Just Got 4 Guppies

[go0sebumps]

My friend is moving, she has 4 male guppies that she had since as fry and gave them to me yesterday. She gave me her bowl, a oxygen stick and some other stuff that I am yet to toy with.

She told me just to feed them, clean the bowl often and change the water as much as possible and they'll be fine.
Will..
I need to buy food for them first, I don't know what to buy. I looked around the supermarket, there was pebbles, tiny redish bits, flakes and this green stuff, the person recommend the red bits. The petstores said they should eat these red worms.. I have no idea what to buy so I bought a tiny package of red bits.. they do eat it.

I think the red bits are those red worms dried.

So the basic question is how do I take care of them?
Do I need plants, any kind of rocks? How often do I feed them and if a feed them too little will they die? What do I do if I overfeed them?

The bowl can hold around 13 standard cups of water so how often do I need to change it? Is everday bad or good..? Do I need special lights or can I just keep them where its bright?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hi there and welcome to the forum,

boy thats a baptism of fire, no knowledge, no food or anything and fish straight away!!!

I will move on to answer some of your questions but first I'll direct you to a couple of links which it's important you read. All the links are in my signature, if you read the 'step by step guide to setting up an aquarium', 'whats cycling' and 'fishless cycling' these 3 topics cover the most important aspects of fishkeeping so you'll be setting yourself on the right ath by reading them.

So onto your questions, can you tell us what it say's on the packet, like what the food is?!

There's a whole variety of fishfoods available, the guppies will be fine with any of the flake's or small pellets they will also enjoy things like brine shrimp, daphnia and bloodworms occasionally.

What are the dimensions of the tank, like length width and height? That will help us calculate the water volume better and this is vital. It sounds pretty small

Does the tank have a filter on it at all? If not then you'll need to do 50% water changes every day, so remove half the water and add new dechlorinated water back in. Do you have a heater for the tank at all? Guppies are tropical fish and will need to be kept warm.

All fish will appreciate some cover, doesn't matter to them one bit if it's a bright pink plastic castle or natural wood plants etc, so it's totally up to you what you choose to decorate the tank with, but do put something in there they won't like it totally bare.

Fish don't need light, the only reason people have lights on the tank are so that they can view the fish and to grow plants, so unless you get real plants then you don't need any lights on the tank.

 

[go0sebumps]

It says Tropical Fish food on the package.
I think how much water it contains is engraved, at the bottom of the bowl, it says 2G.
I have no idea what a filter look like, is it long and black like cyclinder?

IF I can't find the filter then can I change the water completely everyday?
How much do I feed?

 

[julioarca]

Changing the water 100% is not good, you will loose beneficial bacteria, upset the ammonia,nirtate, nitrite levels...wot are the fish in currently?
I mean the tank would have to be cycled first before introduction of fish else u might get dead fish within a week, best of luck,.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

right, weather you have a filter or not makes a masisve difference to the advice we need to give you now.

can you take pictures of everything you have and try and find makes/models of any equipment, post your pics up and we'll see what you are dealing with from there.

 

[waterdrop]

An unusual case.. provokes some different sorts of questions!

Any idea how long your friend had kept these 4 male guppies? I know they were raised from fry but what I'm asking is about how old they are now.. do they have big pretty tails yet? Did your friend keep them in this same bowl or were they raised in a larger tank?

Is the "bowl" really a bowl, or is it a tank with flat sides, and in either case what is the specific shape? This will have an impact on what types of equipement can be easily used.

What are your plans? If you have no intentions beyond simply keeping the 4 male guppies, then you may indeed be able to get by with some abbreviated types of care the are not the standard things we usually recommend...

If, however, this is to be your introduction into fishkeeping and you have greater plans, that changes the picture quite a bit, make sense?

Is there gravel in the bowl? Anything else at all? Did your friend give you a bottle of "conditioner"?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

Goosebumps, I'm going to take a wild guess that the black tube thing is a heater. If it looks like an overgrown test tube with a knob on the top that is probably what it is. The electrical wire will come out of the sealed end. There may be some very small text on the outer cover near the end with the wire, maybe even stamped into the plastic if it's a plastic tube that will give you a wattage rating. It should also tell you if it's submersible. Others have already written about the need for filtration or frequent large water changes so I'll stay away from that subject.

 

[ally86ozzy]

first of all, 2 gallons is very small 2 keep 4 guppies in. im not saying u cant keep them in it, im saying i wouldnt attempt it. if u hav the space and money, u should get at least a 5 gallon minimum, tho they would probably like a 10 gallon much better. u should get a filter if u dont hav one if bowls can hav filters that is, and some cover 4 them 2 hide in.

 

[go0sebumps]

Ok..

Well the bowl looks like this but is round instead. I think its a bowl with a blue lid.

The black thing looks like this but is completely black, I think its heater.. but it has small opening at the end?

The black thing

The oxygen pump... but has a green thing at the end

and some rocks and some lucky bamboo.. I think that's it.


The fishes have big tails.. I think they were in the bowl all their lives though. I can't get big bowl because I don't have the space. I think I'll go with just 4 guppies for now.

 

[waterdrop]

OK, good, given your answers, it starts to sound like one of the first decisions could be about the size/shape of the tank itself. The tiny round container they are in is both bad and good. As MW says, without filtration you will need to change 50% of the water (and this means a bit more than just changing the water, as conditioner and temp matching and a little gravel cleaning will be involved) each and every day, forever. This is why ally says "wouldn't attempt it!"

But, the container is so small that it would indeed be feasible, just a hassle. The amount is so small that you could just establish the habit and make sure it gets done. There is not much room for a mistake however. You could lose the fish quickly if the water were not changed, how quickly is a bit hard to predict, perhaps others would speculate.

A really good alternative, as ally says, would be to consider transitioning right now, while you're getting started and interested in it, in a slightly larger tank that could handle a little filter. Small tanks themselves cost very little and would not take up much more space. A 5.5 or 6 (US gallon (there is a gallon vs. litre calculator at the top of the web page)) would not be much more space.

~~waterdrop~~