I bought some guppies - need advice

[daisymac]

I went to Houston Aquatics yesterday and got a pair of fancy guppies and a pair of some other exotic guppy, maybe El salvador? I don't remember what they were called. Now they haven't been in the tank for 24 hours, but they are staying at the top of the tank, in a group. Is this normal behavior? I thought they were middle swimmers. I did see them eat some flake food this morning.

[PhishPhreek]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

their mouths are on the top of their head.   THIS allows them to eat food off of the surface more easily.   They normally cruse the surface looking for bugs / floating flake food or trying to reproduce.    Also, you will find that most fish will school near the surface when the water is too warm or the oxygen content of the water is low.    Usually the water at the surface has a higher Oxygen content because of transfer of oxygen from the air.
So this could be an indication that you need more circulation (air stone) in your tank.

[guppymax]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

That's right. If it is low disolved oxygen in the water they might hang around the air bubbles on top. Did you recently change the water or set up the tank? I have some organic material in my well water that seems to deplete the disolved oxygen in the water so I carbon filter my make up water. Have you used any chemicals in the room? Hand loation on your hands in the tank? One fish per gallon? Maybe you can increase the air going into the tank. A few bubbles in the water column may not be enough. Sometimes people split it and split it until there isn't much.

max

[daisymac]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

I did do a partial water change and general cleanup. The power filter is pouring out bubbles, so I would assume that I don't need an additional air pump in the tank. No chemicals in the room, no hand lotions and I have about 18" of fish in a 55 gallon tank. And the temperature is 78.

After watching the activity I noticed that these 2 bandtail tetras I have are too aggressive with the guppies. I cannot find much info about these guys, but they are larger than the others, and they need to go! I think they, the guppies,  are hiding. I have some floating plants that they stay in the midst of.

Back to the oxygen - how could I find out what the level is? All my water readings are normal, but I don't know how to check oxygen.

[guppymax]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

Meters are too expensive, There are chemical test kits but it sounds like you found the problem already. Fish farmers can afford the chemical test kits but they may be too expensive for hobbiest. I never bought a test kit for disolved oxygen. I could see gas coming out of my well water sometimes. The fish hung around the top when I changed the water and if a fish was going to die of old age it was usually after I changed the water. I have a lot of tanks. It was probably cheaper to add the cartridge carbon filter to my water faucet than to test the water and find out exactly what the problem was. Its about $20 with a cartridge at Lowes.

max

[Jose]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

Daisy, I would agree with you that your bandtails(or guppies) need to go if they are chasing and nipping at the guppies. When I buy rosy reds, they roam the tank then quickly "school" to the top. But they eventually get eaten . I had a couple of saltwater damsels that 1 damsel would get picked on and it would stay at the top.

[daisymac]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

Well, I had to separate the bandtails from the rest of the fish. They were nipping at this one particular male guppy so fiercely that he was literally pressing his little body in a cavity of a rock to hide.    Then somtime that night (after the lights were off) he found his way to the hiding place that the clown loaches have and was hanging out down ther. I was worried that he would starve. The other 3 guppies were hiding in the plants at the top, and eating, but he wouldn't come out from under that rock. Yesterday I saw the bandtails attacking a long finned leopard danio, so I guess they like long fins. Well enough is enough. I called Village tropical, where I got them and asked what to do and they said bring them back. So I had to remove some decorations to catch them - they are as fast as Superman - but I got them out and put them in the little tank I had to begin with. They aren't happy about that, but the other fish are happy to see them out of there. The scared male has even rejoined the others at the top of the tank. It hasn't even been 24 hours, so hopefully they will start cruising the tank.

I'll take the bandtails back to Village today or tomorrow.

I think the females are PG. I read about a black spot on them and they both have one toward the tail area. I also read that the gestation period is 2 weeks. How can I tell when they are ready to drop the fry?

[guppymax]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

It is about 28 days if you are talking about the guppies. The only way to guess very accurately is with a calendar.

max

[daisymac]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

Max,

How do I know when they got PG? I know one was PG when I bought it but the other one wasn't supposed to be - that's what the woman told me anyway. And in the future how can I tell?

I bought 3 different tropical fish books but they don't go into this much detail.

Thanks

[guppymax]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

It is a really wild guess now. I would not even speculate. You could have had babies last week and they were eaten? If you can distinguish between the females you can mark the next babies birthday on the  calendar and look for more babies from that female in about 28 days. You could even put her in a little nursery tank or bucket it you wanted to. That way you only have to worry about one fish eating the babies. More plants real or plastic provide hiding places in the tank or nursery tank for the babies.

max

[daisymac]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

I just got them on Saturday, and I haven't seen any babies yet. That is why I was so desperate to get those bandtails out of there. I was afraid they would gobble them up like they do the plankton!

There are plenty of places to hide. I have real and plastic plants and I think/hope the others are peaceful enough not to eat them.

If I can get to Village today or tomorrow to return the bandtails, then I will put the mommies in the 2.5g tank. I can easily tell them apart, and one is further along so I guess I would start with her in the little tank, and then mark the calendar!

[JLawson]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

I've also read about "superfetation" in guppies - the female's ability to have more than one batch of fry from the same mating.  What are the details about this... like how much time passes between batches, how many batches might there be, are the sizes of the batches the same or do they get smaller each time, etc.  If this is true, it's an interesting phenomenon.

[daisymac]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

Hey, JLawson, check out this website

http://guppyplace.tripod.com/Breeding.html

[guppymax]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

The guppes can have three or four, multiple births about 28 days apart from one fertilization. Normaly they try to replace the old sperm with new sperm if it is available. There is some debate about whether or not a drop can be from multiple fathers. In general a females first drop tends to be small. Then drops increase in size for a while and fianlly they dwindle to nothing. The largest drop I have had was around 90. Two hundred would not be unheard of. The size of drops is determined by genetic and environmental factors. Earthworms, beef heart, and brine shrimp increase drop size. Drop size drops dramatically if the fish are feed only grains.

max

[daisymac]

Re: I bought some guppies - need advice

Max - I think someone gave me some bad advice! I was worried about the other fish eating the babies, and you know I already took the bandtails out because they would gladly eat the adult guppies! So I went to a LFS and asked what to do. She hands me a breeder box that has a divider so I can put both mommies in there.

I have been doing my reading and since I have no date to go by, I am watching the activity of the pairs, and the size of the females. The males are chasing the females like crazy, which I understand to be one of the signs that birth is close (they want to mate ASAP, just like the Meerkats!   ) That concerned me, so I get the females in the box - not so easy, but I did it without too much stress. Then I put the top on the box and it is floating in the tank. The mommies are freaked, so I want to give them a treat, but how the heywho do you feed them in there? :think:

I google "how to feed in a breeder box?" and the responses take me to a place called GuppyLog, which describes the box as a "Plastic death box." I look at a few other sites and they condemn using a breeder box, so I quickly dump the mommies out and hope that the fry figure out where to hide.

Sorry this is such a long post, but I want to know your opinion of what I've done.

Daisy