Guppies

[JodiLeigh]

They will not fight. There is lots of room, I have seen lots of tanks that were over crowed n still they didn't fight. You're possibly thinking about Betas. One male Beta will add an awesome splash of color, I've seen it work just fine in multiple tanks. Pet stores keep LOTS of males together without them fighting, The only way I could see there being an issue is if you reversed the ratio n had 3males to 1 female. I could see that as n issue. But so long as there are lots of females to go around, the men share just fine.

Just remember, male fish are like wh0res, they like a variety of women at there disposal.

The male fish views his females as 'Lays' chips, can't have just one!

HA HA HA HA I see, I will have to get a nice colour variety of lots of female guppies then and get another male.

[Selkielass]

Don't worry about culling- I meant that weak fry will get eaten by other fish, healthy fry will dissappear into coarse gravel or fine vegetation. You will have lots of little ones surviving without separating the females if you provide plenty of cover.

I keep fancies for food and I find that my survivors tend to be scarlet tailed, tho I have introduced spotted, tequila sunset, and black with yellow fin genetics by culling all females except the new fancy ones, the red ruffled fantails just keep on overpowering all the other genes.

[chris-uk]

You can't add anything to that tank without effective filtration and without cycling the tank to establish the right bacteria to remove the ammonia that the fish produce. Remember that these fish are secreting ammonia and when the ammonia gets to even a relatively low concentration it will start to kill the fish. The filter isn't just to keep the water looking clean it is the main place that the the the biological filtration (conversion of ammonia to nitrite then the nitrite to nitrate). The gravel is also important for the biological filtration.
If you haven't got filters and a cycled tank the only way to stop the ammonia killing the fish is to do almost daily water changes.

[kimbosaur]

I totally agree with Chris! How many litres is your tank?

I think you should definitely buy a filter and cycle the tank with the two fish you have in there (depending on how big the tank actually is). If you keep a smaller bio-load until your tank cycles, you'll have much less headache for sure. Overstocking tanks greatly increases the likelihood that the entire thing will crash and most or all your fish will die nearly instantly. I've had it happen before and it really sucks. I put three guppies in a 9 litre cycled and established tank that previously held only one betta fish and they literally died hours after their first feeding. Even though the tank was established (naturally planted and running for over a year), it previously held a much smaller bio-load and couldn't break down the excess ammonia fast enough.

Also, overstocking the tank highly increases the chances for fungal, bacterial and parasitic infections that could be passed onto your snakes. It might be just me seeing the tank as smaller than it actually is, but if you want a sustainable source of food for your snakes, I would go bigger and have the tank cycled before adding fish. It's best to do it right the first time than to have to spend more money later on trying to fix it.

[EasternGirl]

My snakes have absolutely no interest in live fish. I am happy about this though, as I do not need one more thing to take care of in this house! Looks good Jodi...good luck with your fish project.

[JodiLeigh]

I totally agree with Chris! How many litres is your tank?

I think you should definitely buy a filter and cycle the tank with the two fish you have in there (depending on how big the tank actually is). If you keep a smaller bio-load until your tank cycles, you'll have much less headache for sure. Overstocking tanks greatly increases the likelihood that the entire thing will crash and most or all your fish will die nearly instantly. I've had it happen before and it really sucks. I put three guppies in a 9 litre cycled and established tank that previously held only one betta fish and they literally died hours after their first feeding. Even though the tank was established (naturally planted and running for over a year), it previously held a much smaller bio-load and couldn't break down the excess ammonia fast enough.

Also, overstocking the tank highly increases the chances for fungal, bacterial and parasitic infections that could be passed onto your snakes. It might be just me seeing the tank as smaller than it actually is, but if you want a sustainable source of food for your snakes, I would go bigger and have the tank cycled before adding fish. It's best to do it right the first time than to have to spend more money later on trying to fix it.

