Zac

My only issue with interbreeding was because I’ve read that it’s a brewing ground for genetic defects. If it’s not a problem I’d like to keep them all in the same tank. What kind of fish do you recommend to keep fry numbers in check? Maybe an angel or Apisto?

Colony breeding would be ideal for me. I’m just worried about genetic defects I’ve read can be caused by interbreeding. If I don’t need to worry about genetic defects I’d absolutely love to not separate and just let them thrive in a single tank. All females come from the same breeder but I’m not sure if they’re the exact same line or not. They’re all sunflower guppies. A successful operation in my opinion would be successfully raising fry and offloading them. I’m doing this mainly for experience and for fun. Then any money made is a benefit I can use to help pay for bills and whatnot (college is expensive lol). If I can enjoy a hobby and get some extra money to help me that’s like a best case scenario. Hopefully this answers your questions. Would you say I’d be okay with colony breeding? It seems everywhere I go it’s like “if you don’t separate fry and control breeding you’ll end up with too many fry and it’ll end in a disaster”

Hey all, I’m a first time guppy breeder and well…. I have a little dilemma So I have 1 male and 1 female sunflower guppies and 2 more females coming in the mail soon. My setup is very small. I have a densely planted 30 gallon, a bare bottom 10 gallon with a fake log and a couple fake plants, and a Fluval multi-chambered breeder box. I’m having trouble figuring out how the heck I’m going to separate the fry when the time comes. Here are my ideas: -Have the female give birth in the 10 gallon then put her back in the 30 gallon. Then proceed to sell the fry just before sexual maturity so they can’t interbreed -Have the female give birth in the 30 gallon and let the fry grow out there while the 4 adults are in the 10 gallon. The problem is that it’s significantly easier for them to interbreed in that tank and a big pain to catch them all with all the plants in there -Raise the fry in the 10 gallon. Then put one sex in the 30 gallon and leave the other in the 10 gallon. The adults that I’m using for breeding will be in the tank with whichever sex they match with. The issue with that is I don’t want to lose the parent guppies with the fry if the fry get too big. And I’d hate to leave 4 guppies in a .5 gallon breeder box. My biggest fear here is interbreeding and getting an explosion of fry because I have 3 females. What if they all give birth at the same time? Will that cause an ammonia spike? Or am I over paranoid? I do already have a buyer interested in fry when the time comes. But the other issue is being able to offload them consistently and reliably. I’d appreciate any advice on the plans I’ve written out and how you guys would run this mini breeding operation.

It may be an issue with iron or lighting. That also looks like staghorn algae to me (in the 1st pic at least). I’m currently dealing with some of my own. I spot treat with seachem excel daily and it kills it within a couple of days. Be sure to follow instructions on the bottle though because it’s important not to overdose. My issue was too much iron. I increased it and I noticed it really started growing within as little as a week

Would it be obvious if he has scoliosis? I feel like if I’m like “well he might but I just don’t know” then he probably doesn’t. I’ve seen guppies with scoliosis and they look far worse than him

Could I do the same thing for the sponge filter?

You’re giving me flashbacks of my BIO 1500 class lmao. That definitely makes sense!

Hey all, How do you guys suggest cleaning a ziss airstone that was in a quarantine tank? I’m going to replace the disks and airline tubing, but is the stone itself too porous and will it retain the bleach?

Hey all, As shown in the image, when I trim my pogo, it sprouts like 4 new shoots instead of just growing back. The same thing happens when I trim the baby shoots. How can I control these so I don’t have new shoots every time I trim (if that’s even possible). The same thing happens with my ludwigia. Don’t mind the algae. Recently tried increasing iron which was a mistake🥲

I had the same thing happen to the 3/4 pumps I had after like 2 weeks. I contacted support and they provided me refunds and I decided to get the bigger air pump which is significantly better. In my opinion, the nanos are better for temporary use but some people have them on for a long time with no issue. They have a year warranty so they will probably ship you new ones or provide a refund if that’s the route you go

Would you consider this a large tail? I’ve seen guppies with much larger tails and this seems much smaller than ones I’ve seen. As long as there’s no scoliosis or anything I’m fine with it

