Basic Tips For Caring For Your Guppies

I shall always remember the endless hours of pleasure derived from watching the guppies which I kept during my childhood days. The males swishing their beautiful tails of rainbow hues about, and newborn fry emerging from their mothers’ bulging bellies were fascinating sights to behold.

These days, fish breeders have turned these small and humble fish into multi-million-dollar export. Cross-breeding programs have led to the development of new strains of this ornamental fish, in any color you want, and in many different shapes.

One of the world’s most popular fish, guppies are cheap and easy to maintain. They are best kept in groups of five to ten.

How To Care For Your Guppies

On Accessories: You do not need plants, gravel and a heavy-duty power filter in your aquarium. An inside box filter powered by an air pump (for a five- to ten-gallon tank) will do. Charcoal and carbon are also unnecessary unless you need to remove medicine from the water. Learn how to set up the right aquarium for your guppies so you want won’t spend unnecessary accessories.

On Maintenance: When cleaning out box filters, save one-third of the cleanest floss (the filtration media) and insert it between the new floss—this will help to see your new floss with good bacteria.

Clean filter tubes and slots with a small toothbrush. Attach pantyhose to your power filter’s intake tube with an elastic band to cover it in order to prevent fry from getting into it.

If the bottom of the tank is left bare, spray black paint on its exterior to reduce reflection that may stress the fish.

Sterilize nets and other durable aquarium accessories with boiling water.

On Handling: When catching a guppy, try raising the net to the surface from below the fish. Do not chase it around as this may frighten the fish. When the fish is caught, gently coax it into the water instead of throwing it out of the net.

When a guppy jumps out of the tank, gently ease it onto a wet net to return it to the water. Do not pick the fish up with your fingers as this may injure it.

On Cycling: To create a new safe tank that’s instantly cycled, use floss and half of the water from a healthy, cycled tank.

Use a clean ice cream tub or other container to keep newborn fry if you are short of tanks. You can use a new, clean plastic scrubber as a place for fry to hide in.

On Feeding: Adult guppies should be given small feedings a maximum of two or three times a day. They can survive for about two weeks without being fed. Fry should be fed several times a day for better growth. They will last at least a week without food, but this may permanently stunt their growth. If you are going away on vacation, use pill dispensers with separate compartments and fill them with daily food rations so that the caregiver is not likely to overfeed the fish.

Try to feed only live food when medicating a fish in a hospital tank. This encourages the sick fish to eat and keeps it strong enough to fight disease, while keeping the water clean.

These are just basic on caring for your guppies, the next step is to learn how to help your guppies stay healthy much longer.

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