Guppy Fish Care, 10 Things You Should Know About Guppies! Great Beginner Fish!

The list of reasons why guppies are so popular in the aquarium hobby is long. Their bright colors, constant activity, and the fact that they're super easy to keep makes them attractive to almost any fish keeper. But before you run out and get your first group of these gems, here are 10 things that you should know about guppies. We've done a few 10 things episodes on specific fish, and in where are they from segment, we say the same thing every time, and that is it doesn't really matter where they originate because almost all of the fish that you're going to find in pet stores are going to be captive bred. There is no fish in this hobby that this is more true than with guppies. Guppies originate from rivers and lakes in South America, but you'll be hard-pressed to find wild-caught guppies anywhere around here. They're out there, but the overwhelming majority of fish that you're going to find available are going to be bred by breeders either here in the states or overseas. Guppies are super easy to breed, and they're one of the most popular fish in the hobby, so it's a no-brainer for breeders all over the world to dedicate hundreds of tanks to them. Because they've been bred in captivity by so many breeders for so long, it's really not necessary to try to match the water parameters that these fish would have seen in the wild. They've never been in the wild, so they really have no idea what the water's like there. Guppies are kind of like bettas. They're small fish, and a lot of new fish keepers think, well, because of that, they can put them in pretty much anything, and they'll be just fine. While it's true they don't need a huge tank, you don't need to go out and buy a 125-gallon tank for guppies, we do recommend that you have at least a five-gallon tank for your guppy. You know what's next, right? Bigger is always better. That's what she said. You'll want to keep the temperature around 78 to 80 degrees to keep them nice and comfortable, and keep your pH a little on the higher side of neutral, 7.2 to 7.4. That'll be just fine. Guppies are one of those fish that you really don't need to worry about bothering other fish in your aquarium. The concern needs to be putting tank mates in there that won't bother your guppies. When selecting tank mates for your guppies, you're going to want to stay with the smaller community-type fish that are labeled as peaceful, and stay away from fish that have the reputation of being fin nippers. We've been successful keeping kory cats, bristlenose, plecos, and even shrimp with guppies, and we've had good success because all of those fish pretty much stay down at the bottom where the guppies are going to be kind of all over the place. The great thing about guppies is with there being so many different varieties and so many different colors out there, you can have an amazing aquarium with nothing but guppies in there, and not even worry about putting tank mates in with them. But it is good to keep some bottom dwellers in there too. Maybe clean up the mess a little bit and have something going on down on the bottom. Get a bunch of guppies of all different colors, and then put five or six kory cats down on the bottom to patrol the substrate, and you'll have an amazing little tank. Guppies have the reputation of being a bulletproof fish, but in today's society, I don't know if that's so true anymore. Although they are still a very hardy fish, I just don't think they're as hardy as they used to be. A couple reasons for it is, one, some of them are very inbred, and as with all inbred fish, without the proper outcross, the genes just get weaker. Another reason is when they're bred at farms in massive ponds, they can't regulate who breeds with who, so any fish with a bad gene can spread it throughout the pond. So to have the best success at keeping guppies, make sure you get your fish from a reliable source, regardless if it's overseas, your local fish store, or a local breeder. If you're looking into breeding fish, then definitely guppies are the best ones to start off with. The reason why I say that is because you practically just have to add water to your tank. They're gonna do it all, trust me, they're just gonna, just like rabbits. Guppies are live bears, which means they don't lay eggs, and they don't have to protect these eggs until they hatch. They actually just have free swimming fry, they just kind of come out one after the other after the other. Obviously these fry are super small, so they have to have plenty of room to hide. Keep that in mind because you're going to want to have plenty of little things in your tank, whether it's plants or little decorations, so that they can hide in and they'll be safe. Or if you're keeping a close eye on things, you can just remove the fry yourself and stick them in a grow out tank. That's a lot of fun to watch them grow. Obviously to get these fish to breed, you need males and females, and the best way to tell these fish apart is by their colors. The males will be the brightly colored ones with more of a full finnage. The females will be a little smaller and they won't have all of the fancy fins. It's best to have them in groups where the females outnumber the males, because believe it or not, the males, they can take care of a lot more females than you think. Hey! It's pretty simple, put them