Guppygirl

:welcome: to the forums. One question where is Mirror? You have a wonderful assortment of fish.

Lets try this again . I justs finished adding a second idea to the post and my computer or the site burped, my recent unsent reply is gone so here we go again. Another option is to have someone come in and feed your fish. This only works if you know someone willing and someone you trust with both your fish and your home as they need a key, or way into the house. I have had a home sitter come in and feed both my rabbit and my multiple fish tanks, and everything worked out fine. I bought some of those week pill containers- the ones with MTWTFSS sections. Filled them with the alloted fish food per day and had the person feed the fish only that amount as to the day of the week, with detailed instuctions. The pill containers can come in multiple colours, so one can have one colour fry tank, another adult tank so on. This way there is no food waste and contamination which can happen when others feed our fish. This lets you relax knowing the fish are being fed. Hope this idea helps.

Be very careful with those automatic two times a day feeders. If you have the opening too wide too much food can enter the tank everytime it is set to feed. Causing a major water problem. This happened to me. If you do get one, try it first for a day to see how much food is distubuted into the tank or onto a piece of paper. This will then tell you if your fish will get enough or too much food per day. Adjust as needed. Hope you have a good trip, and that all fish survive the master away.

Another thing that you could do would be to add an air stone to the tank, with an air pump. This inceases surface movement and helps the oxygen in the tank. I had a similar problem when my tank unexpectedly cycled (bacteria bloom) just this week. Woke up to find my fish gasping for air, quickly added the air stone and they have gotten better. Hope your fish recover and you find the problem.

First what are your water parimeters? Are you saying that the split finned males are with the tetras? If they are then the tetras may have a part in the fin tears. Big finned guppies a nice target for a fin nipping tetra. What kind of tetras? Is it fin rot?, any red streaks in the tail fin?, or does it look like the fin disssolved? Other option is that the fins split. How old are the guppies? - are they small or are they large males?What kind of tails do the males have? Fancy guppies can have many tail fin types. Do your guppies have the big triangle shaped tails or, are they more pointed(sword), double sword type? I have had guppies that have split their fins, as they grew, as their tail fins grow it spreads like a fan. The splits in mine healed on their own, with good water condititons and no stress they filled in. I also used Melefix on some but good guppy care is usually all that is needed unless it is more serious finrot. Sorry for all the questions but I have raised guppies for 3 years, so I have seen just about every tail type and problem that arises with them. I even had one male with such a large tail when young that it had trouble swimming, it grew up and became a large male. Hoping you all the best with your guppies. If you have questions don't hesitate to ask.

Ich can come in two forms I have found. The white salt/sugar sized spots, raised and itchy for the fish. Visable with the naked eye. The other form that I have just experienced was the ich that is located on their gills, not visable with the naked eye. The fish just started acting funny, shimming and flashing for no reason. water perimeters were fine. Just strange, until I remembered reading that ich can be on or in the gills slowly driving the fish insane as they have trouble scratching their gills, if they can at all. I lost :cry: most of my male guppies from this problem, treated them and the deaths stopped. Hope this info helps.

I have a ten gallon tank that is not as outragous as that one, but it has plenty of the fake look. Talk about mixing designs mine has a sunken bell- covered in algae for the pleco, fake green plants to lend it some natutrality and the main attraction a huge fake glow in the dark rubber and plastic sea anemone (sp). Bright yellow and red. I think it adds spunk to the tank and I like it. It goes well with the black phantom tetras and neon tetras and the cory and pleco that live in the tank. If I can maybe one day will post a pic, but when comparing it to other tanks on this site that are natural with live plants it gets a little embarrasing.

It doesn't matter what age you are in fish keeping. We all love fry. :heart: Any shape, size and colour. Everytime my guppies have babies I still get excited.

OMG. What a shock you have had. I am so sorry about your fish. :cry: I have had a whole tank crash but that was due to a disease and ammonia spike. To lose a whole tank of beauties is horrible. When you wrote that you put all your juvies in the tank, my heart stopped. I never put all of one type of fish into one tank for that reason. Hopefully you can rebuild your stock. Best wishes with that endevour.

Hi everyone, I have a couple of questions. I have a half dozen black phantom tetras in my tank and one of them is getting plump- she is female has reddish fins. I was wondering will anything happen to her if the tank condtions are not right for breeding? They are not in really soft acidic water, will that affect anything? Will she abort or absorb the eggs she is carrying???? or will she remain plump {Until time is right?}. I was just wondering.

Thanks for the info. I think I will wait a while yet to get any plants.

