water and expensive to maintain with guppies), some then started to have clouded eyes and fungus. I used to treat them with medication now I don't even bother anymore. I got so tired of it that I just flash them down the toilet as soon as I see any sign of disease.

The good part is they breed like crazy and can replace the lost adults in time. I don't breed any particular strain as I do not want to spend too much money into it. The strain that I like (half black pastel white tail) would probably cost $100 to buy and ship. 

So as soon as I see fry I put them into my fry tank. I must have 60 - 100 in there now over the course of 2 months. I do not know what colours they will get and that's the fun of mixed breeding and would like to keep it natural and hoping they will be strong and healthy (so far so good in my fry tank). I too put culls into my cichlid tank every once in a while and they get chased down quickly.

One thing I didn't know is that females can morph into male?? I guess I will see when my fry grow up.


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## Theratboy_101 (Apr 27, 2010)

I'm just getting back in to guppies. I Had some hard times with petsmart guppies, they seem to be really small and sickly.

But i just went to my LFS and pig up 4 nice big ones 3female 1male (easily 2x the size of the petsmart ones) I just hope I have good luck with them

...now what do i do with the pair of bettas that are in my fry tank.... guess i'll have to set up another tank...


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## bowman00 (Apr 27, 2010)

I keep Guppies. Just bred abunch! My trio consists of a male blue moscow with 2 gold body and black and blue tails on the females. My juvies are getting to the point where I can put them in my big tank now. The juvie colours are the following: Females are all like the mother, Males: Blue moscow, Red Cobra and I think a bronze one.


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## Shell Dweller (Jul 11, 2010)

Gee I didnt know that about guppies morphing either. Learn something new everyday...


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## Elle (Oct 25, 2010)

I'm reviving this thread because our fancy guppies and endlers have been breeding like maniacs. Just had a new batch pop out yesterday. We're having to set up a new, larger tank for them.

Anybody want some guplets?


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## BullDog (Apr 21, 2010)

To be honest, I've never been a fan of guppies. I find the females very ugly, and the only redeeming feature of the males is their bright colours (sorry guppy lovers!).

But last summer I ended up with a handful of fry, and a pregnant female from my niece's, who didn't want them anymore.

I actually enjoyed raising the fry. Then when I got tired of the upkeep of their little tank, and they were big enough, they became turtle food.
Long story short, 3 guppies survived into "adulthood", 2 males and 1 female. Then, a short time ago, I found there was more than 3 guppies in the tank, but the female was no where in sight.

So I went soft, and moved the 2 males and 3 new fry into my 15g. 
I've been enjoying watching the fry again 

Haven't got many pics of them yet, but here's one of the males (with minnows)









And a fry:









I do like the colours of these males, they're a lot brighter than I would have guessed. I'm sure they're many generations away from my nieces first guppies!


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## spit.fire (Jan 3, 2011)

i keep quite a few guppies in a 30 gallon but i only have them for feeders, same with convicts that i keep in the same tank (babies that are harmless)


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## couch (Apr 22, 2010)

This website is a fabulous resource for Guppy people. Great forum as well.

www.guppy.com


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## daiju007 (Jan 28, 2011)

I just got a ten gallon tank and bought 4 guppies three that i got were pregnant females and i got one male. Does anyone no how long it takes for guppies to drop their fry? and should I be taking the male guppy out of the tank while the three guppies are pregnant?


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## Tarobot (Jun 27, 2010)

you should be more worried about the females eating the fry and not the male. females get hungry after the drop and hunts the fry down. either go for a breeder box or provide lots of hiding places.


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## Tazzy_toon (Jul 25, 2011)

I'm wondering the same thing, i have 2 very pregnant guppies, one of the females has looked ready to burst for over a week, but the male doesn't stop harrasing her. I have lots of hiding places, and i'm not worried about the parents eating them, but I have heard about females splitting from not being able to give birth.

BTW, I have 1 male flamingo with 2 females, in a lightly planted fluval edge with Java moss and crypt waiting for my 30 gallon to be cylced.


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## Shell Dweller (Jul 11, 2010)

Well I still have 2 33gal tanks running with guppies and a third one with my best males along with platies and swordtails. I have sold quite a few over the last 8 months and everyone seems to be happy with my stock. When I do sell you usually get 20 or so, ranging from males, females, juveniles and of course some babies. I dont do anything special with my water except to do weekly water changes, adding aqua plus, and sometimes some equlibrium. 
I have noticed lately some of the tails in male tank are getting nipped. I think I might put all the males back in the 2 33gal tanks and let them have a chance at the new females and see if their tails grow back nicely.


