fancy guppies...hard to keep?

vaderbanger

vaderbanger

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Dec 1, 2005
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is it just me or is it really hard to keep fancy guppies alive more than a month?
water tests fine(0,0,30ppm nitrate), temp is fine 78, they eat and are active then they all seem to die off one by one for no reason. my tank is sorta empty, a few lemon tetras and a cory cat, 2 oto's. 26 gallon tank semi planted, water changes once a week 30 percent, but i may try cutting down on water changes because im starting to think im doing to many :laugh:
so what am i doing wrong that i cant keep fancy male guppies alive?
im afraid to waste my money on more, or should i try a different source? ive been getting them at petco
 
Mine were very easy to keep, but this Ich I have now is killing everything! Grrr.
 
mine got killed by lyretail guppies. kinda turned off from guppies now. livebearers in general annoy me for whatever reason.
 
CBTF said:
mine got killed by lyretail guppies. kinda turned off from guppies now. livebearers in general annoy me for whatever reason.
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LOL im sorry this made me chuckle :Angel:
ill try anothe petstore and see what happends, if they die then im finished with guppies.
i like platy's but with them i can keep them for like 8 months then they always die of dropsy.
swordtails i can get to live for a few years but they get too nasty, lil fin nippers!
maybe its my water conditioner??? i use ammo lock 2, i just switched to aqua safe today maybe ill see an improvement.
 
Hard to keep?? Wow you must be getting some DUDS I had kept and breed 100's in 10g tanks over the years to me I would say it is one of the easiest fish to keep. Mabey yoru getting bad fish or not feeding them right? I have no clue I can keep them alive in a bowl for ALONG time I dont know that the average life span of a guppie is more than 1-3 years. Anyhow elaborate on your set up and tank mates mabey I can help.
 
how many are you adding at once? do you know your ph? thats weird. i couldn't kill my guppies if i tried (well the babies got eaten and i lost a few of old age)

try a different pet store. add a few at a time. seems strange that you can keep ottos which are notoriously sensitive and not guppies. oh well good luck
 
Personally, I'm turned off by live bearers as well. They're bred and inbred a lot. To me, they get sick and die very easily.

Fancy guppies I think almost shares the same fate. I've bought feeder guppies that I kept and they lived for quite awhile. Of course they kept reproducing at the same time also.

Your lemon tetras may be a bit nippy. Are you sure they aren't harassing the slower moving fancy guppies?
 
I had a problem with the first batch of guppies I got. Turns out that the big chain store was putting a little salt in the water (found that out after they died). My LFS doesn't salt their tanks and now my guppies are doing great.
 
lucas68 said:
I had a problem with the first batch of guppies I got. Turns out that the big chain store was putting a little salt in the water (found that out after they died). My LFS doesn't salt their tanks and now my guppies are doing great.
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Guppies are VERY salt tolerant. I've used them to cycle saltwater tanks before. I doubt that salt was the problem. If they're to inbreed they tend not to live well, plus you've got the whole wholesaler to resaler starvation thing happening.

Abraham
 
I'd say it has more to do with the source than anything else..

I have Half Black pastel guppies...very pretty fish ! No problems with them at all. I regularly add 1/2 teasp. of aquarium salt per gallon to all of my change water too. I haven't found guppies to be hard to keep at all. I wouldn't have any at all, personally (not a big fan of guppies and livebearers in general).........but I needed some pretty black and white fish for my B&W tank ! :D
 
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