How do guppies act when ammonia/nitrate is high?

[caykuu]

I'm incredibly frustrated right now, because my mom refuses to buy an ammonia testing kit/strips/anything for my aquarium. She won't let me drive myself-- I just got my license a month ago. I have a single guppy in there at the moment. Starting this afternoon, I've seen him swimming vigorously against the filter flow (flow of water that comes out) every once in awhile.
Basically... what are things to watch for in a guppy to know whether the ammonia is high... Somehow, she was willing to buy Ammo Lock and bacteria supplement, but refused to spend another 10 bucks on some testers.
So I somehow need to magically know when to start using Ammo Lock, how much it's taking effect, how many days to use it for, and in what amount.
This feels hopeless over here.
I need a magical load of help.

 

[spencerguy1]

Parents just don't get it...

If the ammonia was high, the guppy wouldn't be active, so I think your fine.

 

[caykuu]

That's good to hear.
I've read on some sites that swimming against the filter flow is a bad sign... but a sign of what?

 

[spencerguy1]

Well the thing is with fancy guppies the long tails make it harder to swim, so the might struggle to swim in high current. You guppy probably just wants to get throumg th current.

 

[caykuu]

I've had him for 3 days and he never swam vigorously against the current until this afternoon. He had no trouble before today.
He stays in front of the filter, and swims like that in one spot.
Before today, he loved to swim all around the tank and along the glass (active). Now he only swims against the filter.
LOL You don't even know how paranoid I am, not knowing the ammonia and nitrate levels. :\

 

[oo7genie]

If you can't get a test kit, do water changes.

Is the tank only 3 days old as well? If so, it hasn't been cycled, so you'll need to do extra water changes to keep the ammonia & nitrites down. You can't do them too often, so don't worry about what the levels are at when you do them.

What size is the aquarium? With one guppy, in anything but the smallest of tanks, changing 25% of the water each day (if it isn't cycled yet) should be fine.

 

[spencerguy1]

I've had him for 3 days and he never swam vigorously against the current until this afternoon. He had no trouble before today.
He stays in front of the filter, and swims like that in one spot.
Before today, he loved to swim all around the tank and along the glass (active). Now he only swims against the filter.
LOL You don't even know how paranoid I am, not knowing the ammonia and nitrate levels. :\

Ya, but you have to remember it's a guppy. You can't predict em. :rofl:

 

[caykuu]

The tank is 2 weeks old, using nutrafin cycle. I've been doing a water change of just that amount every day since guppy came home with me.
It's a 10 gallon-- would water changing remove some of the bacteria supplement?

 

[caykuu]

Okay, I lowered the power of the filter, and now he's constantly swimming at the surface of the water and taking breaths of air + eating bubbles. Something's wrong here, and how do I solve it? D:

 

[allaboutfish]

more water changes. i think 50% would be more appropriate a day. the guppy staying at the top of the tank is not a good sign. do you have an airstone? could you go and buy some anachris (aquarium plant it'd be like 3 dollars a bunch). any kind of live plant would really help the guppy out.