Guppygirl

Hi Everyone, I am just back into breeding guppies after trying my hand at breeding corydoras-big success with bronze corydoras. I have one puzzle thou- it seems like all my fry-some 50-75 are all female, could only spot one male in the whole bunch. I do know that some males display late as they mature. Could this be it, or do I have something that is affecting the male female ratio. By no means am I sad that I have more females as that means more babies which I love-but I do love the brightly colored males. I was wondering if this had happened to anyone else? Also I seem to be battling clamped fin in that tank- I am treating for ich as some were flashing- Is there any other fish disease that can cause clamped fin in fish other then ich??? Only some of the fish are clamped others namely the adults, and older juvies are fine. Thanks for any info.

It's sad to say but we don't have many good fish stores up here, in G.P-come to think of it-none really. I have smuggled fish-lol- up here from Edmonton's Nature's Corner Store it has the best fish I have seen :thumbs: . I know it is 4 hours away, but healthy fish is what we want and need to have a aquarium, and travelling , or private AA member sale seems to be we have to do. Also the ACE fish auctions are another good place to go for fish and plants- just watch the site for information of when and where.

:welcome: :welcome: Fellow Grande Prairian. This site is full informative people and info. You can have quite a collection of community fish in a 90 gallon. Guppies are colorful and nice- and mine are breeding like rabbits at the moment.

First off- guppies, platies, swordtails are livebearers--they give birth to live babies, not eggs. If you have a male and a female of each, your female is most likely pregnant. They usually give birth every 28-34 days, depending on tank factors such as stress, temperature... They will have anywhere between 15-200 fry- guppies usually have 15+ babies, platies around the same and swords being the largest can have huge batches of fry. Even if you only have females they are most likely pregnant as males and females are usually together in the fish stores. The females can store sperm for months, so even if the male is removed or dies the female will continue to have babies. As to telling when the females are about to give birth, they tend to get the square butt look when you look at them from the side and back. Also their gravid spot the black/dark area near their butt will darken as the fry develop. Some females are notorious fry eaters- I had three half black females never did get any fry as they ate them as quick as the others had them. Other fish also like the snack of fry, so have lots of floating plants and other bushy plants such as java moss... if you want to keep fry. Or you can remove the female to a separate tank, with plastic plants or real for the babies to hide in. Careful not to stress her out with excessive net chasing as she could abort the fry. If your fish are eating and getting fat that is good, they will be well conditioned when it comes ready for them to have their babies. They may of had their babies and they became lunch, or they are still going to have them-either way you will soon have fry. Good luck. :thumbs:

A cheap paint scrapper can be found at Zeller's. I got one plus blades for a dollar, on Saturday. Maybe check your local one and see if they have them. One of their dollar day tools. They call it a safety scrapper-same thing. Good luck getting the paint off.

Hi, Guppy females can store sperm for months. Just because a female guppy is alone doesn't mean she never met a male, especially in a pet store. You bought her with another male and female guppy that didn't make it, the male may have made his move and then died. Sorry that you lost them. You also said that she was ill this can slow their gestation down as they try to get better. Feed her well and she may keep giving you babies for the next few months if everything goes well. Also some female guppies don't get the tell tale sign of pregnacy the black spot-some are clear, some are only a light color. Any fry are a wonderful addition for the tank. Hope you little mystery baby grows up to be a strong fish.

:cry: Talk about a rough two days. I lost all but one of my tetras(7neons and two black phantoms dead). Had them for close to 2years. My tank for some reason is deciding to cycle(ammonia spike, nitrite normal)-this after being steady for more then two years-thou I did move it three weeks ago when I moved to my new house. All water and gravel was moved with them, nothing changed, or so I thought. I do have a snail infestation (MTS). So it could be a die off and they are rotting. I did notice about two days before the deaths that the snails were near the surface of the water- I stupidly did not check the levels then and now am paying the price. I am so mad at myself. :mad: :boom: My cories and pleco are still okay it seems but maybe that is because they can go to the surface to breathe??? When watching this morning the two remaining neons were swimming okay it seemed, until in a blink of an eye one went from swimming to dead. I had never seen it happen so quickly. :shock: Fished it out-then decided to catch the last neon of my former tribe. Tough little bugger took me awhile but got him out. Water not safe so grabbed some water from one of my mature tanks to put him in-but decided to not put him into that tank for fear it carries something. So into my barb/red eye tetra(1) Q-tank plastic breeder he went, the barbs would have chased him and I think he is stressed enough. I did a 50% water change today, 30% last night. How much water is safe to change a day, at a time? I did add Stability, that stuff rocks.

Some questions about them. Does the tank have to be totally supported by the stand?, Some pics I have seen the tank looks bigger then the base of the stand, not sure by how much but is that safe? Is wood or steel stands better?, 1 tier or 2 tier metal stands? I am moving soon and have to plan everything and where they are going. So aquarium stands are a must if the tanks are going to be seen in my livingroom. Right now all my tanks are on desks and dressers so not display pieces. Any help would be great. I have 3 tens and a twenty gallon.

