Guppy Care
Although guppies are a popular and robust aquarium fish, there are still some guidelines for proper guppy care. Keeping guppies is fun and uncomplicated, and they are robust and beautiful fish. But they are still living creatures and they need attention and care.
Guppy care involves several different things: feeding, water quality, water temperature to name just a few. Guppies will eat a wide variety of food, but flake or frozen fish food is the most common food choice. For optimum health, you can feed your guppies up to three times a day. Observe them at feeding times and make sure they consume almost all of the food you put in the tank. If there is always food leftover, you are probably feeding them too much, so cut back a little at feeding times. Make sure you never underfeed your guppies, especially when there are baby guppies in the tank, because guppies have been known to eat their young.
Good water quality is one of the most important aspects of proper guppy care. The temperature of the water should run between 72 and 82 degrees, and a pH level of 7.0 - 8.2 is most conducive to healthy guppies. Although guppies can survive fluctuations in water temperature and quality, they will become stressed if this happens too frequently or regularly. One way to maintain healthy water quality is by changing out the water on a regular basis. About one-quarter to one-third of the water in the tank should be replaced every three to four weeks, or whenever the water gets cloudy or smelly.
A sometimes neglected part of guppy care is environment. Guppies are lively beings, and they will do best when their aquarium environment is similar to their natural habitat. When decorating your guppy tank, make it homey with colorful gravel, attractive plants and appealing decorations. When your guppies are happy in their tank, they will thrive and their beautiful colors will always be on display.
One of the most attractive things about guppies is how pretty they are, largely because of their fabulously fancy tails. Despite the ease of guppy care, guppies are quite beautiful and really fun to watch as they flutter around their watery home. There are several varieties of guppy, like Deltatail, Fantail, Flagtail, Roundtail and Spadetail. You can see by the names that guppies are quite famous for their fantastic tails, which can account for approximately one third of a guppy's total body length.
Regardless of species, guppies are avid breeders and are known to have babies every month or less. They will breed between species, also, so you may find that your guppy population increases quite rapidly. As such, it is common to have a full and gorgeous aquarium of guppies alone. Keep watch when there are baby guppies around, as they may be preyed upon by the larger fish. Other than that concern, guppy care is fairly relaxed and you can spend hours enjoying your fancy-tailed friends.