I Think My Female Guppy Is Sick

[FishBlast]

that sounds normal behaviour though. Clever fry stay under cover and just dart out for food before darting back. Just keep doing as you are and if you think you are over feeding cut it back a bit

I just found it weird because my other two batches of swordtail fry I've had never hid behind anything, they'd gather in on the food. They would also swim around a lot. I didn't have plants but some rocky decorations back then.

I will reduce the flake size and feed twice a day.
I just hope I won't find the other calico dead too. I looked over the internet, and it seems like swordtails with black pigments are the most sensitive. -.-

 

[Akasha72]

UPDATE:


I called at my LFS today for some plants and had a chat with them about the guppy fry. I explained how many I had and how I was keeping them ...

She handed me 2 fish bags and said "bring them in, well put them into a free tank - they can go in with the plants if all else fails"


I came home, bagged them up (all the ones I could catch anyway) and dropped them back. They are all now in a Juwel Rekord 600 which I believe is about 2ft? It was filtered and all which is far better than I could do for them.


When I got home I caught the remainder - 7 in total and I think a mix of platy and guppy and they are now in the little fry tank where they can stay until they are big enough to either move on to the lfs or to anyone that wants them.



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I managed to come home with 5 amazon swords and 2 red leafed plants that I've not seen before ... I also softened my hardened heart and brought 2 Oto's home. I can only see one but I'm guessing the other one will show up sooner or later

 

[FishBlast]

Gratz on the new Otos and finding a home for the fry X)
My fry trio are quite active and are no longer shy, they come at me when they know it's feeding time. X) Although Ninja (the calico) still bickers with his other two siblings Nightfish and Pinky.
I think they grew a bit more today. And so did Ramses my snail.

 

[Akasha72]

I've lost every Oto I've tried to keep which is why I'd said no to getting anymore but I missed them and decided to have one last attempt at keeping them alive

 

[FishBlast]

I've lost every Oto I've tried to keep which is why I'd said no to getting anymore but I missed them and decided to have one last attempt at keeping them alive

I never tried to keep those, but I probably don't own a big enough tank and prefer hoplos instead of shoal-loving fish.

Not many problems with store-bought / market-bought fish except two black swordtail females my dad bought long ago and the latest black swordtail female I bought at the beginning of this year. And those are my fault that they died, as I didn't know about filtration. They lived for only a week.

Other fish that my dad bought and survived for over a year:
red swordtails (1.5 years or so), tiny goldfish (1 year), Fossilis (1 year until I got mad at it for stinging me, those critters are venomous... so I fed it to the cat...), Hoplos (some lived 6 years, one 8, and this 9 year old I have since 2003).

Fish I bought myself and survived so far since the beginning of this year: blood-red swordtail, black swordtail (I'm amazed that the black male is so active).

 

[Akasha72]

Oto's are tiny, only about 2cm. They eat algae and slime. You can feed them greens aswell - they like courgette (or Zuccini if you live in the states)

They do like to be part of a group but because I've had problems with them I decided to just get 2 for now. I can add another 2 next month if these 2 survive. As it stands now, one is at one side of the tank and the other it at the other end so I don't think they're friends yet lol

 

[FishBlast]

Oto's are tiny, only about 2cm. They eat algae and slime. You can feed them greens aswell - they like courgette (or Zuccini if you live in the states)

They do like to be part of a group but because I've had problems with them I decided to just get 2 for now. I can add another 2 next month if these 2 survive. As it stands now, one is at one side of the tank and the other it at the other end so I don't think they're friends yet lol

It's the group part I'm having trouble with. That's why I don't want to get otos. Also they might like to dart around, not lazily float around / sniff the sand.
I would have gotten corys but I wouldn't be able to buy six at once and cannot keep 12 either due to tank size.

And I wouldn't be able to get too many greens as we barely eat those (I know, bad for the health but greens cost a lot more than meat here...)

Even my hoplo would surely like even more space than a 20 gal of about 3 feet length, but at least he likes being on his own and mostly occupies bottom and middle. But he's used to smaller spaces due to the 40L he and his friend grew in, also he isn't darting around much, he likes to swim slowly (unless it's lunch time, then he goes nuts) and his fancy fins are so cool, though I have yet to find out what kind of hoplo he is. Could be a hybrid between H. Magdalene and Thoracata. Or it's just his old age that caused those fins to grow extensions that long.

 

[OldMan47]

Actually, my own experience with otos is that they do not survive long in my tanks. The first few weeks they thrive by eating all of the algae present in almost any of my mature tanks. After that they simply starve because they do not accept algae wafers or similar food that I try to give them. I hate to be a wet blanket here but otos are only really suitable for a tank that gets so much light that it always has an algae problem.

 

[FishBlast]

Actually, my own experience with otos is that they do not survive long in my tanks. The first few weeks they thrive by eating all of the algae present in almost any of my mature tanks. After that they simply starve because they do not accept algae wafers or similar food that I try to give them. I hate to be a wet blanket here but otos are only really suitable for a tank that gets so much light that it always has an algae problem.

Would moss balls keep them fed?

 

[OldMan47]

I have never tried them with moss balls because I got tired of losing them to starvation. For a while I would move them around from tank to tank every few weeks, which worked well enough, but it was a constant struggle to find a tank with enough algae of the type they would eat. They will not eat just any algae.

 

[FishBlast]

I have never tried them with moss balls because I got tired of losing them to starvation. For a while I would move them around from tank to tank every few weeks, which worked well enough, but it was a constant struggle to find a tank with enough algae of the type they would eat. They will not eat just any algae.

If moss balls are green algae, I think it looks like the kind that grows in aquariums. Though I'm not so sure, I never had algae growth in my tanks, and this one's set up for a month and still no algae, despite the daylight constantly passing through one side of the glass. Maybe it's the plant that's eating all or most of the nitrate.

 

[Akasha72]

I think she's about to drop again




WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH

 

[FishBlast]

I think she's about to drop again




WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH

My fish will probably drop at the end of this month too... She's getting fat again. and I already see the black spot.

 

[Akasha72]

she's never got rid of the gravid spot since the last drop but she's looking pretty big and has started hanging around in the tank corners like she did last time.
Had a close look at her and there's no sign of her birthing tube opening yet so maybe I'm jumping the gun. Who know's, I guess she'll drop them when she's ready. I just hope she does it when the other fish are starving hungry cos there's no way I can cope with another drop of nearly 100!!!

 

[FishBlast]

she's never got rid of the gravid spot since the last drop but she's looking pretty big and has started hanging around in the tank corners like she did last time.
Had a close look at her and there's no sign of her birthing tube opening yet so maybe I'm jumping the gun. Who know's, I guess she'll drop them when she's ready. I just hope she does it when the other fish are starving hungry cos there's no way I can cope with another drop of nearly 100!!!

Lol she's probably going to go Sumo-Style again...