swtp07 - Guppy Questions

[swtp07]

How many times in one month should one actualy clean the fish tank and filter and do baby guppies need a heater ?Could they servive in cold room tempriture water?Does there water need to be filterd around the clock.what age can they be released in to the adult tank?

[ZeroSystem]

Welcome to FTF swtp07!

Water changes should be done frequently, and filter maintenance is usually done once a month. This can very depending on setup and overall bio-load however. I usually do large water changes of about 35 - 50% once a week. This is because cichlids are messy! Testing your nitrates is a good way to figure out when you need to do a water change. You don't want your nitrates creeping too high above 20ppm, and at 40 I'd say it's a must to do a water change.

Guppies would do best with a heater. Although they may be able to survive without one they will not likely be thriving either, and they could be more prone to illness because of the stress of temperature fluctuations. Common guppies (the plain silver kind) from what I have seen, can be much hardier then the pretty fancy types sold in pet stores.

The main purpose of a filter is to nitrifiying bacteria alive in order to break down the ammonia produced by your fish into a less toxic chemical called nitrites and nitrates. Although nitrItes are still pretty dangerous, nitrAtes are only bad at high levels, which is why water changes are done periodicly in order to reduce those levels and keep them within a disireable range (as close to 0 as possible). If you were to turn your filter on and off there is a good change that some, if not all, of the bacteria could die off before you turn it back on the next time, therefor defeating the purpose of the filter. Technically there are ways to run an aquarium without a filter at all, but that is not something I would recommend for the less experianced as it is not easy.

Once the guppies are no longer 'bite sized' (smaller than the mouths of the other fish within your main tank) it would be safe to add them back to the main tank. I'd say with clean water and regular feeding this shouldn't take much longer than a month or so.

[swtp07]

Thankyou for your reply I did release my babies two days ago but now cant seem to find them in the big tank,I wonder if they became lunch or just hiding ?they were bout a month to month and a half old I tought it would be ok i'm sure that they are there but maybe just in hiding.Does a fish tank heater use up much electricity?thats what i'm afraid of cause i dont want to tease them with a heater ?

please help
thanks

I'm also curiouse to find out how many fish can i keep in a tank of 30ltrs ?At the moment I have two goldfish
two swordtales male and femal
two gupies male and female
and a couple plants bout eight plants

Is that enogh fish or can I put in two more fish ?

I also have another question.I bought a female guppy my first guppy female but she died with a red line across her belly my first male guppy died with what looked to be a groth on his gill any ideas what might of caused it ?

so I ended up buying a new female and male guppy

[ZeroSystem]

A 50watt heater would be needed for your size aquarium, which I believe is only around 7 U.S. gallons. A bit on the small side, especially for goldfish. Also, although the other fish in the tank would do best with a heater, the goldfish would not. The prefer their water around 65 -75 degree's while your other fish would like a bit warmer, 78 - 82.

I wouldn't add any other fish to this tank. In fact, you may want to think about possiblily re-homing your goldfish, as they will eventually out grow this tank, and because of their messy nature, it may be hard to maintain good water quality.

Not sure what would have caused the death of your previous guppies.. I would first look into getting your water tested and getting a good idea of what your tanks water parameters are, especially if something like this happens again.

Hope that helps!

[swtp07]

Yes thank-you for you're input it really does help I wish I could put a picture of my fish tank on this forum so you may see what it looks like.My boyfriend is looking to get another fishtank a larger one for the bigger fish.Because we will be moving house in a short while we don't want to have to interrupt their habitat too much just yet.The gold fish are still small but when we are more settled then we will get a bigger tank .I rescude the gold fish from the local flee market I bought her for R40 south african rands.she came in a tank that was 30centimeters high and bout 5centimeters wide all she had was a little gravel in the tank.I was given a small tub of fish food and was told that it was her fish food for the year,was told to clean the tank I just need to move the gravel around.and feed her once a week.this is how the guy sells his fish at the market .
Compared to how she was living to now this is like heaven for her oh not to mention that she was in the hot sun hole day long
That is not right for fish.

