How to Get a Healthy Colony of Fancy Guppies

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

10 or more guppies. (More females than males.)
Cycled aquarium of 10 gallons or more.
Gravel.
Aquatic Plants.
Decorations.
Assorted Fish Foods.

Step 1

Fancy guppies.

Buy your guppies from a fish breeder if possible. See Steps 3 and 4 for more information on where you can find fancy guppy breeders that have some guppies available for sale.

Most fish store or pet shop fish are already sick. If you do end up buying guppies from a fish store, Walmart, Petco or Petsmart then you need to see Step 2.
Step 2

Buy 10 or more fancy guppies. (Try to get over 5 males and 5 females)

Choose the guppies wisely. Take your time examining the fish looking out for weak or sick fish. You are looking to obtain super healthy fish with no signs of illness. See the resource section of this article for more information about choosing healthy fish from a fish store and quarantine tanks.

Understand that these "fish store" guppies might be sick and some of them might die. Remove any dead, sick or deformed guppies as soon as you see them. You can either "cull" these guppies or try to save them in a hospital - quarantine tank. A third and possibly better option for dealing with sick fish is keeping a 10 gallon tank cycled and up and running. This tank should be in a room by itself and far away from your healthy guppies. You can toss any fish that are "doomed" into this tank and let them live out the rest of their lives peacefully. Don't forget to feed and maintain these tanks. The water quality should be just as good as any tank.
Step 3

To find a fancy guppy breeder over the internet, try Aquabid. Aquabid.com is an auction website that is similar to eBay except it is only for fish related items. You can find almost anything there. Just make sure to buy from a reputable seller.

Aquabid has better prices and cheaper shipping options than eBay.

Try to work with breeders to see if you can get younger guppies or guppy fry which is usually cheaper than buying breeder aged guppies. Not to mention that fry adjust to new surroundings much better than older fish do.
Step 4

To find a fancy guppy breeder over the internet, try eBay. You can sometimes find guppies on eBay but in addition to the expensive shipping, eBay sellers usually overcharge for fish related items.
Step 5

Large Aquariums are great for guppies.

Introduce your new guppies to a fully up and running environment, now that you have picked them out and brought them home. Your guppy tank should be cycled and already have snails and plants in it. In addition to gravel, aquatic plants and fish tank decorations.

This tank should have no other species of fish except for guppies. This way the newborn guppy fry have better chances of surviving. Snails and shrimp are good tank mates for guppies.

Your new guppies should go into a tank by themselves. Just in case they are sick or have some kind of disease. You don't want to spread anything around to your other fish.
Step 6

Create a nice, safe enviroment for your fancy guppies.

Care for your guppies as best as possible.
Use separate nets for each fish tank you have. This will help you to avoid spreading diseases from tank to tank. Cross contamination is serious business. Things like ick can be spread in 1 small drop of water. Drying off a net doesn't kill the diseases, fungus or parasites. The only solution is buying separate tools for each tank and keeping batches of fish in separate tanks.
Step 7

Stay on top of water quality and partial water changes. You can find a water quality testing kit at most fish stores. These are easy to use strips that you dip in a sample of your aquarium water. The strips change colors and tell you how safe your aquarium water is for fish.
Step 8

Feed a widely varied diet to all of your fish. Feed your fish twice a day. Make sure that every fish gets some food to eat and try to feed a few different items per meal. For example, one 10 gallon tank with 15 guppies would gladly eat a handful of fish food flakes. They would also appreciate eating an algae wafer and a shrimp pellet after all of the flakes were gone. See the resources section of this article for helpful links about feeding your guppies.
Step 9

Look after your guppies. If you spot some fry, try to remove them as fast as you can. If you leave them in the tank they most likely will be eaten.
Step 10

These fancy guppies are healthy and active.

Read the articles in the resource section if you are interested in ways to catch more guppy fry. Also if you need more information in keeping guppies in general.

Comments

gahazeleyes said

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on 4/25/2009 Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

FrazzledNanny said

on 3/3/2009 Thanks for the article. My daughter loves guppies. Your tips are very helpful. 5*

on 2/3/2009 We once ended up with a tank full of baby mollies by accident. It was fun to see them grow up, however it took us a while to realize the adult mollies ate them. We soon learned to separate them with the right tank materials. Your article is full of good information, thanks! 5*