Mothi
Fish Fanatic
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2011
- Messages
- 173
- Reaction score
- 1
Greetings everyone,
I joined Fishforum just so I can share this story of my guppy.
Before I do that let me tell you a bit about my tank and how I set it up.
I first got my tropical fish tank around two years ago after doing much research on the internet on how to keep livebearers. I bought a 120 litre tank that came with stand, filter, heater and light. I keep this tank in my main living room and it's the only tank I have though it's not my first tank. My first tank was a goldfish tank and I had it many years ago when I was a teenager, and didn't know much about fish and fish keeping but that's another story.
I started of by placing Tetra Complete Substrate and covering it with gravel. Then I added water with dechlorinatar and turned the filter on and left it for two and half weeks before I added any fish. During this time I added some plants such as, Java Fern and Java Moss on a pieace of big wood that I placed in the center of the aquarium. I originally wanted it to be community fishtank so I added my first fish which was a female Platy. Slowly after that, over some weeks I introduced more fish which were; two male guppies and four female guppies. Over time I added more plants and the plants were thriving which, made my aqaurium look so beautiful that I would sit infront of it and watch it for hours.
My guppies started having babies and there were many. At one point I remember counting up to 50! I didn't seperate them though, I let them to live with the adults and let the strongest survive.
I started noticing small snails in my fishtank after I introduced a new plant and they quickly grew in numbers, hundreds maybe even thausands. This started to get on my nerves seeing them multiply so fast and started worrying me. I spoke to my LFS and was adviced to add some aquarium salt to get rid of the snails, so I did as guided. This didn't help so then I was given a bottle of liquid that wont harm my fish and plant but will kill the snails. It worked like I was told and my aquarium seemed snail free.
A week later one of my platy died and it seemed like my guppies were less than usual too. I searched the tank for more dead bodies but was unable to find any. Though, to my surprise I found sanils! Maybe they were hiding under the gravels or more hatched from eggs that were left behind. But there was something wrong with my fishtank and my remaining fish started dissapearing. I would find some dead fish but not all. I did all I can to keep my fishes alive. I did nemerous water changes upto once per day but nothing worked and my guppy population just died off save one male fry.
I lost hope on fishkeeping and decided that I would keep the tank until this guppy fry dies. I stopped caring for my fish tank like I did before and completely stopped caring for any of the plants and only fed the guppy and did a small water change weekly.
Weeks went by and the guppy started growing and showing colours, which should be a good sign but the guppy looked a bit deformed, he had like a hunchback but the hunch is more closer to the tail. I was sure that the guppy will die anyday and was told by people and LFS to cull it and let it out of it's misery and then start over again. I didn't have the heart to kill it and I thought I'd just wait for it to die and maybe after that I'd clean out the fish tank and start off all over.
Months past and the guppy still lives, all the plants except the java moss had died too. The snails are still there. It's been like 6-7 months and the guppy still lives. All this time I've been waiting for the fish to die but in the last month or two I've been contemplating whether to add more fish. I was still scared that there might be some sort of mysterious illness in the tank that will kill the new fish. Plus I didn't want the snails in there.
In the last week I decided that I will add more guppies and let my guppy have new friends. Though he looks a bit deformed he has the right to have friends and mate and make babies. Despite his little hunch on his back he is a beautiful male and has a lovely neon blue tail that shines.
Yesterday, I went and bought 3 new plants and 4 female guppies for him so he can have some fun with them. He has been chasing them all around the tank all day yesterday and he's still doing that this morning. He's having too much fun I reckon, maybe I will add another male so he doesn't exhaust himself
Over time I also realised that I was being selfish and it's for my dislike of snails that killed my fish in the first place. It wasn't the snails that caused the amonia level to rise, it was all the salt and snail killing liquid that I added to the tank. I have come to realise how hardy guppies are and they are truely wonderful. This one guppy has proved it all.
I joined Fishforum just so I can share this story of my guppy.
Before I do that let me tell you a bit about my tank and how I set it up.
I first got my tropical fish tank around two years ago after doing much research on the internet on how to keep livebearers. I bought a 120 litre tank that came with stand, filter, heater and light. I keep this tank in my main living room and it's the only tank I have though it's not my first tank. My first tank was a goldfish tank and I had it many years ago when I was a teenager, and didn't know much about fish and fish keeping but that's another story.
I started of by placing Tetra Complete Substrate and covering it with gravel. Then I added water with dechlorinatar and turned the filter on and left it for two and half weeks before I added any fish. During this time I added some plants such as, Java Fern and Java Moss on a pieace of big wood that I placed in the center of the aquarium. I originally wanted it to be community fishtank so I added my first fish which was a female Platy. Slowly after that, over some weeks I introduced more fish which were; two male guppies and four female guppies. Over time I added more plants and the plants were thriving which, made my aqaurium look so beautiful that I would sit infront of it and watch it for hours.
My guppies started having babies and there were many. At one point I remember counting up to 50! I didn't seperate them though, I let them to live with the adults and let the strongest survive.
I started noticing small snails in my fishtank after I introduced a new plant and they quickly grew in numbers, hundreds maybe even thausands. This started to get on my nerves seeing them multiply so fast and started worrying me. I spoke to my LFS and was adviced to add some aquarium salt to get rid of the snails, so I did as guided. This didn't help so then I was given a bottle of liquid that wont harm my fish and plant but will kill the snails. It worked like I was told and my aquarium seemed snail free.
A week later one of my platy died and it seemed like my guppies were less than usual too. I searched the tank for more dead bodies but was unable to find any. Though, to my surprise I found sanils! Maybe they were hiding under the gravels or more hatched from eggs that were left behind. But there was something wrong with my fishtank and my remaining fish started dissapearing. I would find some dead fish but not all. I did all I can to keep my fishes alive. I did nemerous water changes upto once per day but nothing worked and my guppy population just died off save one male fry.
I lost hope on fishkeeping and decided that I would keep the tank until this guppy fry dies. I stopped caring for my fish tank like I did before and completely stopped caring for any of the plants and only fed the guppy and did a small water change weekly.
Weeks went by and the guppy started growing and showing colours, which should be a good sign but the guppy looked a bit deformed, he had like a hunchback but the hunch is more closer to the tail. I was sure that the guppy will die anyday and was told by people and LFS to cull it and let it out of it's misery and then start over again. I didn't have the heart to kill it and I thought I'd just wait for it to die and maybe after that I'd clean out the fish tank and start off all over.
Months past and the guppy still lives, all the plants except the java moss had died too. The snails are still there. It's been like 6-7 months and the guppy still lives. All this time I've been waiting for the fish to die but in the last month or two I've been contemplating whether to add more fish. I was still scared that there might be some sort of mysterious illness in the tank that will kill the new fish. Plus I didn't want the snails in there.
In the last week I decided that I will add more guppies and let my guppy have new friends. Though he looks a bit deformed he has the right to have friends and mate and make babies. Despite his little hunch on his back he is a beautiful male and has a lovely neon blue tail that shines.
Yesterday, I went and bought 3 new plants and 4 female guppies for him so he can have some fun with them. He has been chasing them all around the tank all day yesterday and he's still doing that this morning. He's having too much fun I reckon, maybe I will add another male so he doesn't exhaust himself
Over time I also realised that I was being selfish and it's for my dislike of snails that killed my fish in the first place. It wasn't the snails that caused the amonia level to rise, it was all the salt and snail killing liquid that I added to the tank. I have come to realise how hardy guppies are and they are truely wonderful. This one guppy has proved it all.
Enjoyed your little tale.
