Guppy fish care is one of the most important aspect for any guppies lover or fish keepers. Everyone wants to keep their guppies healthy and therefore we have listed 8 important tips that are very easy to perform guppy fish care.
Guppy fish (Poecilia Reticulata) is one of the most beautiful tropical fish which is also live bearer. Guppies come in a wide variety of colors and patterns and also known as Rainbow Fish. Guppies are live bearers and can deliver very rapidly. Due to their this capability they are also called million fish as they can populate a aquarium fish tank in very short period of time. Guppy fish are so easy to maintain that even beginners can keep them healthy with very little knowledge.
So now, lets begin with taking care of your guppies.
8 Important Factors That Are Responsible For Guppy Fish Care
1) Guppy Fish Aquarium Tank Size
Fish tank size is the most important aspect in guppy fish care. Guppies are generally very small in size and they can easily compatible with different kind of waters and fishes. They can very well adapt to different fluctuations in the water. Female Guppies are bigger than male guppies. Generally we suggest a tank size in the ratio of one guppy fish for every 1.2 Gallons of water. This way the tank size will be appropriate for the number of guppies you wish to keep.
2) Guppy Fish Male To Female Ratio In Tank
Selecting a proper of ratio of male to female guppies in a tank is very important aspect while caring for your guppies. As the number of guppies can play a vital role in guppy fish care. Male guppies are very aggressive in nature and can chase down female guppies to breed frequently. This chasing for female guppies can be very stressful over time and could adversely effect the health of the fish and under developed babies. We generally prefer a ratio of one male over three females in the same tank as it splits the attention of male guppies and female get sufficient amount of time to take rest. If you don’t want breeding of your guppies, you can keep all males and females separately. Research has proved that guppies that don’t breed can live a longer life than their breeding counterparts.
3) Changing Of Water For Guppy Fish Tank
Changing and cleaning of water for maintaining proper health of guppies is very important in guppy fish care. Guppies produce toxic waste which needs to be eradicated from the tank. We suggest you to change about 35% water of the tank at a time after every 2 weeks. You can use tap water. Also make sure a water conditioner is used to remove heavy metals from the water. Keep the water still in an open container for 24 hours before adding it to the tank as it will evaporate chlorine from it. Please make sure the water you are introducing to the tank should have same temperature as that of fish tank aquarium.
4) Aquarium Fish Tank Temperature For Guppies
Guppies are tropical fish and prefer a warmer temperature to keep them healthy. The ideal temperature for guppies is between 22 to 28 °C (70 to 80°F). Therefore maintaining a ideal suitable temperature for guppies is very important in guppy fish care. We advice you to install a heater for your tank that can maintain warmer temperature for your guppies. Also make sure that you use a proper sized heater depending upon the capacity of your tank.
5) Aquarium Fish Tank Water pH Level
pH level is a measurement unit to measure acidity or alkalinity of water. It is measured on a scale of 0 to 14, where 0 to 6 is acidity, 7 is neutral and 8 to 14 is the alkalinity of water. Guppies prefer a pH in the range of 6.8 to 7.8, they prefer hard water and hardness of water increases with pH levels. Therefore maintaining a ideal pH level of water is also one of the important aspect in guppy fish care.
6) Water Filter For Guppy Fish Tank
Filtering you water to remove toxic wastes and harmful gases is very important aspect while caring for your guppies. Although you don’t specifically need a filter for that, their are some plants that can keep your tank clean. But to be on the safer side we will suggest that you should choose a gentle sponge filter to clean the water. But if you don’t want a filter, you could also use a thick layer of substrate to create a anoxic zone.
7) Aquarium Fish Tank Lights For Your Guppies
Light plays a very important role in lives of guppies and proper guppy fish care. Guppies generally need very small amount of light, small light coming through the windows might be sufficient for them. But if you have live plants in your aquarium than installation of artificial lighting conditions is recommended. As most aquarium plants need light for undergoing photosynthesis. Also make sure you turn off the light in night as it will depict sea like conditions which is good for health of your guppies. You can use a automatic timer lighting switch that turns off automatically as per the time set, that will look after the conditions where you manually forget to turn off the lamp.
8) Feeding Your Guppies
Feeding is one of the most prominent aspect in guppy fish care. Guppies enjoy eating different kind of nutritious food. They like to eat veg flakes, frozen food, live food, spirulina tabs, raw vegetables and fruits. We recommend you to feed them variety of food to keep them healthy. Though, You can feed guppies multiple times in a day, Feeding them once in a day is more than enough. You should be very careful while feeding your guppies for overfeeding them as it is the major cause of fish death. Feed them a amount of food they can eat within 2 to 3 minutes. Uneaten food could turn into nitrates and can increase toxic levels of the aquarium which will ultimately result in death of fish within hours. So one needs to very careful while feeding their guppies. Mostly beginners face this issue where their guppies keep dying all the time and they don’t even know what they did wrong.
Conclusion
If you follow all the steps carefully, you can keep you guppies healthier with a longer life expectancy. Guppies are very good pets and are very easy to maintain. All you need to do is just follow the basic guppy fish care techniques carefully and everything will be fine. All the best for your amazing guppy fish keeping experience.