Hi everyone. Went to the pet store recently and saw a brine shrimp hatchery- an internal tank one. It was shaped like a horn and you added water,salt and eggs and plugged in the air line and then you just waited. The brine shrimp just hatch and swim out into the tank. The fish then get lunch. I was just wondering if anyone had ever used one of these units???? I have a brine shrimp hatchery that you hatch them in a black box and they swim into the fresh water holder(pill bottle) because they are attracted to the light, you then just feed the fish without rinsing them. Was suppose to be for more classroom use. But worked for the time I was feeding them. Stopped because it was too difficult to regulate the right temperature to hatch them at- winter really sucks. :grr: Instead of 24-48 hours was more like 4-6 days to get results- had good eggs the water was just too cold. So I was wondering if this new product would be worth the investment- or if the product was useless. Anyone every use or recommend one of these units? I have tetras that would just love a BBS treat. :heart:

Good Luck with the new tank. It must look impressive. The biggest I can go is 10-20 gallon due to space. Your fish will love the extra room. :heart: Just watch out, your swords and platies will produce and produce. Just the way we like it. -roll- .

Hi, I was wondering if I get some plants what are the requirements before I put them in my tank. Should I somehow disinfected them? How is that done? Do I have to have a certain type of substrate? Right now I only have a very thin layer of gravel on the bottom of the tank. Do the plants need to be physically planted in the gravel/soil? Or can they be put in pots??? The plants up here are in little containers, can they be left in them or should they be removed? Sorry for all the questions but I am a plant newbie/ beginner. I have never had anything living in my tanks other then my fish. Thought that I would try something new in the yellow guppy tank. Thanks in advance for any info.

Hi I was wondering what kinds of aquarium plants are more for the beginner? I have always wanted to try a planted tank but never have because of what may be travelling on them ie. disease and insects. Don't want to make my fish sick. I have three 10 gallon tanks all right now with algae coated plastic plants. One tank with tetras, and two with guppies. I was thinking of changing one of the guppy tanks to some other fish maybe more black phantom tetras- now one of my favorite fish. But am stumped about plants- keep the plastic ones or try real. Will the fish eat them. How much work are they? :well: I don't want to install any more equipment- CO2 anything. Can't really, outlet is full. Also plants up here in Grande Prairie are few and far between and they are fairly expensive and sickly. May come to Edmonton one of these weekends but it is a fairly long drive with our wacky weather.

Quarantine for me can last 2-6 weeks, depending on the fish involved and where they are going. It also depends on the health of the fish. What syptoms are they showing if any? Stress in store can be due to poor handling and shock from travel, other times it can be from disease. Some fish when introduced into the home tank die from stress, others I think, think thank god I am not moving again. :bow: I have bought Walmart fish many times some with good outcomes, others with major problems. From ich to fungus. It really depends on the time and place. You visit one week all healthy fish, next week mainly sick- travel stress? disease? Some people don't quarantine at all, fish go right into the main tank- many times with disasterous outcomes. If the tanks you are putting them into are cycled and good to go, and the fish look fairly healthy then you shouldn't have any problems putting them into the main tank as first fish. Still watch for signs of disease, if caught early it is easier. If the tanks are not fully cycled then do the poor fish a favor and don't put them in a non cycled tank as it further stresses the poor things. Hope this helps alittle.

Hi everyone. I did decide to go with tetras. :thumbs: I bought 6 black phantom tetras and 10 neons. They seem to be very happy. They are with one cory- I know that the cory should have a buddy, or two, but cories up here are not very big or healthy, so will have to wait until I go to Edmonton. The phantoms are so regal looking and the neons are bright in comparison. I like the look of the tank. If I can somehow figure out the digital camera to take good fish pictures and then send them somewhere without losing them. I may post them here. Hope everyone is having a good fish day.

Hi everyone, I have a question. I was thinking of trying some kind of tetra in my ten gallon tank. I right now have three tanks of guppies and one tank of guppy/platies that is in solid quarintine due to intestinal worms brought in from a seemingly heatlthy platy. She died. :cry: So I will have them all quarintine for the next 3-6 months as that is what some on the web recommend due to the life cycle of the parasite. I would be moving one set of my guppies out of their tank to make room. I read that the tetra family needs soft acidic water to live. How does one go about doing that. I know that peat makes the water acidic but is there anything to make it soft? Besides a water softening system. I use Grande Prairie water with conditioners for the tanks now, but figure that the water is fairly hard because my snail shell is not decomposing while they live. So is it worth it to try tetras or am I going down the wrong fish path with my water perimeters. The second option I was thinking of was dwarf goumies(sp). Any ideas would be greatly apppriciated. Thanks

Hi everyone, I was so happy to find this site on the web. I didn't think that Alberta had anything like this, must have been looking in the wrong place. I was happy to find it, but not happy to be seaching my topic- my platy had what looks to be Camallanus worms (intestinal worms for those who want to know). I had to destroy her last night, ripped my tank down today and moved all other fish to a hospital tank. Now I cross my fingers. Just wanted to say hi. I am in Grande Prairie.