Guppy hardiness?

[kitty falol]

Hi

Well we've had our tank up and running now for about 6 weeks. We put 4 in at first after about a fortnight, but after 10 days, our 2 blue ones died of velvet.

After going back to shop I bought the first 4 from, I realised that their guppies in their tank were also really unhealthy, there was white spot, velvet and fin rot all in the one tank.

We then left the 2 survivors in there for a week or so, but they were looking really depressed and lonely, so we bought 4 more small guppies (from a different shop this time!). Sadly, I've just fished out my second dead fish from the new batch of guppies that we bought This time they both died of what I thought was fin rot, but now I realise that was just a secondary indicator of an internal infection.

I've learned so much in the last couple of months and of course hindsight is always 20:20.

In retrospect, thinking about it, one of them also had the beginnings of fin rot when we bought it and the colours of the 2 that died were quite dull and dirty looking compared to the others in our tank. Am I right in thinking that dull colours means that they have been over bred and thus they aren't as hardy as the others?

I'm sorry, I'm just rambling now! I think my question is, are guppies generally not as hardy as other fish as they are over bred and if so is there a hardier fish that you would recommend? The rest of our fish look in wonderful health. Bright colours and in perfect condition. Our water parameters are also perfect so it's just really frustrating! Is it possible that we've just had really bad luck with our fish?

Also, if we tried to breed our own guppies, is it likely that they would be hardier than the ones you buy in the pet shop? Especially if we bred a mixture of colours?

My husband is getting really disheartened by this and I think he's going to want to give up any minute, but I really want to have a successful tank. He keeps saying "This was supposed to be fun" Bless him

 

[balloon molly]

keep trying.guppies from what i know are easily bred.it is advised to buy males and females from different stores.i know what you mean.when i first started my fish kept dieng on me.i didnt knwo why.so i waited a week then bought more fish.what i am saying is that dont buy fish that just arrived.wait for a week or so.dont give up.try a different livebearer.oh and what size tank do you have?
try mollies,platties,or endlers they stay pretty small and come in a variety of colors.
swordtails are good but only if you have a big tank.they will get big.same thing with sailfin mollies ill attach images so take your pick
here is a platy.

here is a black molly(a popular kind)

here is a pair of swordtails

 

[Guppylover]

Yep you should keep trying...Almost the same thing happened with me too. Exept all the fish in my tank died. What I did to get it better was a whole week of 20% water changes and the week after every second day 20% water changes...it really helps! Then after another week of waiting (only two water changes this time) it finally got some fish..they are really happy and healthy. Now days I wait a least 2 weeks to add fish and I always do water changes regually.

Edit: If you do try to breed your guppies I'm not too sure if they would be hardier...it's the parents that count. If you have heathy parents you will have heathy fry (not 100% though). If you do keep the fry heathy and everthing I'm pretty sure they will be hardy enough.
Not too sure with the colours either...

 

[kitty falol]

Thanks balloon molly for those! I have a 60 litre tank, so there's still plenty of room for more fish. We'll definitely be going to another store if we decide to buy some female guppies, but at this rate we'll soon run out of places to go!

I do like the look of the swordtails, do you need a bigger tank size for those because of their tails?

Guppy lover, I seem to be doing nothing but water changes at the moment. I've probably had more days with water changes than without, all the time we've had our guppies, but still they don't survive I've been doing 15% water changes with a gravel vac every day this week and I'll be carrying on doing that for another week to get rid of the medicine in the water. Ho hum. The remaining 4 are looking fighting fit though

I just saw something on the tv the other day that said that the more you 'in-breed' guppies the duller and mirkier their colours start to become. I just had a theory (all of my own though!) that the brighter the colours the less 'in-bred' and therefore healthier they are. I'm probably wrong though

I also has a theory that if you left guppies to mate and give birth in a well planted tank without removing the fry, then the ones that actually survived to grow up into healthy adult guppies would be the hardiest of the lot - sort of a survival of the fittest Just a thought, what do you think?

 

[plysha]

sort of a survival of the fittest

Well I guess you could say that I have 23 little baby guppy fry and they all lived....
they were in the tank with two females for about 5 hours before I came home and took this out....

Now I don't know if my female guppys have something ( someone said shimmies or ick) both females are still pregnant..
I don't think I can go through losing these fish..... I lost all my other fish to ick...

Sorry didn't mean to take over just trying to help!!



Erin