I've had my eyes on a filter since before I got the fish, just waiting till I have enough money. The tank is 12 litres. I have yet to cleana nd put in the stones. What does cycled mean?

I thought I had researched about them enough but clearly I haven't so let's start from the beginning . . .

12 Litres should be big enough for one male guppy and three female guppies?

How important is the gravel and why?

Do I need a specific kind of filter or will just a normal little internal box one do?

What is a "small bio-load"?

Do you have any pictures of your set up?

Thank you for the help so far and hope I can fix this before they get ill or die :/

[JodiLeigh]

My snakes have absolutely no interest in live fish. I am happy about this though, as I do not need one more thing to take care of in this house! Looks good Jodi...good luck with your fish project.

Thank you

I've wanted fish for a while now so it's a pleasure finally having some, the fact they can be used for food for Manny is a bonus!

I just hope I get it right before something goes wrong :/

[EasternGirl]

You will...as with everything in life, it takes a while to learn everything when you are starting something new...you'll get it figured out.

[JodiLeigh]

Oh also what's the ideal PH for guppies? I have read different things from different sites and yet to do a test.

Also how to I adjust this if it needs correcting?

The temperature is 23 degrees C and I feed them(so far)brine shrimp erm and that's all I can say for now

[chris-uk]

I've had my eyes on a filter since before I got the fish, just waiting till I have enough money. The tank is 12 litres. I have yet to cleana nd put in the stones. What does cycled mean?

Cycled is the term used for preparing a tank so that it contains the bacteria needed to convert the excretions from the fish (ammonia) into less harmful chemicals. Basically your fish spend their days and nights peeing in the water, in a lake or stream the pee flows away, in a tank you need to remove it. Cycling a tank can take months. Google "fishless tank cycling" and you should find some descriptions of how I cycled my tank by adding ammonia from a bottle over 6 weeks.

I thought I had researched about them enough but clearly I haven't so let's start from the beginning . . .

12 Litres should be big enough for one male guppy and three female guppies?

A lot of aquarists (I just tinker a bit and don't take the fish too seriously) would consider anything smaller than 40l unsuitable for keeping anything more than a single fish. For someone who's primary reason for keeping fish is to feed the young to a snake, it's debatable whether you have enough volume. I've not bred guppies, so can't comment about specific requirements. They are supposed to be easy to breed, but will need the correct water conditions to feel frisky.
Another thing with smaller tanks is that the chemical and biological balance is much more fragile, because there is less water to buffer the levels - a fish that excretes 5ml of ammonia in my 60l will increase the concentration less than the same fish in your 12l tank.

How important is the gravel and why?

The bacteria in mentioned above, they live on surfaces, not free in the water. The gravel is one place that the bacteria will colonise, the other major place is the filter sponge.

Do I need a specific kind of filter or will just a normal little internal box one do?

An internal filter will be fine in a small tank. I've got an internal filter in my 60l tank (as well as the filter that came with it that hangs of the back), an external canister filter is only necessary for larger tanks (although I'm thinking about replacing both mine with a single external which will be quieter and easier to maintain).

What is a "small bio-load"?

The bigger the fish, the more fish, the more fish pee. That's often termed the bio-load - how much life are you trying to support in the tank.

Do you have any pictures of your set up?

Thank you for the help so far and hope I can fix this before they get ill or die :/

Last thing, are you using untreated tap water? The chlorine in our water isn't good for fish. Best thing is to treat all the water you put in the tank with a conditioner which removes the chlorine, you can also stand the water in a clean bucket overnight and the chlorine will evaporate off.

Keeping fish is about keeping the water chemistry right, and it's much more difficult than keeping snakes. My cycled tank has been a nightmare since Christmas, I got lazy and ended up with an algae bloom, and from there I've be struggling to keep the tank balanced. In the last month I've lost 7 fish out of 16 to white spot disease and unexplained deaths. Luckily our beta is still okay, it's been tetras and panda corys I've lost.