guppy inheritance-- how did he do it?

[amelia]

My father passed away last week. Over the years (excluding the past five), he and I enjoyed keeping fish together. About 3-4 years ago, he bought a pair of fancy guppies from our local pet store, three albino corydoras, and a plecostomus, which I attained from him before he died as it had grown to about 7 inches in length.

He kept his fish in a 10 gallon setup with a thirty year old filter (which my grandmother has disposed of, as she said it burned out. I know it got clogged on occasion and needed to be cleaned, but she must not have known this.) an inch of gravel, a fake plant, and sea shells. He never once did a water change.

His one pair of fish three years ago has multiplied into about 75 (55 adults, 20 newborn fry), all of which he kept in this single tank. I have never in my life been so successful at breeding fish, where he was quite successful and never tried.

He tried to give me his guppies before he died, but I would not take them because of the seventeen goldfish and two koi I own. I thought I had no room. Now that he has passed, all that he owns is now in my possession, including those fishes. I want to continue breeding them in his memory, but I don't understand how a person could breed such amazing, healthy fish in such numbers when all he ever did was feed them!

Should I follow his lead and put the original rocks and plant back in the aquarium and only fill the tank with water when the level falls? Or should I do things my own way and do weekly water changes?

Every one of the fish survived the move from his apartment to my home, and they've been with me about three days now. They're happy and look as great as they did when he was keeping them..

Any advice on how to go about continuing their lines?

Thanks all,

Amelia

[AshleytheGreat]

I would get rid of the plecostomus... as they will get wayyy to big for a 10 gallon tank.

[amelia]

I'm sorry. I should hve specified. I agreed to take the pleco from him before he died to put in my 55 gallon with my goldfishes. I know that the pleco was too big for the 10 gallon---I'm not new to fishkeeping. My question is about the guppies, also, not the other fish.

[Hamm35924]

well i would get a bigger tank for all those guppies, and do weekly water changes.

[fishfreaks]

Originally Posted by Hamm35924

well i would get a bigger tank for all those guppies, and do weekly water changes.

same here since they do multiply fast. or just seperate them. As for putting in your fathers decor, i believe its a personal opinion.

[fish_doc]

If you want to breed the fish i think the decor would continue to work fine. You may want to do water changes like you do on your other tank. Reading your other posts you seem to know quite a bit about them already. I think you will do just fine with them.

[amelia]

I have plenty of other ten gallon aquariums and extra filters, so seperating them won't be a problem when they get too crowded. They really aren't crowded right now, seeing as about 20 of the "adult" fish (I say adult since some are getting color and some are just big enough to put in with the other adults) still aren't grown. Once they get bigger, though, the tank might be a bit crowded, and I'm certain it'll be crowded once these 20 newborns grow up. I've got lots of backup, and I am considering building a shelving unit to keep all of the aquariums on with a single flourescent light above each row..

Seperating them won't be a problem once they get crowded.

Thank you, fish_doc. I am not extremely fond of the decor--white rocks that the paint is wearing off, letting green show through and appearing like algae.. and that pink plastic plant that's greened as well.. But I suppose it's sentimental, and the fish were comfortable enough to breed like rabbits with that stuff before..

I am very, very surprised that they have all lived through the move--of course, I've been surprised with the survival of all of my fish lately. I've only recently come back into fishkeeping (since I quit after a disaster with some full red guppies..). I originally started out with three new goldfish from a bait shop.. Stuck them in water fresh from the tap, a filter that had been run on a previous aquarium who's cartridge had never been changed out, and the gallon or so of water from their original pond.. I've only had one of the whole group of fish (about 12 of them) that I've got from this bait shop in town die.. Unknown cause of death. The rest are thriving. I set up my 55 gallon again a few weeks ago.. Nothing but tap water and a little from the established 10 gallon.. new filter cartriges. Stuck the fish right in and they thrived.. Didn't even act a bit tipsy. I set up my 35 gallon again last night, stuck the butterfly koi I have right in.. she was fine.

I wasn't expecting to have to take these fish so fast, or I would have tried to cycle the tank.. But again, sentimental value. I wanted to use the original tank that my dad had for them. They went in with tapwater and the water from the jars I hauled them over in. Not a single death---not even from the 20 little fry I expected to be too stressed from the trip to live. Either our water quality is just plain great here or those are some dang hardy fish..



I think I may do water changes every now and then on the guppy tank, but not nearly as often as I do with the goldfishes (20% every 3-4 days and once a week for the kois.)

Cross your fingers that I can keep these guys going!!!

[TheOldSalt]

75 fish in three years is not very many. If things were really all that great, you'd have over a hundred thousand of them by now instead. Your fish are really just barely surviving as a population. LOL!
If you give them better care, they'll do better. If you don't, they'll stay like they are for a few years longer, but eventually start suffering genetic corruption.
It sounds like your water is quite suitable for them, so if you give them a few more changes with it, they should start to thrive. Don't make too many drastic changes, though, since they're so used to things the way they've always been, and would suffer from a sudden shift to the good life.

For purely sentimental reasons, I'd keep things gong largely as your dad did. Who knows..maybe he'll be lending an unseen hand on occasion. I would move any new fry to new tanks, though, not only for sensible management reasons but for "legacy" reasons of sentimentality. Look, Dad...your fish have given rise to tens of thousands across the tri-state area.

[amelia]

Well, he took pride in his fish, but he didn't really try to breed them. He would leave the pregnant females in the tank and collect the babies that hid well whenever he saw them.. He never seperated the female until he knew she was only a few minutes/hours away from dropping, and if he missed the drop then he'd collect the babies that weren't eaten. I know 75 isn't many for three years.. But they're still special fish and he still had better luck than I did--I would put my pregnant females in seperate quarters and they'd either not drop (when they looked like they were ready to pop), they'd have lots of stillborn babies, or the babies would get eaten in the tank before I could even save a few. Take into consideration, too, that his fish were labeled "fancy guppies" and came from no strain in particular from store that bought from wholesalers of "fancy guppies." Those fish don't normally drop more than 30, and whenever I have been lucky enough to catch the female just before she drops, most of the time I get as few as 5-10 live babies from her.. These aren't your high-class $75 per trio breeder/show quality guppies. :P

I do plan to seperate a lot of them and breed them with outside guppies.. For the sake of the fish not to become deformed and such..

[fish_doc]

Guppys arnt known as the millions fish for nothing. LOL

[doggydad38]

You've answered your own question in your last post on how your father was able to breed such healthy guppies. You said he let the females have their fry in the tank and dipped out the survivors. That's natural selection. The strongest, fastest, most intelligent individuals were the ones that survived. As a result, only the strongest lived to breed and produce stronger, faster, more intelligent offspring. That's the way I used to breed. Doing things that way limits the number of times you need to introduce new bloodlines into the mix. Now that I'm set up and starting to breed my Guppies for show, it is solely up to me to be the "natural selector." Good luck.
Tony

[Baby_Baby]

I am sorry about your father. And I wish you luck with your guppies!

[amelia]

Thank you all for your wonderful advice, and doggydad for his ensight! I'll keep you all updated on new batches and the like..

[guppygirl9]

I think its great how well your father was at raising the guppies, I use to have a longlived strained that died off at old age last year. but they survived 4 years. not all guppies lived this long but I had a few females live 3 years. I havent had as good luck lately. with new strains. wish I could find a long lived strain again.