Does your child ask you to start aquarium fish? Then there is nothing easier, than to buy an aquarium with the necessary equipment and to plant several fish in it. But if you want to care for them was as simple as possible, listen to the recommendations of experts who advise to get the most unpretentious fish. This is the type of guppies. So, let's find out what are the conditions of keeping the guppies in a home aquarium.
Features of care for guppies in the aquarium
This kind of fish is one of the most unpretentious, thanks to which they are gladly bred by many even beginning aquarists. The temperature of the content of guppies ranges from +18 to +30 ° C, and the ideal temperature is 24 ° C. As for water hardness, 6-10 units will be the optimal indicator. Guppies are not particularly sensitive to the quality of water. In extreme cases, they can do without aeration and even without filtration - it is enough only regularly (at least once a week) to replace water and clean the aquarium itself.
The quality of life of fish of this breed does not have a decisive influence and coverage. The only thing that can suffer from its lack is the coloring of the males of your guppies, which will not be so bright.
To feed these fish should be twice a day, using both specialized dry food, and universal live (bloodworm, daphnia, tubular). The latter are even more preferred for obtaining a bright color of guppies. Pay attention to the fact that the fish immediately eat up all the food, otherwise it must be removed from the aquarium in order to prevent guppy diseases.
Although the care and maintenance of guppies do not differ in complexity, they start to multiply only under certain conditions: usually it is water softening and increase of its temperature. Interestingly, guppies are related to viviparous fishes, and therefore, when breeding offspring, they need to pay special attention. Appearing fry should be planted in a separate aquarium, so that adult fish do not eat the young offspring of guppies, especially if these are species that have breeding value. You can feed guppy fry with professional fodder, and with dry milk, yolk of boiled chicken eggs or grated cheese of mild varieties.
Aquarium landscape should be equipped in such a way that the fish could, if desired, retire and rest from each other. This can be done with decorative locks or simply by placing an aquarium plant. For example, in the leaves of Indian fern, fry guppies successfully hide from adult individuals who encroach on their life.
Compatibility of guppies with other aquarium fish
Guppies are not just calm fish. They not only do not attack their fellow aquariums, but they can not even protect themselves when attacking. From this it follows that the selection of neighbors for guppies follows the same peaceful and not particularly large. Ideal suited swordsmen , males, danios, corridors , botsii.
And, of course, "boys" and "girls" guppies of different kinds can be placed in one aquarium. Pay attention only to the size of individuals and the balance of the number of females and males.
But such species as goldfish, scalar, astronotus and cichlids are completely incompatible with guppies, since they can pluck their caudal fins, depriving these fish of their basic decorativeness. And since the size of the guppies is much smaller than the fish of the listed species, larger aquarium inhabitants can easily injure them.
The more spacious your aquarium, the more comfortable it will be for your pets. The minimum capacity should be about 3 liters of water per one individual.