Guppy Fish

Million fish is a common nick-name of the Guppy because of its ability to breed and give birth so fast and frequently. The Guppy fish originated from Central America and has been bred into many different body shapes, colors, and even temperaments. This has to, in some part, be due to the biological fact that they are so prolific. Guppies are community fish, which means they are relatively peaceful and should not be kept with aggressive fish. They are known to be an easy fish for beginners to take care of because they are pretty hardy little fish.

If you don't want more than one or two though, you should get male guppies. Females are usually already impregnated by the time they get to the pet store. You can, however, find some females that have been separated early on and have never gotten the chance to mate yet. You would probably have to talk to the breeder of the guppies to find out if the female and male fry have been separated correctly, or at the right time, before they can mate.

A pet store may or may not have this information. It depends if they bred the fry themselves, or if they were told by the breeder they bought the fish from, that they were separated. Even if you buy a female guppy from a "female guppy only" tank, she could have been with males before she got there. You may end up having a whole bunch of guppies, which is good or bad depending on your position on how many fish you want or you have space for.

Male guppies are much more distinguishable than females because they have more color, longer fins, and a different body shape than the females. Female guppies have been bread to more colorful in recent times, so young guppies can be harder to sex.

A guppies sex can be found out at about a week old, but it is a trying affair because they are so small and they barely have any color yet. All guppies have a fin behind the two lower fins. The males is a modified fin that is called a gonopodium, and he will hold it close to his body until he wants to mate. The females lower fin is usually held down, and even more so when she is willing to mate.

A guppies natural life span can be from 2 to 5 years, depending on the temperature of the water the breed, and how well the fish are cared for.

Guppies like their water temperature range at about 75-80. The warmer the water the faster the fish grow, live and die.The cooler the water the slower their lives will play out.

Guppies are community tank fish, so that means that they usually get along relatively peacefully with other fish, other community fish that is, as well as aquarium invertebrates like ramshorn snails, and other tank inhabitants such as bottom feeders like clown loaches, crayfish and frogs. This means they cannot be in the same tank with aggressive fish because they will be eaten.

Guppies, especially their babies, are often used for feeding larger fish. These guppies are called feeder fish and are fed to the more aggressive types of fish like Cichlids or Oscars who are bigger and will eat live fish and other small freshwater aquarium animals.

Although, guppies can be quite feisty themselves, and they may fin nip or peck at some of the snails or other tank mates sometimes, but not bother or pic them to death usually.

The aquarium water needs to be treated if its coming out of the tap.

Water conditioner which removes metals, ammonia remover, chlorine remover and some type of product that helps the fishes slime coat is what you will need to enable the fish to survive in tap water, and these products can be found at most pet stores or through online stores. You can find all in one products as well so you don't have to measure out a whole bunch of treatment every time you change the tank water.

Some aquarium owners use bottled water to avoid the metal, bleach, and other things that are not safe for fish in tap water.

Guppies also like hard water, with the pH to at around 7-8. Testing supplies for pH and aquarium thermometers can be found at local pet stores or online pet stores as well.

If you plan to have more than one guppy of different sex in the tank, be sure the ratio is right.

The male fish will want to breed relentlessly, and if there are less females in the tank than males they will be constantly harassed.

Some females can even succumb to exhaustion and eventually death from the constant bombardment from males, who will sometimes even start fin nipping if they are not getting what they want.

This is another reason to have some plants in the tank because they can be a place for the female fish to hide in or confuse her pursuer for awhile, and the female, or females, can have a rest.

There should be two female guppies for every male guppy in the tank to avoid any complications. Even three females to one male is preferable.

Guppies eat regular tropical fish food.

Since they are plant eating tropical fish, they may like to have some fish food that is enhanced with vegetable, Spirulina or algae.

They also will eat some algae in the tank and nip at some plants, but usually don't demolish them. They also enjoy algae wafers too.

They really enjoy eating brine shrimp that are dried, live or frozen.

From time to time guppies will be effected by some type of illness. Whether it be from accidentally introducing the sickness or parasite by adding another fish, or new plants, or even just bad water quality, or even stress.

Some guppies immune systems just are not a good as others and they may perish from some sickness or parasite, while one will live through the ordeal. You just never know.

If your fish comes down with some type of parasite infestation such as Anchor Worm, Body Flukes, Gill Flukes, Fish Lice, Gill Mites these can all be helped and hopefully cured by fish parasite medicine such as Jungle Parasite Clear and other products that are at your pet supply store, or they can also be purchased on the Internet.

These chemicals are dangerous and should be handled with great caution. They can also be fed smashed pea for constipation or to get intestinal worms out, but you will usually need fish medication to rid your fish of parasites.

Many people get a "sick tank", or a small set up tank, to isolate a sick fish and medicate them only. That is so that the whole fish tank doesn't have to be medicated, because some fish and most crustaceans cannot tolerate many of the fish medicines that are available.

The fact is though, if one guppy has something, the rest probably have it to if the problem is not not caught early on.

Female guppies are said to be born pregnant and live pregnant for their whole lives. This is the case unless they are separated early on before successful mating is possible.

Guppies belong to a group of fish called live-bearers because they do not lay eggs and their babies, which are called fry, are born live and swimming. The female will be pregnant anywhere from 28 to 40 days. Every time they mate with a different male they hold sperm to fertilize their eggs. The female guppy can store sperm from one mating for as long as six months and have several batches of babies from this one fertilization. Some babies are developing at different times in their moms belly, which will be a dark area by the female fishes belly called a gravid spot, so she may have a few one day and then the next have a few more.

Female guppies can have from 4 to 40 babies at one time. Sometimes they will all be born together and there will be tons of them swimming around in your tank.

If you want to keep the fry, there are breeder nets or boxes you can buy that hang on the side of your aquarium to keep the female guppy in while she is giving birth. This protects the fry from being eaten by other fish in the tank, and somewhat protects them from the mother.

Keep her in the breeder box just until after she has the the babies. Remove her from the breeder net or box as soon as possible after having the babies because the fry start getting pretty active. Even if there is a separator in the breeder, she still may get to them and they will be her lunch.

Some female guppies cannot handle the stress of being cooped up in a guppy breeder and they may not drop the babies, or they may have a troubled labor. In this case you can get plants for the babies to hide in once they are born and this will protect some of them. Java moss is a favorite plant among aquarium keepers for breeding fish because the fry can easily hide in it.

Baby guppies can usually be placed in the main tank when they are about 3/4 of an inch long. Until then feed them crushed up fish food, or crushed brine shrimp.

If you want to keep your baby guppies, or fry, you have to act fast because any mature guppies or other fish in the tank will take the opportunity to eat them as soon as possible. This may be to your benefit if your tank is already full of fish. This is sort of a natural culling because every once in a while one or two strong fast little guppies will make it through to maturity with all the other fish in the tank by hiding in plants or around rocks.

Culling is a practice used by guppy breeders to separate out the genetic traits or defects the breeder doesn't want in his or her next generation of fish. It is harsh life, but I guess sometimes necessary in the world of guppies, especially if the fish has a genetic defect that makes their quality of life poor. Then culling is the only humane thing to do. Breeders are careful not to inbreed genes too much to avoid such tragic defects.

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