Guppy question(I know it's not discus)

[Giniel]

My daughter and son talked me into getting a couple of guppies at walmart tonight.
I know very little about raising guppies as these 2 are fat females with dark little tummies.
1) what kind of filtration is best ?
2)Do I need gravel?(barebottom 10 gallon with fake plants and grass)
3) what temp is best for them?

And anyhting else you guys can add would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Debbie

[greyhoundfan]

They are very hardy fish and don't need much filtration. It also depends on how big of tank you're going to keep them in. You could probably keep them pretty well in a 10 G tank, with a sponge filter. You don't need a heater for them either.

I know you know..but it's always worth mentioning...Don't put it with your discus. I wouldn't trust Walmart to have disease free fish. Two guppies can magically turn into 20 guppies overnite.

My wife bought me baby catfish from Petco for my discus tank.. bless her heart.. I told her they couldn't withstand the high temp. of my tank. I promptly returned them and got store credit. It was the thought that counts.

[Giniel]

They don't need a heater huh??!! cool. I have a sponge filter I can use also. They are in a 10 gallon with just the 2 females. I really hate walmart fish becuase there are always sick and dead fish in the tanks and they are on a central filtration system. But my 6 year old daughter said PLEASE MOMMY...And you know what that means.LOL
Thanks
Debbie

ps. should I use some quick cure on them before they have the babies or not??? They did come from Walmart.

[traco]

I'd just leave them alone and not dose meds unless needed. And they are pregnant so if not needed, just watch them. A sponge filter will be fine especially as babies will be coming within the next month. Do you have some plants/places for the babies to hide when they get born? Ssshhhh, I know you have small children and sometimes the mom guppy will eat the babies as soon as they are born.:( But with the fry so small, your kids might not even notice there are babies in there till they grow a bit. Survival of the fittest.

They really are fun little fish. I've got about 15 outside in a big pond for the summer. I'll be bringing them in for the winter so who knows how many I'll have by then?!

Oh, and I also have had guppies in with my discus. BUT these were second and third generation home bred ones so no chance of disease being introduced to my discus. Of course, the fry that are born in the discus tank don't make it. Snacks for the discus.

[Giniel]

Is there anything special to feed the babies when born?? Would fry food for disucs work ??

Thanks
Debbie

[traco]

I never fed anything different when babies were born. I did make sure I would crush up some of the flake food very fine to feed along with bigger pieces of flake food for the adults. That's all. Easy.:D

[wolfbane]

Guppies are tough lil buggers! Put some plastec plants, or real ones, in there to hide the new babies. Soon there will be lots of lil guppies to watch. We used to keep them in mayo jars when I was a kid.

[Giniel]

They have 2 large squares of plastic grass and about 3 or 4 plastic plants along with a very small clay pot and another peice of decor (kind of like a cave). I will add the sponge and tank out the small heater.
Thank you all for the info.

Debbie

[lhforbes12]

My wife bought me baby catfish from Petco for my discus tank.. bless her heart.. I told her they couldn't withstand the high temp. of my tank. I promptly returned them and got store credit. It was the thought that counts.

Reid,
You were alot smarter than me. Ingrid came home with some Cardinals for me a few months back, I was not expecting them and so had no QT setup to hold them. Instead of doing the smart thing and returning them, I put them in the 125 gallon. Thank goodness there were no discus in it at the time, they promptly gave the tank Ich. btw most of them died and they cost 4 fricken dollars each! Grrrrrrrrrr PetsMart. Thankfully she is becoming interested in aquariums, and discus especially, and now knows much more than she did then. Of course the downside of this is that she's smarter than me and much more observant, so now she is continually pointing out things to me that I had missed :-/
<grumbles> stupid smart women...

[greyhoundfan]

the guppies will feel like they're at the Hilton. I only start using meds on fish IF the Fish cost more than the meds.

[lhforbes12]

Oh yeah

Debbie,
I agree with Barb and Debbie <that sounds a bit odd> (not the agreeing part, the double Debbie part... anyway) thick plants for cover, especially floating ones if you can. Actually your setup sounds pretty good already.
And yeah, the babies are fairly large and can eat regular flake food right away. The only problem with baby guppys is... well.. more baby guppys

Larry

[Giniel]

Well, it isn't going to be a month... They are having them now!!!!!
How many can 1 guppy have at a time????
Here are some pics of the tank.
Debbie

[Giniel]

Here is the biggest one.This one is blurry but she won't come down any further while I am near the tank.
Debbie

[Giniel]

Here is the smaller one.She is blending in with the stone at the back of the tank to get away from the other one.
Which one do you think is having them??The larger one?
Debbie

[greyhoundfan]

Thanks Larry..That was the excuse I told my wife. I didn't want to tell her that the catfishes are probably disease ridden and I wouldn't dare mix them up with my discus or even bother QT'ing them.:D

Debbie, You'll probably get around a dozen babies for each pregnant guppy. Maybe half of them will be eaten by their mommy.

[traco]

I found whenever my females were giving birth, they stayed pretty much at the top. So, they must like their new home, heh, giving birth so quick?:D

[wolfbane]

Guppies can have just a few or many,many at a time. A dozen is a good average. I only saw the birth once, kinda like popcorn, "pop-pop" and they are ready to hide from Mom and eat right away.BTW I found that my guppies love BHmix too, makes em grow fast! Guppies eat algae too, not as good as BN, but they like it. I put some of my overflow in some planted water buckets outside, to eat mosquito larvae, some in my pond,......they're everywhere!!

[Giniel]

Ok just how fat will a female get. This poor little momma looks so uncomfortable.. Her belly is about 3 to 4 time the size it should be.Does that mean she is going to have a whole lot of babies when she finally does have them?? Oh , I forgot , what about lighting??? Should I leave it on all the time or turn it off at night??


Thanks
Debbie

[greyhoundfan]

Giniel, you're worrying too much. Your guppies would be fine. The only thing you have to worry about are the parents. They will eat their own babies if you don't seperate them. Don't worry about lights, guppy babies aren't like discus fry, they don't want to hang around their parents. In fact they'll probably want to avoid them.

[Dissident]

Guppies will have 8-18 fry on average. Don't worry about the parents eating all of them you will have more than you know what to do with in 3 months.
Females will hold 5 sperm packets at a time so you can have a tank of all females and have multiple births from the same female for weeks on end with no males in the tank.

Now whenever I do WC in the GF's 55gal with guppies I TRY to suck up as many as possible. I think I am finaly down to 5 guppies and can hopefully claim the tank back soon.