Plants and guppies - is this man lying?

[triggerfishfan]

So, how hardy really ARE guppies? And when can I put plants in?

Most of my reading etc suggests them as starter fish due to their hardiness and inexpense too incase of losses. I popped along to the local Pets at Home - a UK retailer - last night to get myself a plant in readiness for putting some fish in today. The man at the shop said that firstly, there was "no point putting a plabnt in if there are no fish in the tank yet because it will just die" I questioned him and advised I would be going to buy some fish tomorrow (today) and would it really die so quickly and he said it would and that as my tank currently has no fish in it, i need to wait at least 7 days AFTER putting any fish in before putting any plants in..... !!!

I took his advice on the plant issue and then looked at what stock they had in. He said to me "Don't put guppies in your first tank/stock as they will die easily. I said to him that I had done some reading and that my reading (from different sites and also advice from my aunt who has kept fish for 20 years) suggested guppies were hardy critters and a good first stock. He then said "well its upto you but you are likely to have them die on you."

He then tried to "sell" me a 6 strong school of Malawai Cichlids. I noted that they have a traffic light system in the shop guppies being green because they are "easy" to keep and the Malawis red because they are "difficult" to keep. He said oh theyre only tricky to keep because you can only have those kind of fish in your tank.

So my question is, is he telling me the truth here or just trying to sell me the more expensive, trickier to keep fish so that ill have to go back for more stuff?

The starter fish my aunt suggested are:cory fish, white mountain minnows, head/tail lights, guppies, platys, black widow tetras. I intend to get 2 guppies and maybe a shrimp to start off my tank.

 

[huma-huma]

just ignore him. guppies are a great fw fish to keep, heck I have a 72g tank dedicated to them. I don't know why they are so looked down upon, I think they offer amazing coloration and activity to a tank. as for the plant, actually, yeah just completely ignore him. do yourself a favor and next time you are in that store, avoid him. as long as your lighting can support the plant, it makes no difference if theres fish or not. as with the cichlids, I have never kept them because for the most part, if you go the cichlid route, it rules out guppies, tetras, cardinals, angels etc.

 

[triggerfishfan]

Huma-huma thanks for your advice. I thought he was talking a load of rubbish. My husband and I are going to a different branch of that store tonight (a bigger one) and I will be getting myself 2 guppies and a plant! The Cichlids were pretty and whatnot, however, I want a community tank rather than a school tank.

 

[huma-huma]

No problem. I have no idea what his reasoning would be for telling you that bs, but either way you are better off without. I would however recommend that when you get guppies, try to keep it to a 3:1 or atleast 2:1 ratio. (that's females to males.) anything less and the male guppies will beat the females up and possibly stress them to the point of sickness.
also they are livebearers, its insanely easy for them to reproduce and go from 3-4 to 30 guppies lol. its kinda cool to watch the lil guppy fry swimming around.

 

[triggerfishfan]

The man did at least tell me the ratio thing! Can you get just 2 males/2 females to avoid the reproduction problem?

I did want Endlers livebearers but I understand they are not easy to get hold of so I am happy to get some guppies to start my tank off.

My aunt said I could probably have around 10 "guppy size" fish in my tank, along with a shrimp and snail or two. That will do nicely for me

I just noticed you also have a fluval chi! I have one - a 19L.

 

[huma-huma]

I LOVE endlers! I put a single male endler in my 72 and I cant tell you how many endlers crosses I have now. theres a store about an hour away from me that stocks them pretty regularly. and I picked my fluval chi up for free. go figure, the guy was here for work and was leaving to go back home and didn't want to take it. came with heater, fish and all. I don't know if your fluval tank is what this thread is for or not but make sure that you only add 2-3 fish at a time. if its the first fish, id get 1-2. as for the ratio, if you want them to reproduce, try 2 males and 3 females (or 1 male 2 females) I stay away from 1:1 because if you watch them long enough, the males are absolutely relentless. they harass the females non stop.

 

[ClearVision94]

Yeah he's just trying to make a sell... Plants feed from the fish poop which at some point converts to plant food. If you got an iron rich substrate or dosing ferts or CO2 the your plants would live for a long time. Light from the aquarium hood is not enough to keep the plant alive. All fish die in new aquariums because it lacks beneficial bacteria. When fish poop, ammonia and nitrites build up and are very toxic to the fish and will kill em. As ammonia and nitrites build up, so does the bacteria the fish needs also build up. This is called the cycling process. The bacteria turns ammonia and nitrites into nitrates and nitrates aren't toxic to the fish, but high levels are and that's why you do water changes. Plants eat the nitrates and help keep it clean.