"Carl Collins" wrote in message
...

I haven't kept fish for about 4-5 months now and fancy getting back in
to
the hobby.
I have a 4.5ft x 2.5ft Tank but only want to start back into the hobby
with
Guppies.. I want females and males so obviously there will be fry but
can
anyone tell me what kind of bad things I should look out for?

Thanks very much ;-)

My understanding is that offshore breeders commonly raise Guppies in
brackish conditions (3 grams/litre?). Acclimation to a freshwater
environment may result in a weakened and disease susceptible fish for the
first few months. It's also been observed that purchased mature Guppies
have a much shorter life expectancy than fry born in your tank. The
transition from brackish to freshwater could be a contributor to this as
well.

These observations are on N.A. fishes, so if U.K. fish go through the
same thing, then I'd recommend stocking your tank once, using a high
female/male ratio, and provide a tremendous amount of cover/shelter for
the fry. The plan is to 'milk' the purchased Guppies for as many fry as
possible before they die off. Be very prudent about removing dead &
dying mature Guppies (weakened fish become hosts for a variety of
contagions whose ability to infect other fish can increase when
ingested).

Using this strategy, your original purchase should include as varied
amount of Guppies as possible (from different sources for a deep genetic
pool). An example would be getting 8 to 16 females (from 4 stores), and
3 to 6 males. You can start with some salt in the tank and let it dilute
with water changes. Then sit back, stop adding things to the tank, and
let nature align itself with your bio-load. In a tank that size, I would
not bother treating virus or bacteria, due to the expense, bad effect on
plants & bio-filter, and the babies will usually be naturally immune to
bacterial contagions (in my limited experience). I would treat for Ich
as needed (Nox-Ich/Quick-Cure etc), and possibly even flukes as a
precautionary measure (Aquarium Pharmaceutical's Livebearer is what we
commonly use here). Anti-parasitic treatments are less expensive and
less problematic as compared to antibiotics. For anti-bacterial, some
Mela-fix makes a good preventative.

Remember that your strategy is to 'milk' the parents, so keeping them
alive and in relatively good condition for as long as possible is the
objective. As soon as any appear too sickly (ie: saddleback, fin-rot,
cotton-mouth) pull them out of the main tank. Provide as good an
environment as possible for your fry (aged water, lots of
micro-organisms, pre-filter your intakes, fry-appropriate foods,
algae/vegetation to nibble and lots of hiding spots).

While this seems like a cold sceptical approach, in hindsight it will
seem pragmatic, especially if you find yourself with a fully stocked tank
of colourful disease-free community of Guppies in 8 months. Remember to
quarantine everything aquatic which goes into the tank. You don't want
to introduce a new disease vector with that Madagascar lace plant you
picked up on impulse ;~)

Once everything is humming along, consider using an automatic feeder for
your flake foods, and do the special treats yourself. Maintain steady
water parameters (slightly alkaline is their preference) using regular
partial water changes and redundancy in your bio-filtration. IMHO that's
the recipe )

NetMax