Martinismommy

I adore Guppies......I almost set up a Guppy tank recently.....But it ended up another Betta tank (imagine that) lol....

Red1313

Hmmmm.... I really have no experiance with guppies.... and I do have an empty ten gal... might be an interesting experiment.

Lucy

Which strains are hard to keep?

Blub

Temperate water is water that shifts with the seasons. In a temperate place, this should happen without a heater. I'm not sure the exact measurments through the season since it's something I never need to know in the UK.

RandomKayos

For me? Any fancy variety. I can keep feeder guppies with no problems but fancy's never last more than a week no matter how I try. Parameters can be text book perfect and still no go. I finally gave up a few years ago. Despite what some may think of me I'm not into fish torture.

RK

Lucy

Ok thanks.

In this statement, you presented it as a fact.

I'm interesting in guppies for my future tank, has everyone found fancy guppies difficult to keep?

Blub

Here's my experience: I bought my first guppys as some of my first fish. They went in an uncycled tank which never really had perfect water parameters. They lasted longer than any other fish! I tried another in that tank, who died straight away, but he was from a worse source. So, if you get them from a good LFS - according to my experience, it should be OK.

Alessa

My fancy guppies are die-hard. No matter what they are always happily swimming like nothing is going on... I have never lost one.

Although, they have always been in a small school, and a cycled tank.

Red1313

I've got that kind of luck with goldfish. When I started naming them by numbers I knew it was a sign to give up on them.

clinton1621

I've never had any problems with fancy guppies =)

The issue... like mentioned above, is the source, if you buy poorly kept fish then yes they will most likely get sick and die... because guppies are small fish which means they cant fight off disease well =(

The only other issue would be stocking... too many males vs females is not good (I would say 1m to 3fm is good)... an overstocked tank, or one that is too small is not good. I know this will catch some flack... but I honestly wouldnt recommend anything less than 20g for a nice breeding group of fancy guppies. Now to slightly correct that statement... you can have a smaller "breeding only" tank, but if you want the main display tank to be the breeding setup, you really want at least 20g or more for success.

Red1313

Hmmm... I see nothing with flacking in that statement.

Blub

But you can keep only males if you don't have a few fry tanks.

clinton1621

Huh? A fry tank isnt a requirement, it will cut down on losses but you dont have to have one.

Blub

Well, if you are going to keep the two sexes together you obviously want to breed them so you'll probably want a fry tank. It isn't a requirement - but you usually lose a fair amount of fry without one.

clinton1621

Thats true, but most people unless they are planning on selling them, would not want to save all the fry lol... that would be hundreds of guppies! Also keeping a heavily planted tank and some floating plants will help cut down on losing fry, they will have more hiding spots and food =)

Blub

It really depends on how many you want to keep really.

clinton1621

Yep definitely lol

ninilie

I have guppys in all of my tanks now. I really love them. Got 3 strains going. If you get LFS guppies then they need to be acclimated very slowly because they are stressed too much. Also try buying pregnant ones, the fry once born will not be as frail because they will be born in your tank. I still got acouple store mutts that im slowly selling off to the LFS then only strains i got from aquabid after that.