That is how my fish tank got started I felt bad for her so I invested bout R500 South African rands to give her the best life ever,I got her the plants food and fishy freinds and everything that she needed to provide her a happy long life.

Wish that I could buy all that mans fish ,

Thankyou for your help

[swtp07]

Just recently lost a guppy to that ich desease that's not cool.Tried the salt solution but it didn't work managed to save all my other fish buy taking her out and seperating her, treating the tank,for my poor guppy it was too late
May we bow our heads in prayer for her/

Hmm how long does it take before your tank is completely ich free?cos my other fish seem fine now they were really worrying me because the were looking very sad and depressed but now they seem to be fine

They were very sad when my guppy died because they are very caring fish when one is sick they all worry why is that?

We are still looking to get that heater so things are just abit tight with cash.I think that it might be the cause as to why my guppies are always dying
Please get back to me bout this because I'm very worried bout my fish right now.

Thanks guys!

[ZeroSystem]

Sorry to hear about your loss Swtp07.

The salt treatment is somewhat ineffective with out a heater. It's also likely that the stress of continuous temperature fluctuations caused the fish to come down with ich, though it's hard to say for sure.

Without any hosts (fish) to attack the Ich Parasite will eventually die off on it's own after about 10 days or so.

The other fish probably appeared 'sad' because they were likely trying to fight off the parasite themselves which takes a toll on their immune system. Hopefully they will all be healthy and happy from this point on.

[swtp07]

Im happy to say that I have sorted the ich

the other fish are happy and healthy .I waited two weeks before getting more fish,I got two beautiful males with nice big fins and bright coulors (fancy guppies)and one more female guppy one female molly.Before I put them in I threw some salt water in the tank to kill off any deseases that they might have.Do you think that I should of done that? they seem fine to me /

I now have one gold fish, three male Guppies and one female guppy ,one white female molly ,two sword fish male and female,they seem to be happy, I also put some real plants in my tank instead of having only fake ones I now have a combo of both.

The sad thing is I lost about five fish in the corse of having this tank,it happend so suddenly one after the other.Hopefully I have the problem undercontrol.The tank seems fine now .

Now I have enough fish for my tank.Now I focus on equipment for my tank.I already had the pump and filter from the get go now I watch that tank like a hawk,

Thankyou for your help with my questions ,
Please try harder to respond quicker it is very frustrating to have to wait a week at a time for a response.specialy when it comes to questions bout deseases that you need an answere right then.

Thankyou for reading my males and guiding me through emails to help me to raise my fish ,hope that you have a great day further
kind regards
swtp07

[swtp07]

Going to get a heater on Monday for my fish tankgoing for the 50 wt so that we can get a bigger tank and still use the same heater pump and filter because of the fact that I like so many fish but limmeted with no heater its a downer on buying fish so now im going to treat them with a nice heater


thanks guys for all your help


have a super day

[swtp07]

you know these blady guppies are still dying I dont know why coz I just spent R95 on a heater for then I dont know why its happening I 'm done with guppies they are to much maintanance not to mention that I have spent over R100 on guppies and they just die can anyone help ?I do my water changes I give them food I got a filter and a pump for them plants the whole works/yet they still die of ich and fin rot but only the guppies .My other fish are fine the gold fish and two sword tale fish are perfect.
I am extreemly ***** at these guppies that keep dying/Is there something that I am missing going to get my water tested on fri at the pet store /

With this tank since getting guppies has been one problem after another /
So I have decided not to get more guppies ever again I have tried and i 'm now giving up I'm tired of feeling like i'm the cause of there death /

I looked this morning and my male guppie is floating up side down I m done with guppies

I think that I am going to stick to gold fish and swod tales

Although guppies are pritty fish not gana get any more

Please help
Im desprate