# The sheer hardiness of guppies



## TorontoPlantMan (Aug 16, 2013)

I've been experimenting with how much tolerance a guppy can take in terms of water change parameters, temperature, and water conditions. I've read a few cases lately on here of people killing guppies and simply do not understand how they go about doing so

Awhile back I put 1 guppy into a rubbermaid roughneck that housed some emersed plants. There was roughly 2-3 gallons of water in the bin and a 300watt heater which at the time of placing the fish in the bin, was not turned on, therefore leaving the temperature at whatever the room temp was +/- a few degrees. (68)

As I experimented with temperature, I brought the temp up to 80 and began using an air pump for extra water circulation to help the guppy. Every 2 days I would also add a tablespoon of miracle grow plant fertilizer/bloom or miracle grow shake and feed, and only perform water changes once every month but I have let it go two months at its longest. 

Throughout all this, the guppy I placed in there which was a hybrid fancy tail guppy and albino red guppy had survived and significantly grown since I first put him in the bin. During the 5 months I had the guppy in the bin I had not fed it once, leaving me to wonder what the heck it ate to stay alive. 

I just wanna see if anyone else has any stories about their guppies surviving through conditions in which it shouldn't have. It leads me to wonder that if guppies can survive with the addition of miracle grow plant ferts added into the water, than what other fish can? I'm going to continue this experiment on a 10 gallon plant grow out tank housed with the same guppies.


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## fyns (Dec 22, 2011)

Cruel, and unusual punishment!

That being said. I HAD 12 cardinal tetras. 6 died due to nitrate poisoning 

I was experimenting with my home made gelatin fish food, and got a little over confident with it, 3 days, once a day was too much. 

Started the experiment on a Tuesday, Thursday night I did a 40% W/C to lower my TDS (all parameters were 100%). Friday, when I woke up, all the fish were swimming near the top- I knew right away something was wrong. Turns out not ALL the fish were swimming 

Nitrites were about 2, the guppies were annoyed, but not struggling. 6 Tetras were belly up, and the other 6 were hanging on for dear life.

I've since cut my home made fish food down to once every 2 or 3 days.

So I would say Guppies are pretty hardy creatures. Hard to kill, IMO.

In conclusion.. WTB 6 more cardinal tetras


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## malajulinka (Mar 29, 2008)

Oh God, this reminds me of when a girl in my elementary school science fair did her experiment on goldfish. Only the parameters were "food and water" "water and no food" "food but no water", etc. And she had them all on display in their bowls. Yes, even the shrivelled up "no water" ones. I think she was in 3rd or 4th grade. I still can't understand how her parents thought this was a good idea...


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## aniroc (Aug 23, 2012)

Last summer I purchased a large sword plant from a store that had it rooted in dirt. Once home (hours later), I noticed a fry swimming in the few drops of muddy water left in the bag. That fry turned out to be a female guppy. I still have it today. 
Yes, guppies are very hardy. But I never tried bleach :


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

I drain water to a 20 gallon bucket and then pump from that to my drain when doing water changes.

I often leave a couple inches of water in the bottom and I have found about a dozen guppy fry swimming around in there two weeks after a water change, just nasty stagnant water and they were fine. Moved them to a tank when I saw them.

These were just feeder guppies though, even tougher than normal guppies.


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## zfarsh (Apr 7, 2011)

I love guppies. Mine, they all eat from my hand, and I didn't even have to train them for it. I have females and young ones in one 10g tank, and males and young ones in another 10g tank, and some young ones in another 10g tank, and they all are friendly and eat from my hand, and get very excited when I come in the room. All my tanks are planted, and have rcs, snails, and dwarf cories in them. I don't have any heaters at all in any of my tanks, yet they still reproduce and seem very happy and friendly.

The weird thing is, when I put them in my 75g tank, they get attacked by White Cloud Mountain Minnows, so I have to keep returning them back in my 10 g tanks. I don't understand why my WCMM are aggressive towards other small fish or towards themselves, but now, I love my guppies a lot more than my WCMM.


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## nc208082 (Jun 27, 2013)

Guppies are very hardy. I was using a couple as feeders for my lions and they lasted a few days in my reef tank which had a sg of 1.026 so I was quite surprised at them being able to tolerate saltwater for so long.

Sent from my SGH-I257M using Tapatalk


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## wantzz (Apr 2, 2013)

Wow.. miracle gro and salt water.. always thought work like posions for fw fish

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk


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## zfarsh (Apr 7, 2011)

I've never bought these "feeder" guppies, never even seen them before, what do they look like exactly when adult size? If they are pretty enough in my eyes, I might want to get some for one of my 10g tanks (aquaponics), where I currently have the normal fancy ones. 

Do the feeder guppies live longer than fancy ones? Are they very social also? Are they aggressive towards other fish?

Currently, my best fish which has lived the longest and has been with me since I started a few years back is my BN Pleco. Looking for other hardy fish that live long. Have some cories, but got them as adults, I suspect old, and a lot of them died, but for my dwarf cories which I got young, haven't losed many at all, and the ones I did lose is because I think the frozen blackworms I gave them wasn't good for them, so I stopped that and haven't lost anyone since.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

Feeder guppies can be fancy guppy culls or wild type (more like an Endlers). You have to look to see. Sometimes you can find something of interest. Years ago I found a nice swordtail guppy that I ended up showing a few times. It won it's class.
A friend that works at BA's tells me the imported guppies are one of the hardest things in the store to keep alive. this is of course contrary to the guppies reputation of being almost bullet proof, which they once were.


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## aniroc (Aug 23, 2012)

Imported fish in general, not just guppies, are much harder to keep alive and there are few reasons for that. They are coming from waters quite different than what we have here and sometimes they spend days in bags. 
A new thread on this topic will be interesting, indeed.

Funny thing is....I was told the same thing by a BA staff in reference to Angelfish arriving from Asia


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

Ditto for the angelfish from Asia. I was told the same thing. The two were the hardest to keep alive. Wild caught angels were easier than the Asian ones. I suspect it is more a genetic thing than just water.


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## HOWsMom (Jan 3, 2012)

If guppies are so hardy, I wonder why ours died so quickly 
Poor things.


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## Fishlover02 (Feb 25, 2013)

*Guppy experiement*

I conducted, for my culminating project in my 11U biology class a semester long study on guppy growth rate. I had two ten gallon tanks, which both started with the same lighting, substrate, filtration, stocking ( guppy fry (10 each, from the exact same batch of fry), 1 amano shrimp each) and feeding levels. Everything was the same, the only difference being that one tank got 0 water changes, only a top up when the level got too low for the filter, and the other got regular water changes. The tank which got the water changes grew less algae, whereas the one with 0 water changes got a lot of algae. Coincidentally, the fry in the water change tank, by the end of the experiment were overall smaller then those that had received 0 water changes. Now, I attributed this to there being extra microscopic food/algae to pick off of, due to the excess nutrients in the water column. I measured the nitrates regularly throughout the time I had the tanks set up. The average nitrate level in the water change tank was 25 p.p.m. In the one with no water changes? 120 p.p.m. (Shocking, I know. Do your water changes folks!). The amanos survived and grew in both tanks. Now, the fish in the no water change tank probably will have died younger then those in the water change tank, due to the stresses of being in such conditions, but this study which I did does go to show durability of the guppy, though that wasn't the purpose lol.


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## Fishlover02 (Feb 25, 2013)

I ended up with the highest mark in the class on that project as well ^-^


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