Talk about good luck. On Wednesday night about 12:15 am the power went out in Grande Prairie was out for about 1 1/2 hours maybe more don't really remember. At the time of the power outage the airpumps, filters and heaters all went out. I didn't panic at that moment as the fish are fine for a while without anything, I only got up with a flashlight to see if the water was going to go up the tubing and towards the airpumps. Most of the pumps are looped and have the backflow attactment except one and no water came up on that one. So that was good. Went to bed, eventually heard the bubblers and what I thought were all the filters come back after the power came back. Thought nothing of it the next morning except to see if anyone knew what happened-no mention of it that I heard. Most slept though it. So today (friday) was checking my tanks all looked normal until I saw that one filter had not restarted like the others and the filter floss was dry, slimy and somewhat crusty. Not pleasant. The filter bacteria are most likely dead and so changed the filter floss. Shook out the uptake tube to get rid of any algae chunks and restarted the filter. It still works fine-good. The best thing was that my airpump in that tank went out with the power and then came back on- keeping the water circulated and oxygeninated for a day and half. The fish are all fine, no worse for wear. So today I feel blessed because if the pump had stopped too it might not have been pretty. So today I bow down :bow: to the humble but handy airpump.

Finicky eater such as some plecos are tempted to eat with the use of garlic rubbed on the item you are about to feed them-such as zucchini, squash.... The garlic is a appetite reviver. Plecos can eat a variety of veggies. A list of which can be found on the following site under the food section- http://www.PlecoFanatics.com/forum Also plecos are more nocturnal and thus feeding at lights out lets the pleco get to the food without the feeding frenzy that can make them nervous. Hope this helps. :thumbs:

Just a warning. Snail shells are sharp, so if you use the crush with finger method watch out, they can cut your finger. I read somewhere on the internet of one lady that used to crush her snails when ever she saw them, until one day she crushed one, cut herselt and got a major, major infection and just about lost the use of her hand and arm. The veggie in saucer and removal is probably best. Good luck with snail control.

Another option is guppies. As this is only a single tank all male guppies. They are colorful, come in multiple patterns, and are quite hardy. If they don't work the white clouds and danios can work too. Depends on if the little girl likes color and not only movement. I can't say anything about shrimp as I have never kept them so I don't know if they work with guppies or not. Hope she likes her present. :thumbs:

I use an eyedropper that you can find in any drugstore. Something like 2 for a $2 or less for the small ones (measure 1ml) or 1 for the same price range but it measures 5ml's at a time. Look where the baby stuff is or ask. Find out how large your betta bowl, tank is, melefix and pimafix instructions are usually for a ten gallon tank if I remember correctly. 5ml for 10 gallons for each. So for a 4 gallon tank it is a little less then 2.5 ml, shake the med's and suck up a little less then 2.5 ml's of each and it should be okay. If you need more exact numbers you will have to wait for someone else. Hope your betta recovers.

Possibly Melefix. Betafix is the lower dose version. So Melefix is a little stronger but still natural. Hope your betta makes it.

I have never had lesbian fish before,but gay I have had. I had male guppies in an all male tank that would attempt mating quite frequently. Odd to watch. I guess that is just them getting rid of some energy.

Hi, I was wondering how large MTS have to be to start breeding? I have some right now that their shells are 1/2 to 3/4 inch long. I have seen 5 that size. I know I originally put in about 15 babies so the others may be hiding in the gravel. I have a tank that is full of air pockets in the gravel and so I put one of the 5 in that tank but I don't know how much work one snail will do, so if it breeds I can move the babies around. Any firsthand knowledge would be greatly appriciated. Thanks.

Three females equals lots of fry. How many fry are in a bunch? Good luck finding space. I once had 20 guppies all giving birth within a week, so I know what it is like. Space at a premium.

Sorry to hear about your tank. Was it a flaw in the tank or did you accidentally hit against the tub? Broken tanks are not fun, but at least it wasn't full of water.

Yikes. Sounds like you are having a hard day. Sorry to hear about your fish and your wet basement. No one likes to have any fish water escape. Hope you have a better day tomorrow.

Congrats :thumbs: on the new hatching. I have no experience with BN, but my corydoras keep breeding and hatching. Fry are so cute. So good luck with your raising attempt. :thumbs:

:mad: Nasty, nasty worm parasite! Does it look like a red paint brush sticking out of the butt of the fish, when they stop moving. The nasty worm only sticks itself out of the fish when the fish is stationary. Then it is camallanus. My case came with the purchase of some platies, stuck them into my female guppy grow out tank thinking that they were healthy. Boy was I wrong. :cry: Within a few weeks the platies were dead, panic had set in and the guppies were downhill from there. My case was bad, in that I had no real idea how to treat them, internet said animal dewormer-city girl that I am I had no clue where to get such dewormer, nor the dosage as they are not cattle, smaller quanities. So humanily ended it for about 5 guppies and took the tank down, scrubbed it and now it is in storage. I sincerly hope that your case is not like mine. I only thank the fish god that I didn't add them to my main tank or it would have been way worse. I only have one question have you added any new fish lately?? This worm is extremely bad for livebearers, or so my reading has concluded. Best of luck with saving your fish!

Sorry to hear about your baby fish deaths. That is so sad. If they all died without cause, could it be genetic???? Sometimes some recessive genes come out and the babies die. If this happens again(hope not) maybe try a different male or female, it could help. Good luck with future batches.

As of late I have been having problems staying logged into the site. Everyday or as often as my computer is off and then restarted, I have to reenter my name and password. I used to be able to go for days without entering it, now it is everyday. Is this something new(safety) process??? If not can someone help me to fix it. Thank you.

Hi everyone, I have a couple of questions. I have a whole pile of frozen cubed fish food that has semi-defrosted/defrosted. Is it still okay to use? Is it okay to refreeze it?? Someone in my family left the freezer door open last night and now they are not frozen. Yikes lots of money. If they are defrosted can I keep them in my fridge, and use them up over the next few days??? Boy o Boy will my fish be eating well for the next few days if that is the case.

Why??? :eh: Was the heater unplugged?? Other then maintenace it should never be unplugged. Were you changing water? Hope the ich gets better. How long has it been?