Hey all, I’m trying to figure out if my guppy has a slightly curved spine. Sometimes he will droop his tail down but he has had a few stressful days with shipping and whatnot. He eats fine but sometimes in the morning I’ll see him resting in the bottom. He’s gotten much better since I treated the tank with Kanaplex for suspected fin rot. He’s been trying to breed with the female which is a good sign. My end goal is to use him for breeding and I’m trying to determine if he’s a healthy male or not (he’s not fully colored yet)

Hey all, I’m treating a tank for suspected fin rot. I can’t say for sure but after I added antibiotics the fish seems to be doing better. He was recently shipped to me so maybe it’s a coincidence he felt better the day after antibiotics. Here’s my question. If infection is brought on by compromised immune systems, will other non stressed fish catch it? Aren’t most disease causing organisms already in the tank to begin with? The reason I ask is because I made the rookie mistake of not being careful enough with water drips after I did work on the quarantine tank. Also I’m debating on how much of my stuff I should disinfect. I’ll disinfect the sponge filter before it goes in the main tank and the water change bucket. But I’m trying to figure out if I should worry about cross contamination

Interesting! I’m thinking of sticking with the strips because it seems to be easier than API

Hey all, I’m trying to determine my nitrate levels but I’ve gotten two different results with the API kit and the Co-Op strips. Attached are images of the tests. -The API kit seems to be a very deep orange but just barely orange enough to not be red. I’d say it’s reading about 40 but it’s hard to tell so it may be higher. -The strips seem to be reading 25-30. I want to keep my tank around 40 because of plants so I’m trying to determine the levels. I’ve always struggled reading these kits lol

Luckily I’ve gotten two of them to eat. The male and one female. They had softer water than me and a slightly higher pH but nothing crazy. The male is still acting strange even though he is eating. He’ll come out to eat then just go sit in a plant. It almost looks like he’s resting on it. I’m hoping he’s just adjusting because he is improving. I’ll see him swimming around a bit with the females when the lights go out. Not as high of energy as a stress free guppy but he’s definitely getting better I’d say. I’ll just have to keep an eye on the tail just in case

Hey all, I just received some guppies yesterday and I’m suspecting potential fin rot on one. I have 2 females and 1 male. Normally when I receive fish in the mail they’re swimming around and aren’t super skittish. These guys have been hiding non stop and show almost no interest in food. The male nibbled at a flake when the lights went off, spit it out, went to chase it, then swam back to the surface. The females show no interest in food. I’m not seeing any visible fungus on the male but his tail seems jagged and there is a piece missing. It may have just been the way he was born though. I have some Kanaplex in case I need to treat but I’d like some more opinions before I treat anything. Attached are images of the male

Hey all. I noticed some of my planes have a very small amount of melting. Like an extremely small part of the plant. My nitrates are at 30-40ppm. I don’t have the resources to test for additional nutrient deficiencies. So here’s my question. Will plants always have a minuscule amount of “imperfections” or does any imperfection represent a nutrient deficiency? Overall the plants look very healthy

Does anyone have issues with their amano shrimp being picky? Mine don’t seem to like vegetables but they devour algae wafers.

Sometimes it takes a minute. My pogo has periods of on and off rapid growth even though they’ve been established a while. The cuttings are probably adjusting

At that severe stage the chances are survival is low. You can treat the tank with meds or put her down. I had a cichlid with dropsy. I tried to treat him and eventually he couldn’t even swim correctly. It basically looked like he was standing on his tail in the tank. It’s a tough decision to make. Wish you the best of luck

That’s not a bad idea. I can try that and see how it goes

I do throw some cucumber in there sometimes in hopes of getting them out but it seems only my other “pest” snails I have will eat it

Hey all, How should I go about manually removing some of these limpets? I’d like to lessen their numbers a bit. They’re so flat it’s hard to remove them. I have a flat scraper do I can push them all in the same area but they generally don’t come off. I’m not feeding that much at the moment as I only have amano shrimp. Every day I’ll crack off a couple small pieces of algae wafer, soak them, and crush them into small bits so my amano shrimp don’t fight over them. That’s all I’m feeding at the moment. So I don’t think the amount I’m feeding is an issue

Hey all, my scarlet temple and red ludwigia have been sprouting aerial roots and I’m not sure why. The ludwigia is quite tall so possibly for support? It’s been roughly 2 months since I’ve added seachem root tabs so maybe I should add more? I noticed the underground roots have started to stick up as well. Nitrates are about 30-40ppm so I’d find it hard to believe that they’re struggling for resources. Especially because they’re right next to the sponge filters