Guppies In Brackish Water?

[J@son]

I have a mudskipper tank ( mudskipper still small ) and looking at getting some guppies for the tank.
Will fancy guppies be okay, with the brackish water?
And how to convert them to brackish water ?

 

[Nathen]

Yes guppies are quiet hardy so they will cope, but once their in brackish water you cannot convert them back to non brackish as they will get sick, the salt in the aquarium will keep them healthy. just place the bag in the aquarium and allow float for 30 mins, add 1 cup of the brackish water into their water. leave to stand for about 5 mins then add another cup leave for a further 5 mins and then just turn the bag and encourage them to swim out. WARNING guppies tend to reproduce quickly in brackish water their gestation periods are brought down 3 days so they can give birth earlier

 

[PrairieSunflower]

Mostly true!

My guppies were all in brackish for a long time... when I was experiencing a disease wipe out I was told to remove the salt and it made things worse.

However, my guppies I had in a non-disease affected tank have all been weaned from brackish water and are fine and thriving.

 

[nmonks]

Guppies do fine in brackish water up to about half-strength seawater*; above that, pure-bred guppies usually get stressed and die**, but wild guppies and "feeder" guppies can, with care, be acclimated to full-strength seawater. Assuming your specific gravity is between SG 1.005-1.010, the easiest way to acclimate them is to put the guppies in a bucket of freshwater from their original tank, with just enough water there to quarter-fill the tank. Then spend the next hour or so adding cupfuls of water from the brackish aquarium every 5 minutes or so until the bucket is full. This is effectively a simplified version of the "drip method" used by marine aquarists. When you're done, net the guppies out and add them to the brackish system.

Brackish water certainly does not shorten their gestation period to 3 days! That would be truly remarkable. The minimum gestation period for guppies is around 28 days. Temperature is the major factor; the cooler the water, the longer the gestation period.

Cheers, Neale

* see for example 'Salinity tolerance of the guppy, Poecilia reticulata Peters'.
** see the paper 'Effect of inbreeding on salinity tolerance in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata)'.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I think the previous posted meant shorten the gestation period BY 3 days not to 3 days.