in a tank again with the females outnumbering the males, keep the water clean, and keep them all fed. And before you know it, you'll have teeny tiny guppies swimming around. The cool thing about these fish is that once you buy a group of them, you won't have to ever buy fish again. They'll just keep reproducing and you'll have an endless supply of guppies forever. I'm the lucky one that drew the food straw for this video. It's probably the easiest one we've ever done. Guppies aren't picky about their food at all. About the only issue that you're going to have is finding food small enough that it can fit in their little teeny tiny mouths. The best advice that I could give is stick with a good quality community flake. They're all over the place. They're not hard to find. They also really like frozen brine shrimp. Very very easy and very very small. If you really prefer pellets, I would go with something like the Northfin 0.5 millimeter community pellets. They'll do fine. Feeding your guppies really isn't something that you need to worry about. Throw food in there and they'll eat it. Let's just make sure it's something of good quality. Guppies are a great beginner fish. For starters, they're just gorgeous. The second reason I would say they're a great beginner fish is because they're super hardy and they can live through so many fish keeping mistakes that new fish keepers make. They don't require a huge tank. Most fish keepers starting off are not going to go out and buy a 75 gallon or 100 gallon tank. So these fish make it a lot more easier for the new fish keeper. You can buy a smaller tank. You can start off with a hardy fish. Simple. For this hobby to continue and to flourish, we need new fish keepers to come in and be successful. We want to help you be good fish keepers and do the right thing and have success. Starting with guppies is almost a guarantee in being successful having them as your starter fish. They're super forgiving and they're a lot of fun. You can set up a 10 gallon and put five or six of them in there. You're going to have a lot of color. You're going to have a lot of activity and you might even have breeding. One of the more common diseases with guppies is going to be ick and there's a very specific reason for this. No, it's not because they're more susceptible to it. It's actually much simpler than that because a lot of fish keepers don't properly care for them. So many fish keepers believe that heaters aren't necessary to keep guppies. These are tropical fish, folks, which means they want the water to be a little on the warmer side. If you've done five minutes worth of research on how to prevent ick, you know that that's going to be to keep the water warmer. Another thing you'll find in a lot of guppies is fin rot and it's pretty easy to understand why. With those big beautiful fins all over the place, they're just kind of sitting ducks waiting for other fish to come along and nip at them. Both ick and fin rot are easily treatable with medications, but it's a better practice to just do what's necessary to prevent them all together. Put a heater in your guppy tank, keep up with your maintenance and don't put tank mates in there that are known for being fin nippers and you're good. A well-kept guppy can live from one to three years and sometimes longer. Now that might not seem like a whole lot of time, but there's something else I want you to think about. I know, I know Lisa already talked about this in the breeding section, but if you put a good ratio of males and females together, these fish are going to breed like crazy. So when you look at them and you say, well they only live a couple of years, I want you to think about it this way. If you do your job and you keep up with your maintenance and you keep the environment right for the fish, you're basically going to have an endless supply. They're going to be coming and going all the time and you'll never be without them. Think about it, how many fish tanks have you seen that only have one or two fish in them? And you're like, I kind of want a little bit more, that just seems a little bit boring. African cichlids have a lot of color, but I don't want to get a big tank and I've heard they're mean. Discus are gorgeous and they have tons of color, but yeah, I've heard they're for the more experienced fish keeper and they're super expensive and I don't want to waste all my money on fish I don't even know how to take care of yet. Saltwater fish are beautiful, but I don't know the first thing about saltwater that's so complicated. Well with a guppy tank you get everything you want. You get tons of color, all kinds of activity, you don't need a huge tank, they don't cost a lot, and they're easy to keep. If you're new to fish keeping and you're thinking about what fish to get for your first fish tank, then give guppies a chance. They're so pretty, they're easy to take care of, and they're a lot of fun. So there you go, 10 things you should know about guppies. I want to thank King Lee from Twin City Guppies for sending in a thing for us that really does help out a whole lot. I hope you enjoyed this video, I hope you were able to get something out of it and find it entertaining. If you did, why don't you click subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. Thank you again so much for watching and I look forward to talking to you again next week with 10 more things.