Fin rot in my guppy?

[Andy Sager]

Awesome! Thanks for the feedback. I'll definitely look into getting some of that flake food. I think I'll definitely keep guppies as I'm a beginner in this and they're easy. I'll be rehoming my fry once they're big enough. I might keep a few but am worried about inbreeding. But thanks so much for the help! I'm gonna go check out the antibiotic food now and hope they ship to Canada !
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I assume you have read the thread and by now am a bit confused. As someone who IS a professional fish breeder and have been so for over 40+ years and making their living by breeding fish, I can tell you that there are many different methods to breeding fish for sure with some being more right than others so I don't want to get too much into that debate but do want to address 2 issues in your posts: Medicated foods and Inbreeding.
I suggest you read through the following link pertaining to medicated foods. You will find the beginning and the end of the article of most importance. How To Make Your Own Medicated Feed | Hikari Sales USA

As an FYI, HIKARI is one of the top manufactures of high quality fish foods so there should be no issues on their opinion's credibility.

As for inbreeding, this process has a bad reputation and as a newbie, I'm sure you have heard the bad parts of inbreeding but may not know that it also has a positive side. To not get too extensive in the process, in order for new fish colors to be naturally made, there must be inbreeding. This is what locks in the new genes. So you don't need to be afraid of inbreeding but you do need to be aware of it because, generation after generation of inbreeding is what also causes defects in the fish. In general, a fish not related to the fish you are trying to raise should be added back into the bloodline after about 4- 6 generations. That doesn't mean the 4th or 6th time the original pair has fry. That means the great, great, great, great to great, great, great, great,great, great grandchildren of the original pair. That's a long way aways. And inbreeding is an easy thing to prevent. It takes 3 areas where the fish can be housed ( This could be 1 larger tank or 2 or 3 smaller tanks with dividers.) 1 area will house the original pair, 1 area will house the male offspring as they start to develop their gonopodiums ( male sex organs) and the last area will hold the female offspring. Thankfully, with guppies, males become sexually mature before the females do so you have the opportunity to remove the males from the females before they do any breeding.
As for picking stock, different areas of the country get fish from different sources so you may find some top quality fish at your local fish shop but you may not. This is why if you want to be assured of a quality line, you would be wise to buy from a reputable Guppy breeder. The IFGA website (ifga.org) has links to breeders and a host of other information you might find helpful. But even if you got just any old Guppy from your local box store, you may find some really colorful fish but there is no way to know what is inside those fish. So the way to tell is by the offspring. If the offspring have more bad fish than good fish, they are probably over bred and I would not let them continue breeding. You just won't know for sure by looking at the original fish.

So I hope I have cleared up some of the issues you were having and you get to start enjoying your Guppies. Personally, I'm also starting to work with 3 new lines of Guppies myself. I just like the fish. HOWEVER, I also have a hatchery and about 100 tanks to work with so I have the ability to spread everything out ( which is a better method in my opinion.)

Hope this helps