Waht are the perfect tank conditions for the Fancy Guppy?

[jasno999]

I have a 10 gallon that jsut came out of storage cause I have a kenyi cichlid that was mouthbrooding. I wanted to move them to this tank after they hatched but I am coming to the conclusion that well there is probably little chance of me gettign to those newborns before they are eaten or hidden in the plants that are in the tank.

So my 10gallon was filled and ready but had nothing in it. Will leave the cichlids in the larger tank and see how it goes.

So I figured I would add 2 femal and one male guppy to the tank. IT is barebottom with some PVC piping a few focks and some fake plants. Really nothing to it cause I don't want to go crazy with this tank. I sort of want to jsut breed some live bearers and either sell them to the LFS if I can or feed them to my other fish.

I have a RO water purifier with DI cartrige so the water I put in this tank is really clean stuff. I also added some PH buffer to get the level around 8.o or so. I am jsut wondering what all the paramertrs should be to optimize the guppy breeding and livability in the tank.

 

[SerLunchbox]

Personally, i would go with some neutral pH water that you have and then go from there. Guppies are one of the few species of fish that actually do well with some of that aquarium salt in its water as they do better in water with a very slight amount of salinity to it. I have personally found that adding just a small amount made them more prolific then regular tap water.

With guppies, you will need a way so that when the babies are hatched that they can go into a safe area of the tank because mom and dad (or anyone else) will tend to eat them. This would be a perfect scenario for one of 2 situations. You do that natural selection tank OR you get a small mesh breeding net and scoop the fry into that (or place the mother in the net and take her out once the fry are hatched.)

2 females and 1 male would be the best for guppies. Be sure to get ones that look very healthy with great looking tails on the male and the females should at least somewhat resemble the males (if you want to match it up with the same or very similar species.)

 

[jasno999]

Thanks. I have kept guppies before but now that I have the means to provide really good water and I am more into water parameters than in the past I would like to do what I can to give them a really nice environment to live in. That way they will probably reproduce more.

Since the tank is just an extra that I have I am going bare bottom and I have just a few items like a rock with some plastic plants in it and a little ornament. I also used some 1” long and ¾” diameter PVC tube connectors to male a structure of PVc. I figure that will give the fish some places to hide. Not idea for babies but it is better than nothing.

May devise a cheap way to make sure the babies don’t all get eaten.