Guppies!

[Bryony]

GUPPIES
my sister wants to raise the babies, and yes one of my guppies is VERY pregnant, my sis is not all that responsible, but she has nothing else to care for....................
help?

[Yvonne Belisle]

guppies are great for not so responsible people. Just make sure there are a lot of plants in the tank for the babies to hide in the more the better. If you can from time to time get them daphnia also known as water fleas. These fish love them. Another name for guppies is mosquito fish because they thrive on the larva of mosquito's. They are really easy to take care of as well and if you want you can buy the weekly feeders so no one really has to think about feeding them. If you do not have a breeder tank for live breeders say good bye to the babies right away though unless there are lots of plants and I mean a dense tank full of them. You may want to put a few pond snails in with them as well they will keep down the alge and the fish will keep down the snails plus they are also interesting to watch grow on the sides till they hatch. Another bonus to plants in the tank in high concentrations is no need to change the water and no need for airstones. If you need more information just let me know.

[Yvonne Belisle]

This is one of the places we got our plants when we were in California.

http://aquariumplants.net/

[Margie]

OMG I have not seen guppies in like 18 years! I remember those, now I want some.

[Witchy Cowgirl]

We're doing goldfish. The youngest (BR) won one at the fair - which of course died and we bought a new one. Along with the purchase the sales lady was very helpful and gave me wonderful tips.
When we got the goldfish I still had my hermit crab. BR wanted to trade and put Herman in the small tank we bought and put his fish in Hermans aquariaum. Well, Herman died about a month ago so I turned over the aquariaum to the fish. Tonight with BR's Christmas money we bought a filter, a top, more rock, etc. and a new goldfish.

Hermit crabs are a great pet(?) for the not so responsible. We had Herman for well over a year. He was very low maintance. You only have to feed about once a week and just check the water when ya feed. Cleaning the aquarium was the biggest chore in having a crab. I'm planning on getting another one (or two)

So, back to the guppies....unless your willing to help with the care....I'd try to talk her out of it.

[Faery-Wings]

My dad used to raise guppies when I was a kid, as well as all sorts of tropical fish.

How old is your sister? Would you be able to help her out and teach her the ropes?

Guppies might not be a bad way to go since you will have a lot of them, eh? ;) From what I remember, goldfish are harder to care for and are very dirty. I think Yvonne has some great ideas.

Hope you all have fun!

[Witchy Cowgirl]

;) I wasn't suggesting goldfish....just saying that's what we got going on right now.:D I didn't realized that you had to be careful and not feed them too much and that they were dirty. These are the first fish I've had to care for. We just got into it cause of the fair.8O

But yes, if ya'll can work together go for it. Everytime we get new pets I know I'll end up with the major part of the care.:)

I didn't metion eariler that the lady who helped us last night was the lady who helped us back in Sept. I thought that was great!

[Faery-Wings]

I wasn't suggesting goldfish....just saying that's what we got going on right now

Oh no, I didn't think you were suggesting goldfish, I thought you were suggesting *not* goldfish. :lol:

Goldfish need there tanks cleaned *all* the time, Yuck!

We had a beta fish when Scott was little and that was better than goldfish, but not by all that much.

[Yvonne Belisle]

Well if you go guppies with lots of plants and weekly feeder tablets you don't really have to think about them except once a week and of course to get rid of some of them when you have too many for the tank. The more plants you have the more fish it can hold too due to oxygen levels.

[shnen]

what is a guppy??? (stupid question) i have heard of them, but have no clue what they are...

[Yvonne Belisle]

Well this link is fancy guppies but it gives you an idea

http://www.angelsplus.com/galry-guppy.htm

there are some common guppies on this page if you scroll down. :)

http://cichlid.uvm.edu/tfcb/showauction/classdescimages.html

[Willow_Raindancer]

Guppies, rodents of the fish world!
I wish I had a way to give you mine LOL!
I have one termanally pregnant guppy and 3 fancy males that torment her to no avail! I keep them with 2 bottom feeders, they always seem to eat the babies because I have little cover for them. But if they did not eat them I'd have a million by now.
1 female guppy can have 5 litters from one breeding!
A 10 gal tank doesn't hold that many guppies either;)

[shnen]

ok, so they are fish....

hmm... never owned a fish.

[Witchy Cowgirl]

Fish aren't the cuddliest pets in the world. Neither are hermit crabs!8O
But it's extremely relaxing to watch the fish swimming around.

[Old Witch]

I at one time had beautiful aquariums, but for some reason, stopped buying fish.......but I love Discus, Oscars, and Angel fish...Can you all tell I'm fond of the cichlids?? Also loved butterfly fish.......

[Bryony]

Originally posted by Witchy Cowgirl
We're doing goldfish. The youngest (BR) won one at the fair - which of course died and we bought a new one. Along with the purchase the sales lady was very helpful and gave me wonderful tips.
When we got the goldfish I still had my hermit crab. BR wanted to trade and put Herman in the small tank we bought and put his fish in Hermans aquariaum. Well, Herman died about a month ago so I turned over the aquariaum to the fish. Tonight with BR's Christmas money we bought a filter, a top, more rock, etc. and a new goldfish.

Hermit crabs are a great pet(?) for the not so responsible. We had Herman for well over a year. He was very low maintance. You only have to feed about once a week and just check the water when ya feed. Cleaning the aquarium was the biggest chore in having a crab. I'm planning on getting another one (or two)

So, back to the guppies....unless your willing to help with the care....I'd try to talk her out of it.

:eek: only a year? our hermit crabs lived to be 6, 8 and 11!

[Bryony]

Originally posted by Willow_Raindancer
Guppies, rodents of the fish world!
I wish I had a way to give you mine LOL!
I have one termanally pregnant guppy and 3 fancy males that torment her to no avail! I keep them with 2 bottom feeders, they always seem to eat the babies because I have little cover for them. But if they did not eat them I'd have a million by now.
1 female guppy can have 5 litters from one breeding!
A 10 gal tank doesn't hold that many guppies either;)

yah, my female DIED giving birth. Think i will get another one or two, just for the fun of it.

[Witchy Cowgirl]

Originally posted by Bryony
:eek: only a year? our hermit crabs lived to be 6, 8 and 11!

Yes, but of course there's no telling how old he was when I got him. I do miss the little critter. I heard they can live up to 19 years in captivity.

We looked at some more fish tonight. So some beautiful guppies.:)

[Ahautenites]

**grins** Just wanted to add my two cents about guppies.. I realize they are as plentiful as rodents as far as breeding goes, but I wouldn't actually consider them pests, the way rodents are. Guppies are more like the frogs and bats of the fish world. They keep the mosquito population down.

I loved my guppies. **sighs** Sadly, I was too busy with homework during high school to take care of them properly and they died.

I had heard that there was a shortage of them for awhile because of some Japanese virus that was wiping out all of the fancy strains. (Japan has some of the most *amazing* strains of guppy.)