Guppies?

[curtis20]

Today i bought a 20 gallon tank on sale for $50 .It is a starter kit so it came with some stuff. I would like to put in 2 -4 guppies in this tank?? Right now the tank is cycling and it probably will be for another week. what do you think about 4 small guppies in the 20 gallon tank?

[Goldfishlove]

Do you mean you want 4 small guppies to cycle the tank , or just have 4 guppies in the 20 gallon tank?? Guppies help cycle the tank. I have a 20 gallon tank and i have an angel fish and some community fish. You can put more than just 4 guppies in a 20 gallon tank. just dont over crowd the tank. But if you are using the guppies to cycle the tank i would wait a week before putting any other fish in the tank.

[curtis20]

hmm i think i may be learning something new. Im cycling the tank now by just letting everything run. no fish in there is just water,filter,heater and the special conditioner

[Goldfishlove]

My husband told me that guppies also help cycle the tank. or any small fish like that. But i have a new tank but when i first got it i didnt put any small fish or guppies in it because I have goldfish and there dirty animals.But you should be ok just after a couple of days. You can put in one fish at a time. dont just throw them all in at once

[Bettachris]

ok....

cycling a tank is not just running the electrionc stuff like filters. when you cycle a tank you are adding ammonia to the tank and allow the nitrates and nitrites to balance out.

picking a starting fish is probably on the top ten most important things in fish keeping. in a 20 gallon a cycleing fish would need to be alittle larger fish that is very hardy. unfort with the demand for fishes being at an all time high-breeders are inbreeding many small fish causing there natural immune system to decrease. meaning that no longer are alot of old time cycling fishes = good ideas.

fishes that i would recommend:
larger tiger barbs,
cory catfish,
longfin-or short fin rosy barbs(make sure you dont get rosy minnows aka feeder fish.)
a larger gouramie- blue,golden,crosby,lerri,moonbeam(with these, pick only one as they are larger gouramies)


remember to make sure it is absoultly healthy as ill fish will set you back for awhile.

---
as for guppies, yes and no: it really depends on the sex that you have. in a 20 gallon you can house 5-6 MALE only guppy groups.

with guppies, females like all livebearers have the ablity to store sperm and have babies without males around all of the time. the problem with many inexperienced fishkeepers is that a single female guppy can have enough babies to over stock 60 gallon tanks, so when stocking small tanks like the 20 i would 100% recomend only male guppies and not females.

[Goldfishlove]

yea ..... because he really cares about the sex of the fish. and you can really tell if its a boy or girl

[Fender963]

http://www.rexgrigg.com/cycle.htm

A good guide to cycling.

[curtis20]

Thank you Chris nd everyone else. I would have no idea the sex of my fish but it said on the tank at the store that they were all males. I have some good information from you guys. thx alot

[Bettachris]

a few years ago like bettas, males could be identified by brighter colors and longer finnage, however in this day in age females have been bred to have longer fins and colors. besides the body length of female livebearers is always longer than males, look at the anal fin. on males it is pointed for the .....

and on females it is more of a fan. also in lighter bodied fishes, the females will have a gravid spot or a dark spot in the end of the belly area.


again it is possible to house male and females together, but again a single female can reproduce alot of young and can over stock a tank given their are no predators in the tank.

in an "assorted male tank" which almost all better fishstores due(to keeping genetics more pure than haveing the males and females mating all the time) chances are you have all males which is a good thing, and a plus is you can stock more males than if you stock with females.

[Goldfishlove]

ummm ok sure

[Amber23]

Depending on where you get your guppies from, it is easy to tell a male from a female. Males are usually much more colorful and have larger fins, etc. Females can be pretty dull with some coloring on thier back fin. If you were to get guppies, I would goto a store that has male and female seperated just to make sure you don't get them confused.

I agree that you would defianlty want to stick with just males. Your tank can easily get overrun w/ guppies if you mix the sexes. Also you can get more than 4 in a 20 gallon. Are you just wanting to keep guppies or are you going to add other fish also?

Also, I have read that you should have 3 females to 1 male. Bettachris, have you heard this also? You seem to know alot about fish, so im just curious.

[curtis20]

Hmm i have not heard that. I will check back in asee what bettachris sais. Thx for the info Amber :)

[Amber23]

Its because males can be somewhat agressive about mating. SO it would be better to give him a "harem" than to let him go after one female all the time.

[Bettachris]

yes you will hear all kinda of stocking rules, and as you go on you will find different ways of it, and choose what you choose to believe.

just my opinion is that with livebearers yes you are right in housing more females to a single male.

but again i stand by housing only males in a small tank and there is no intention in breeding. a general benifit that i dont see many people thinking of, is b/c still males tend to be more colorful with out females to overpopulate the tank, you can stock more males and add alot of color to your tank.

again what you choose to think is better stocking is truley up to you and i respect any decision that you make. I have my own veiws and if you ever like just ask me and from my past and knowledge i will try to answer you as best as i can.

[curtis20]

Ok my bigger pink chiclid that i have alone in a tank seems to acting strange and really getting me worried. for the past week he will only eat the frozen brine shrimp that i give him for a treat. he wont eat flakes and he wont eat pellets(like he doesnt even know they are floating there. i went to the pet store and they were out of blood worms??? The fish has a small rock that he can hide in and we can see him through the entrance. when i looked at him today he was floating at the top of the rock sideways inside. i moved the rock and he slowley swm away but did not want to give up the rock. now he is sittiong right beside the bubblker having the bubbles on him all the time. i raised his water temo from 73 to 77. I dont know what to do?

[Goldfishlove]

well ask bettachris , since he knows a lot about fish

[Amber23]

Have you checked your water checked?

[curtis20]

Im not sure i know what u mean? do you mean have i had my water checked. no i have not

[Amber23]

Sorry, I didn't mean to write it that way, lol.

Do you have any supplies to check your water? If not I would take it to a fish store and have them check it. There could be something wrong with your ammonia levels, etc.

[Bettachris]

go to any lfs and they should have water test kits.

these are very good when trying to raise fish sucessfully.

water is water, but when you break it down into fishkeeping, all water has different ph values. some fish do better in different ph zones.
Also when starting a new"er" tank it is important to check nitrates and nitrites in the water, and ammonia levels.

while regular weekly 50 % water changes will make the water better for the fish, it is still good to know the water parameters. It also makes treating a fish easier based on water.

[deb1993]

I am not a professional but I have had lots of small community fish. In there world what is happening means he is getting ready to die.Did u maybe put anything new in the water? Is he old or might he have ick or some other fishdisease/Its so sad to see them so weak like that but I am almost positive you aare going to lose him:( If you havent had him long maybe he will have a warantee to get a new one, I hope he pulls through, i dont thnk there is much you can do for the poor scaley guy! Let me know what happens! Good Luck!

[Eucalyptus]

What other fish are you thinking of getting with them? And I hope you realize that guppies are brackish water fish and require a high concentrate of saltwater *not talking saltwater either here*. They are also rather delicate fish...so be careful about your filter, they usually tend to get caught in the filter *unless you fit a sponge to the intake*.

[Bettachris]

what stated above is alittle right,

first lets break down guppies:

guppies are livebearers which come from central america reigion. No they are not brackish. mollies and sword tails are more brackish in common livebearers and while salt isn't needed it does harm.

guppies and platies tend to be the other half of the common livebearers that are more adapted to freshwater.

guppies are not fragile, given you dont buy feeder guppies.