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## Shell Dweller (Jul 11, 2010)

Oh Yeah....I leave the babies in the tanks so I probably have lost a lot over the months. And I only feed them NLS.Spoiled little buggers...


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## Tazzy_toon (Jul 25, 2011)

OHGOSH, wouldn't you know right after posted about my female being ready to burst, I turned down the lights and kept the room quiet within 30mins she started droping fry, which she and the other 2 guppies instantly snatched up. I feed them a couple times to try to stop the feeding frenzy, but no luck, i'm hoping that a couple made it to the corner where I have a pile of java moss and a large fake plant and driftwood. The adults where trying to get in there so i'm thinking they did.

I was surprised at how agressively they were searching for the fry. Right now they're still pretty young, so she didn't drop a whole lot, but if they do that to their fry. I'm horrified at what they'll do to shrimp. I have to rethink the guppies and shrimp in my community tank.


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## PaulCheung (Apr 18, 2011)

My wife's coworker gave her a couple of male guppies a couple of weeks ago. I put them in my shrimp tank. May be someone can spare a male so that I can also enjoy raising guppy fry.


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## Ebonbolt (Aug 12, 2011)

I do keep a few guppies, although that's more to provide the occasional live treat for my cichlids... (Angels, rams, apistos).


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## Tazzy_toon (Jul 25, 2011)

Sorry, was that 2 males or 2 females?

you probably already know this, but if you got 2 males then you'll need at least 4 females, if you got 2 females and they were kept with males, it's quite possible they are already preggers. lol (although i've had 2 small batches of fry that were tiny because they are so young and they got gobbles up by the parents  )


PaulCheung said:


> My wife's coworker gave her a couple of male guppies a couple of weeks ago. I put them in my shrimp tank. May be someone can spare a male so that I can also enjoy raising guppy fry.


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## daiju007 (Jan 28, 2011)

my guppy dropped their fry and i bought a net to go btw the tank but the fish keep comming over.. does anyone know something better to use for the babies i am not even sure which guppy it is that had the babies i only see three but i think they will get eaten very soon if the fish keep crossing over the net would one of those breeding container be better? am i suppose to put the pregnant fish in there ? its very hard to tell which one is giving birth though because all three look very pregnant still even after giving birth to 3 or 4 babies


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## hlee72ca (Jun 29, 2010)

GuppyFan said:


> Happy new year everyone,
> 
> I have been reading this forum for quite a while and I don't see many threads related to guppies. Do you keep guppies and where do you get them? I am quite crazy about guppies and want to start a discussion on them. Any photos? I attach the strain that I'm most crazy about and breed. I want to connect with other hobbyists that share the same craziness on guppies


 The red albino is my favorite guppy. It gets hard to keep as the line loses its vigor after several generations, many top breeders cross a red delta(black eye) to get some vigor back. There was a guppy club in the lower mainland, the Pacific Northwest Guppy Association, it had a lot of top genetics from the most famous guppy breeders in the IFGA(International Fancy Guppy Assoc.) They had: Shubel`s, Gorski`s, Aldersons, Roebucks. Opdykes, etc. They had some awesome red albinos, they had the moscows before anybody in the lowermainland, giant greens, reds, pastels, etc.


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## daiju007 (Jan 28, 2011)

okay so i found three babies i caught them and put them in a cup so they dont get eaten and i am floating it in the tank can the babies survive in just a breeding cup or do i need to move them in a diff tank??


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## GuppyFan (Jan 3, 2011)

hlee72ca said:


> The red albino is my favorite guppy. It gets hard to keep as the line loses its vigor after several generations, many top breeders cross a red delta(black eye) to get some vigor back. There was a guppy club in the lower mainland, the Pacific Northwest Guppy Association, it had a lot of top genetics from the most famous guppy breeders in the IFGA(International Fancy Guppy Assoc.) They had: Shubel`s, Gorski`s, Aldersons, Roebucks. Opdykes, etc. They had some awesome red albinos, they had the moscows before anybody in the lowermainland, giant greens, reds, pastels, etc.


I see. Thanks for the tips. Now I have to find some red deltas. Anyone has seen them or know where we can find some?


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## coppercloud (Apr 14, 2012)

HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII i LOVE guppys here are some of mine!!!!






a misc guppy suposed to be a half black purple






An endler






And a yellow jacket or tiger endler with a unique tail ( was not bitter it grew in this way)


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