Sick of fragile male guppies!!!!!

[cucci67]

I have tried several stores, but no one around me stocks hardy male guppies. The first store I bought 6 guppies from, all six died in 6 days, the males died first. Then I just bought one tonight, and it is already struggling to swim, and already got stuck to the filter once.
I am about to just buy a male feeder guppy, I know they are much hardier, but does anyone know if they are as good for breeding?

[cucci67]

I forgot to mention, the first time I had the six guppies in a 55 gallon with a ph or 7.5, and the temp 76. I decided to make a tank for only guppies, the male taht is about to die is in a 10 gallon with the temp 72, and the ph 7.5, those are all ideal for guppies, but they seem to die anyway.

[doggydad38]

How are you acclimating the fish to your water? Most of the people at petshops will tell you to float the bag for 20 minutes to equalize the temperature and then release the fish. Wrong!!! I agree that it is a good idea to float the bag to equalize the temps, but you should never dump the fish in afterward. Start by removing half of the water in the bag (if they've put a lot in) after floating it for 20 minutes. Add a small amount of your water to the bag every 10-15 minutes until you have doubled the amount of water in the bag. This should take somewhere around an hour. Once you have doubled the water, let the fish float for another 20-30 minutes. This process allows the fish to acclimate slowly to your water conditions. Dropping him in suddenly like that shocks the system and will cause your fish to die. I have received fish from all over the country and I have greatly reduced the number of lost fish by acclimating my fish this way. Also, most petshop fish come from fish farms and are heavily medicated during transit. They rarely live for very long because of the stress put on them. Hope this helps. As to your question on Feeder Guppies; a common male is quite capable of breeding Fancy females, but the fry will not be as fancy as their mothers nor as plain as their fathers. Good luck.
Tony

[fish_doc]

Guppys around where I live are the same way. It took me a dozen guppys before I got 2 to live. They had babies and now I have tanks filled with them.

[cucci67]

Ok, here is my acclimatation procedure.
-Put water and fish from bag in a 1/2 gallon container thing with lid
-Float container in water for aobut 15-20 minutes
-Add 1 cup of tank water to container and close lid wait about 10 minutes
-Repeat step 3 atleast one more time

I do this especially with fragile fish, but still they are dropping like flies! I have one more store to try, this guy brreds all the fish he sells, and he has a wonderful selection, the guppies I had a few years ago lived for a long time.

[fishboy]

well I've heard of interbreeding Guppies and Mud guppies(mosquito fish) to made fancy mud guppies. This is good because mud guppies are alot hardier then normal guppies but i forget if this new strain was able to reproduce

[cucci67]

I also have about 8 fry in a 10 gallon growing out, hopefully they will be healthy since they were probably in the LFS for a few days or so.

[bananas]

i'm glad i dont have guppies

[Chazwick]

guppies are nice fish but they have babies like theres no tomorrow! And it can easily, i repeat, EASILY, get out of hand. Unless you have lots of room for more than.. say 40guppies, i wouldn't get them.. they breed way too fast! ! ! ! !
Also, it's not always a good idea to put the water from the STORE into YOUR TANK, it can bring parasites, etc, in that kill your fish.

[cucci67]

I never put that water in my tank. i usually just scoop the fish out of the container afterwards with a net.

[doggydad38]

Usually, and I repeat, usually, once your Guppies have fry in your tank and your water conditions, you won't have a problem with raising them. The hard part is getting the adults to live long enough to reproduce once for you.
Tony

[cucci67]

ok, I have another female ready to pop, lol. She is holding out on me though, making this labor last as long as possible. She is square as a box, and big as a balloon.

[Sly Guy]

i Have had problems with guppies i buy living to only in my 55 gal i have found 2 effective solutions for me 1 is i first put them in my 10 gal which only has a platy chinese algea eater and feeder guppies for my cichlids or i just put it in a breeder net for a couple of days then usually have no problems. i usuallly just let my bag sit in the water for about 35 minutes for guppies to adjust to water then add. Not saying its the best but its what works for me i am sure fish from different areas and water conditions respond differently

[Sincere]

Originally Posted by Chazwick

guppies are nice fish but they have babies like theres no tomorrow! And it can easily, i repeat, EASILY, get out of hand. Unless you have lots of room for more than.. say 40guppies, i wouldn't get them.. they breed way too fast! ! ! ! !
Also, it's not always a good idea to put the water from the STORE into YOUR TANK, it can bring parasites, etc, in that kill your fish.

Thats funny because I can't get mine to reproduce to save my life. I've had 4-5 full grown males, and 4-5 full grown females in the same tank for a little over a month and nothing.

[cucci67]

There goes the last of them, my female guppy died in the breeder net last night, she was only in there for 2 days on and off. I am getting feeder males and and I will have to trust my other LFS witht the females, I just don't understand.