Fancy Guppies Help?
 

After being told that fancy guppies are perfect for beginners (Im not a beginner BTW) I figured that they would be a nice addition to my 120g community tank. I went ahead and bought 2 because the colours were amazing. Now i'm hearing things like they are known to catch disease? Is this true?
Also any other info would be helpful. Thanks!

I'm no expert but we've been keeping and breeding guppies for a while now. We've got three varieties, two (pics attached) of which are producing fry. I've read everything I can get my hands on and am a member of a couple forums, one dedicated to gups. Fancy gups really are pretty hardy fish. Here are a few links that may be helpful to you. Best of luck, it's addictive. I got MTS from my boyfriend almost two years ago and it just keeps growing :-D

The last one has a dedicated forum to which I belong. It's very helpful and some of the members here are also members there.

Fancy Guppy

Guppies for Aquariums

Guppy care | Fancy guppy

guppies - Guppy Diseases

i certainly agree that guppies are very addictive once you start buying and breeding you are hooked :)!!!! as for the hardiness of them it really depends on where you buy them and in turn where they originated... for example almost all big name national pet dealers buy them from Asia. now these guppies are used to a steril environment with daily water changes so they have little to no immune system. however if you buy from the smaller mom and pop type of place they often get thiers from local breeders. this great because not only are the fish healthy and less stressed they are used to our water and general practices for care... if you get lucky and get some from a big dealer that are able to handle the transition then any off spring will be great as they age.... as for disease they are generally very healthy little guys and girls and do well once they make the transition of course....

Thanks for the help! I read this from one of those links
Is this true?

i personally do not use salt in my tanks at all... i have heard of other who do but it is certainly not a requirement...

Ok thanks! I noticed that they sell these at every pet store from LPS, to Petsmart, and none of them mention brackish water for guppies. I was hoping it wasn't the same case as the Fiddler crab that I bought, which needed brackish. Thanks for the help!

Well the guppy originates from fresh and brackish waters in South and Central America but as bearwithfish said it's not a requirement. They do better in brackish but can live in freshwater. Brackish is where salt water and fresh water meet. The only way to have a truly brackish tank is to buy something called "instant ocean" its marine salt, 1tbsp per gallon will create a better living environment for ANY livebearer.And a lot of LFS's don't keep them in brackish water. We've always kept ours in freshwater but after talking to my bf today he's thinking of raising the salinity slightly to encourage the females to drop their fry. The salinity has to be raised in increments not all at once or it can kill them.

To convert to brackish you need to do this slowly, by disolving 1 tbsp of teh salt in some water (about 1 cup), preferably from the aquarium, stir it up and pour it in. NEVER ever put the salt directly into the tank, it burns the scales and recovery is from that is hard and sometimes impossibe. In another few days repeat, repeat until you have the required amount of salt. I've heard some people say don't use kosher or table salt and some say it's ok, so that's a foggy area for me.

Keep in mind also the salt may not be good for certain freshwater plants.

Here's a link to read over explaining all that and the types of salt to use:

The Skeptical Aquarist

Aquriangel....i have read and questioned this in other places and i thank you for your insight..... i do have a question though as it pertains to my own breeding project..... if the fry never have experience with brackish water and then are put into it will that have an adverse effect on the fry? i only ask because as stated i do not use salt but in the future when my little ones are large enough to sell i want to be sure that the LFS or new owner (for privet sales) dont do anything to harm the fish.... i like to think i am a responsible breeder and would like to deal with responsible people as well.... as i am most likely not going to cover cost it certainly is not for the money but more to continue expansion of my tanks and various fish projects...

sorry to have jumped in here with my own questions but, what better way to gain knowlage.... lol

GET OUT OF HERE! GET YOUR OWN THREAD:evil:

lol jk, I always do that too. Saves from having similar threads over and over again:-)