Bentendo

I purchased a book that said that Guppies used to be good choices but nowadays they get sick really easily. I was curious if this is true, since all of my LFS's have them and they all seem to be doing great.

Guppies seem to be compatible with all of the fish that I want so I was just curious if it would be okay to get them.

Amanda

I've had mix results...I bought 5 gups, and I'm down to 3. They seem to be sickly, I don't know what's wrong with mine. But I bought mine from Petsmart.

platy ben

I have to strongly disagree with what the book said, here in the UK guppies are very very hardy, before I learnt about fishless cycling I used to use guppies to cycle tanks and they would always surviive.

dee34

hey how are u ive friends that say the same about guppies , i never had any myself but i think they need prestine water conditions but im sure some guppie keepers will be along soon !

TedsTank

Guppy's are cool...but..Ive had no, 0, zero, luck with them. They never survive for me but it may be because I have soft slightly acid water.
They are or were one of the mainstays of the aquarium business....somewhere along the line everyone has had a guppy or 2. I had them when I was young and we didn't treat water....they did great.

Bentendo

Thanks for all of the replies. I'll definitely take them all into consideration. If I do get them it'll probably be awhile. They look beautiful but I think I'll hold off. I'm wondering if just the guppies in America aren't hardy?

dee34

not sure mate to be honest but do some research first but dont rule them out they are a lovely fish , best of luck

ray_sj

Depends on what kind of guppies you're looking for. Most of the ones available at the chain pet stores are bred on massive farms in Asia. A lot of people say they've been genetically weakened by the indiscriminate breeding, and are no longer hardy. That's been my experience with them as well, I've not had good luck with these.

I ended up getting some fancy guppies from a breeder on Aquabid. These guppies have been fairly hardy for me. However, because of their large tails, they tend to require cleaner water and more maintenance than your average short tail or wild guppy. Otherwise, they're not particularly finicky or disease-prone. I love keeping them!

Just my experiences with them... Good luck!

Meenu

I have 3 that I got at Petco 3 months ago, and they all seem very healthy. My water is soft and a little acidic

Llama

Hmm, of the guppies I have, one died due to bullying, and another died for no reason whatsoever (no warning signs at all).

Other than that, they're pretty hardy I guess.

The massive inbreeding to produce more guppies for consumers is to blame.

Tigerfishy

I have had 4. I lost 2 to a tank that killed everything mysteriously (it was cycled and the water was fine, I blame the UGF, it was the only thing different to my other tank). Before this they were fine, I have since bought another 2. One got stuck between a baby nursery and the tank wall, couldn't get out and died, but the other is doing great. I think they like an established tank better than one that is still quite new, but I have personally never had any probs with the guppies, just other factors. Let us know what you decide, I love their colours!

Melissawater

I had 5 guppies before knowing about cycling back in Sept. I have lost one male who just went pale and 1 female due to (I believe) over-breeding (they are now seperated). The others are very hardy. If you do get them I recommend either all one sex, if you do not want babies or at least 2 females for every male. We didn't know how often they would breed and got 2 females and 3 males! Big mistake. We got ours from Petsmart and suprisingly they have done really well, even with the 20+ fry we have lol. Good luck!

redlessi

When I first got guppies from petco, I had 3 batches before I had any luck. Now I have a bijillion fry. They are beautiful fish. If you decide to get them, make sure you have room for 100's of fry. Good Luck

click

I had 6 now I'm down to 4...one of those 4 has been in a Q tank for more than a month now, with internal parasites that I can't seem to get rid of. One died with apparently no reason and the other succumbed to internal parasites as well. I love them but they give me so much worry and I'm not sure if I will buy anymore if the others don't do well.

Edit: If you do get guppies, make sure you quarantine them for at least 6 weeks, there's an epidemic of internal worms going around (camallanus), and it can take up to 6 weeks for any signs to be visible. Guppies seem to be v sensitive to this worm.

TheKayman

Well I have a different experience.

I started with 3 and now I'm up to 15! I bought juvenile guppies, specially picked by my girl friend's choice, from petsmart and they are doing wonderful and successfully delivered babies. The two fish from the first batch are almost an inch now, and there are 10 other babies. I didn't even use a breeding net. All I did was have some mosses and plants and healthy fry will successively hide in until the adults stop chasing them.

Also, it's not just guppies that are sick. Every fish at pet stores can be sick...
It's just that when you buy them, you need to carefully observe and pick healthy ones, and if you maintain good water quality, you'll be fine IMO.

jclee

I'm actually pretty fond of the wildtype guppies. I buy feeders, (usually 2x as many as I want to start out with), quarantine them, and treat them for ICH. Those that survive 2 months in quarantine are indestructable.

bassbonediva

I got some guppies for free off of Craigslist (total impulse on my part) and they are doing fine. I've only lost one of them to reasons unknown (it was my favorite red cobra too). Anyway, I got four adult females in the mix and three of them were mutantly HUGE (we're talking 3"+) and one of them has a birth defect where her back is bent at a 45 degree angle the wrong way. She still swims just fine and has established her place in the "pack" in the tank she's in (with two of the huge females, six juvenile guppies and three female bettas). Anyway, these are fancy guppies (mostly delta tails, but some mutts) and seem to be extremely hardy. One of the males even survived one of my female bettas latching onto his tail and refusing to let go. So, I think it's all in the stock you get. I have a friend who has glorified feeder guppies that are hearty and hale in her tank with her goldfish.