Caring for your guppies.

Picture
Above
A beautiful male guppy showing off his fins

You will need a five to ten gallon tank for proper guppy care, depending on how many fish you intend to nurture there. A good rule to go by is to keep about one gallon of water to every inch of fish that you have in your tank. This formula is a great basis for determining when you need to start up a new tank or make the one you have bigger. These types of decisions and projects need to be done gradually and carefully, as the addition of too much new water to a tank or the stark introduction from one tank to another can be fatal for your fishy friends. Slow and consistent is the name of the game with guppy care, and here are a few tips to help your experience.

If you are planning to breed your guppy, care instructions will include a couple of different gadgets. You will need a breeding cage, and this is made of fine mesh that allows filtered water and oxygen to pass through, but doesn’t allow the tiny, vulnerable baby guppies to get out. These are a favorite food source of the other adult fish in the tank, so keeping them protected is always a good idea. Some people will merely offer a great many hiding places within the tank for the new fry to get to, but this will almost always result in the loss of many of your new guppies.

Guppy care when dealing with feeding times is pretty easy, and there are a couple of things that will make the process easier for you. Over feeding of your tank can cause a lot of ph problems, and this in turn can lead to diseases, fungus, and death. The first signs of your water going sour will be cloudiness and sediment at the bottom of your tank. Guppy tails are extremely vulnerable to all changes in temperature and ph, so if you notice changes in the healthy appearance of your fish, and they are not being picked at by other fish, you will know that something is amiss.

Guppy care when feeding is best served as three small portions per day, rather than one large one where most of the feed settles to the bottom untouched. Brine shrimp are a wonderful option for lively and healthy colors for your guppies, and these are good for your fry as well. Use a couple of different flake options too, as your guppies will thrive with a good amount of variety of feeds. This, coupled with the smaller feedings that they will grow accustomed, will spark a more active and stimulating feeding time, and they will all vie for their fill each time the tank is opened.