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Acclimating Guppies in Your Aquarium

By Chintamani Abhyankar

  If you want to make your aquarium attractive and beautiful, fancy guppies are your ideal choice. They are available in a wide range of colors like golden, blue, black, green and red. All these colors attract the attention of kids and the visitors. In fact if you select a good combination of a bunch of colorful guppies, looking at them is a cool and relaxing experience.

    Fancy guppies are freshwater fish and they love to stay in warm water. If you keep the temperature of your aquarium between 77 and 83° F, they are very happy to live in. To make them more comfortable, you can add around 1 tablespoon of salt every 5 gallons of water.

    They make no complaint for the food offered to them. Any normal food available in the pet fish shop like flaked food is fine with them. You can even feed them boiled vegetables. However, if you can afford to feed them live food like brine shrimp or blood-worms, they will become stronger.

You should take care in balancing your aquarium if you plan to keep fancy guppies. You should keep at least two females per male. In fact, if you keep more females for a single male, they are happy!

    Many species of fish are compatible with fancy guppies. You can keep Cory catfish, Gouramis, glass fish and even African dwarf frogs with them. However you should make a small research over the Internet for finding out the compatibility. Sometimes pet shops try to sell mollies with guppies recommending that they go well together. That is not true. They make such a recommendation because they want to sell their mollies. Remember, if the mollies grow in size, they will attack guppies and there will be continuous fights resulting in injuries to guppies.

    You should also avoid Platies and Swordtails with guppies. They just cannot get along well. In fact the basic criterion in deciding the compatibility is the size of the fish. The fish you want to keep with guppies should always be smaller in size than the guppies. Guppies are not capable of fighting and the large fish will harm them. In fact your guppies will always be under stress because of such attacks and they will get sick and may even die in a short time.

       

    Remember, the fish are smaller in size and they take time in adjusting themselves to the new environment. So you need to be patient before you show them their future residence.

Chintamani Abhyankar is a goldfish enthusiast and has been raising and breeding goldfish for many years. He is an expert on their care and an advocate for raising healthy goldfish the natural way. His famous digital book, "Secrets on Keeping Beautiful Goldfish", offers simple, easy to follow instruction for raising healthy, long-living goldfish. Visit his website http://www.goldfishcaretips.com to learn more about expertly raising your goldfish and to receive your FREE copy of his special report, "Fish-Keeping Hobby Secrets Revealed". Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chintamani_Abhyankar

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Guide to Baby Guppies and Their Growth Rates

  By Johnathan Thomas

  Say you bought a trio or pair of guppies in the hopes of breeding them for fun. Assuming the females and male fish purchased are fully mature when brought home, they should be ready to start pumping out babies in no time flat! Under optimal conditions, female guppies can produce a spawn of 40 to 60 babies (also known as fry) every 28 to 32 days.

    They may not do so in the first month if they are not quite ready, but after 45 days one can expect to start seeing baby fish in the aquarium. Once you see your first guppy fry, it is good to know how quickly they can be expected to grow.

    Guppies are live-bearing fish which means the mothers give birth to fish that are already hatched and able to fend for themselves. They have fins and are hungry right from the start. Guppy fry will start looking for foods within minutes. If fed adequately, they can fully mature within 2 to 3 months.

    At approximately half of an inch, they are born at a decent size. Within a month they can easily reach one inch, but will likely be thin and lack much color. Once color starts to develop, changes can be noticed almost daily, especially on the males!

    By 30 or 40 days of age, this species of fish is able to mate and the males should be separated from females if selected breeding is desired. Fully formed and mature fish can be expected within 2 to 4 months. These fish will have nice flowing fins and full muscle mass! To ensure that your baby guppies develop at a normal rate, feed them a variety of foods several times per day and to change the aquarium water on a weekly basis.

John enjoys writing about a variety of aquarium topics. Most recently, he has started a website about custom fish tanks. One of the specific topics discussed is the art of aquarium design. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Johnathan_Thomas

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Tips on Guppy Care and Spawning

Genus name: Poecilia Reticulata
Distribution:  Northern Brazil, Venezuela, Guyana, Barbados, Trinidad
Length: males up to 1.2" (3cm), females to 2.4" (6cm)
Water Temperature: 72-83F (22-28C)
Diet: Worms, dried food, plant matter, crustaceans, insects
Water: medium hard and slightly alkaline
Breeding: Livebearers

    Just like goldfish and betta fish, guppies have been selectively bred to increase their coloration and exaggerate their dorsal fins. There are guppy societies devoted to breeding the next generation of show guppies. Some of these show class guppies can fetch a rather high price. The more generic fancy guppies found in fish stores are quite stunning in appearance and not that expensive.

    Guppies are docile fish and make the perfect addition to community tanks. To insure their safety only keep them with other mild mannered fish and avoid mixing them with larger varieties who will view them as food.

Breeding Guppies

    Guppies are among the easiest freshwater fish to breed. Unlike most fish, guppies engage in internal fertilization. The anal fin of the male is used to inseminate the female. Once inseminated, the female stores sperm in her body for several months. She can produce multiple broods without the need for further fertilization.

    Once impregnated, the female will develop a dark spot on her abdomen and the abdomen will start to swell. Guppies are live bearing fish. The fry will emerge from the mother fully developed. The fry emerge colorless. They will start to develop color in a few weeks.

    Adult guppies will eat the newly hatched fry. The best way to avoid this is with a breeding trap. Breeding traps are inexpensive and readily available at fish stores. Breeding traps are transparent plastic containers comprised of two compartments. Place the impregnated female in the top compartment. As the female gives birth the fry drop through to the bottom compartment. After the female is done giving birth remove her from the trap. The plastic piece that separates the trap into two compartments can then be removed to give the fry more room to maneuver. The fry can be kept in the trap while they are young. But remember that they are in an isolated compartment for their own protection. Replace part of the water with aquarium water regularly to keep it fresh.

    Guppy fry can be fed newly hatched brine shrimp, or finely crushed dry food. Fry food specially formulated for live bearing fish is available at most fish stores.

Freshwater fish are the most popular aquarium fish worldwide because of their inexpensive price and ease of care. Many aquarium owners don't realize that there is a rather exotic alternative to freshwater fish in the realms of affordability and upkeep. Jellyfish aquariums are the hottest new trend in the aquarium industry. Jellyfish do require a specialJellyfish Aquarium Fish Tank in order to survive but they are far easier to keep alive and healthy than saltwater fish. Pet Moon Jellyfish look absolutely incredible under a fading LED lighting system. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stephen_J_Broy

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