The Guppy:
What is a Guppy?
By PHPhoenix

The Guppy, Poecilia Libestes Reticulata, is a Livebearer. Livebearers are fish in the family of Poecilla, which bear and give birth to live fry, unlike other fish that deposit eggs. They are small fish, and can grow up to 2 inches. Guppies can be found in parts of the world such as the Amazon, North Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela, Barbados, Florida (United States), and Trinidad. They live in fresh or brackish water. Guppies have been placed in lakes where there is a high population of mosquitoes, as they will feed on the larvae to keep the mosquito population down.

What kinds are available?

There are many varieties and colors to purchase. Color variations and types include standard (red, blue, green, etc,) and fancy, bottom and double wwordtail, mosaic, long fin, flagtail, veiltail, rounded, King Cobra, Tuxedo, Glass, Grass, Snakeskin, Lacetail, fantail, lyretail, triangle tail, red tail and peacock. Guppies can be purchased at fish and pet stores, from local breeders, and from online fish stores and breeders. The fancy tail guppies can also be found by contacting guppy breeders or special ordering with a local fish store, and online. Fancy tails are mainly raised and bred for shows around the world.

What size tank is best?

Guppies need to be placed in a minimum tank size of 2 gallons. The size of the tank depends on how many fish you can house.

Items needed for your tank include:

Guppy Care:

Water should be heated to 75–85 degrees F, the PH level needs to be 6.8–7.6. Guppies are peaceful fish. If you want to mix them with other fish, put them with other peaceful community fish such as platie or neon tetras. However guppies prefer to be with their own species, since other fish could nip at their fins.

Food and Feeding Time:

Guppies eat flakes and live food. Tropical fish flakes are what you need to feed your guppies, preferably without color enhancers, and flakes that don’t cloud water. For extra nutrition you can buy the following:

Instead of buying the extra nutrition, you can raise your own brine shrimp to feed to your fish. This process takes time, but it’s worth it instead of buying extra live food every week. Feed your fish once or twice a day; use small amounts of food, giving them only what they can eat in a couple of minutes.

Breeding and Fry Care:

So you want to breed a pair of guppies? Here’s what you need. A breeders net (to separate the female from the fry) and a small 5-gallon tank. The birthing tank should have a water temperature of 75-85 F. degrees. A water filter and pump is needed to cleanse the water and keep it clear.

A female guppy that is pregnant has a bulging gravid spot above the anal fin that becomes darker before giving birth. At this point you would need to separate the mother from all the other fish, and put her in a breeders net in the small birthing tank. The breeders net will divide the mother on top, and when she gives birth the babies will swim through a hole down to the other half of the tank. They are free to swim and are safe from the mother. At this point you can place the mother back in the tank with the other adult fish.

Feeding Fry:

Baby guppies are small, and they need food that they can thrive on to help them grow. Feedings are 4-5 times a day. Foods that are great for fry are:

Any of the above can be purchased at a local fish or pet store.

Using brine shrimp and other live foods requires a frequent change in water for the fry. It’s best to change it 3–4 times a week because of the extra feedings.

Once the babies have grown to a mature size of about 1 inch you can transfer them with a small fish net and place them gently in the tank with the other adult fish.

Guppies are very beautiful, and come in different variations of color. If you are a beginner at raising fish, guppies are easy to keep, and are excellent schooling fish with their own species.

Next time more on livebearer as we learn about Mollies.

Fishless Cycling
By PH Splendens

In the last issue of FishTales we discussed adding fish to give your tank a source of ammonia, and in return beginning the cycling process. Now we’re going to discuss cycling your freshwater tank without fish, a method that is becoming more and more popular. This method of cycling is by far the safest since it doesn’t put the life of your fish at risk, and it is also the easiest for the beginner since there are no worries involved. If you make a mistake doing a cycle with fish then it could mean the death of your fish; if you make a mistake doing a cycle without fish, then the only thing that may be affected is the bacteria colony you’re trying to establish.

An advantage to cycling without fish is that there will be a full colony of bacteria in place ready to take on the bioload that you will place on it, so once the cycle is complete you can fully stock your tank right away. When doing a cycle with fish you can add only one or two fish every week so the bacteria colony has a chance to play catch-up. Another advantage to using this method is you don’t have to find homes for unwanted fish when the cycle is complete, since there are no fish involved.

The first thing you will need to do is set up your tank as if you were going to use fish to cycle it. This includes adding gravel, plants, decorations, heater, and most importantly a filter with regular carbon or sponge media. Your filter will give bacteria the oxygen they need to live by creating surface movement and thus exchanging toxic gases for oxygen. Everything else, including the filter, will give the bacteria surface area on which to grow, and the heater will keep the water at the proper temperature the bacteria need. If your water temperature falls too low or rises too high it could kill the bacteria. You will also need test kits for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates.

Your next step to a fishless cycle is to add pure household ammonia, or ammonia with no additives, colors, or perfumes (ACS grade ammonium hydroxide). If it doesn’t say pure, clear, or 100 percent ammonia, or if you’re just not sure, then you can tell by shaking the bottle. If the ammonia foams after shaking it, then it isn’t pure and not what you’re looking for. By adding pure household ammonia to your tank you are replacing the ammonia fish produce and giving your tank a different source of ammonia so it can begin the cycling process.

Don’t just dump a bunch of ammonia in your tank and hope that will take care of cycling your tank and all you have to do is sit back and wait. It doesn’t work that way. By dumping a bunch of ammonia in your tank, you will cause your tank to have more need of bacteria to take care of the high amounts of ammonia and eventually nitrites, and there isn’t enough surface area in your tank or filter for the bacteria to grow on. If you accidentally add too much, you can reduce the amount by changing out enough water until you have the proper amount of ammonia in your tank. When doing a water change, however, don’t use other ammonia inhibiting chemicals such as Amquel, Ammo-lock, or carbon containing Ammo-lock. This could in fact starve the beneficial bacteria of an important food source, and kill off any bacteria that may be present. All you will need is a regular chlorine or chloramine remover.

What you will want to do at this point is measure small amounts of ammonia into your tank until the ammonia level in your tank reaches .5 parts per million. Take note of how much you used to reach .5 parts per million so you will know what to add each day until you get a nitrite spike. Once you have a nitrite spike cut back the amount of ammonia you’re using to half until your tank is fully cycled. When your tank is fully cycled you then need to do a water change to lower the nitrates before adding fish. Keep in mind nitrates that are too high can cause stress in your fish, which in turn will cause disease and death. To keep nitrate levels down weekly water changes or bi-weekly (depending upon the fish load your tank holds) are a must.

If you choose to cycle your tank without fish you will cut back the amount of time it takes to cycle your tank, since the amount of ammonia you will be using will approximately be the same amount a tank full of fish would produce. You can cut the time it takes to cycle your tank even more by adding filter media, gravel, plants, or decorations from an established tank that has a full colony of bacteria. This will add a small number of the bacteria you are trying to grow, and will give your tank a slight boost. Doing a fishless cycle may not be the most natural way to cycle your tank, but it is a very effective way and will save countless fish that lose their lives to cycling each year.

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