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Frustration. | 8 comments (8 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Frustration. (none / 0) (#1)
by DJIsaac on Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 03:44:02 PM PST

hmmm dificult situation that you have here.. im no expert.. on anything really... But what you may want to attempt to do is sacrafice one of your fry to the larger tank.. That way the one fry can be your tester.

I do this when ever i am getting ready to switch over to the new tank, but for slightly diffrent reasons... my reasoning is that if the one fry stays alive, that means there big enough that they wont get eaten by the other fish, and after a day or two then I add the rest...

This could be done in the same way for you.. Place a single fry in the larger tank, and watch it over the next few days for any problems.. If the tank is infected the fry might show the infection as it hasent recieved any meds for it, unlike your other fish that now live in the tank...

Just a idea. seeing how i can tell this is really bothering you and you wanted a fix soon. this way atleast you can get them in sooner then waiting a few weeks to be completly sure.. I thought i cured ich once for 2 weeks before bang it came back, then battled it for 3 months.. before finally killing it.. (and the fish who was a chronic carrier...)

Good Luck and have fun with your fry :)

Re: Frustration. (none / 0) (#2)
by lomelindi on Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 03:51:33 PM PST

I don't know.. I did consider that, but the trouble is that there are already other fry.. batch mates, so they're all roughly the same size... in the big tank. I wouldn't be able to tell them apart.

[ Parent ]

If there is an airstone or sponge filter in (none / 0) (#3)
by unclescott on Thu Jul 28, 2005 at 08:54:03 AM PST

that two gallon tank and you are doing partial water changes like I think you are and those fry aren't over 1" long, leave them there.

For the record I have some Aphyosemion striatum fry currently in just such a situation except that there is no air on it. There are some hastilly added Najas shoots. One does what they can.

That female guppy's red spot sound like an infection. Sorry:(

Also, are her scales beginning to stick out? If so, look up Dropsy in the Immediate Help Section. She may need to be isolated or euthanized. What an awful choice, I know!

That happens to a lot of older fish and a lot of us (me too) have seen it. Another reason to keep those other youngsters out of the tank for a bit.

All the best!
u.s.

[ Parent ]

Aaah... I thought fish-watching was calming? (none / 0) (#5)
by lomelindi on Fri Jul 29, 2005 at 04:22:01 PM PST

Alright.. upon quite a bit of watching these two adults, I've noticed..

-I never thought I'd give this much attention to a fish's excretory habits, but both are indeed very regular, and their poo coloring good.

-The female seems a little bigger. I'm beginning to think maybe it is dropsy, but she's nowhere near as big as the pictures I saw in a post yesterday.

-Her gravid spot is red, red, red.

-She seems to be eating an awful lot... and always searching for food.

-She's extremely active, swimming all over the place... only occasionally looking forlorn and clampy

-She most definitely doesn't have cottonmouth. That was always in the back of my mind, but I know for sure now.

-I don't think I'm going to ever breed guppies after this. I'm going to just keep the sexes seperate.

-The two male bettas I'm fish-sitting absolutely love watching the male guppy in the main tank. I've never seen them so active. I wish I could get a shot of the way they both go to the glass between the tanks and just.. gaze, side-by-side, not seeing each other but both watching Prettyboy.

[ Parent ]

Re: If there is an airstone or sponge filter in (none / 0) (#4)
by lomelindi on Thu Jul 28, 2005 at 05:12:30 PM PST

Her scales seem perfect. I might be mistaking pregnancy with overly-large tummy, I don't know. Here's a picture, if it helps.. not a great-quality, but it shows both the curving (?) of the spine, and the reddish gravid spot.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v610/lolonque/decker.jpg

She's not actually spending time on the gravel at all.. when I took that shot, she was scrounging for fallen flakes. She actually seems happier than she has been for a while, with the exception of sullen clamp-finned sojurns to the top of the tank, an occasional oddness in the way she swims, and that darned flashing they're both doing. I even caught a fry or two doing it.

As I type this, she's nibbling on a bit of cucumber I have in there.

For the life of me, I can't see anything wrong with her physically. The male seems to be chasing her from time to time.. not in mating behavior, but as if he's going to nibble at her or so. I see no scale problems, no whiteness, no little worms... nothing GL usually warns one to look for. And the male looks fine.

And yes, the fry setup is just as you described. Thank you for reassuring me on that count that I'm not doing them harm. I do so enjoy watching them there on my desk, and I'm relieved that at least they aren't sick.

[ Parent ]

Re: If there is an airstone or sponge filter in (none / 0) (#6)
by miskairal on Fri Jul 29, 2005 at 11:26:31 PM PST

How old is the fish in the photo lomelindi?

I have read that curving of the spine can be associated with age. I don't think she is pregnant - in my experience she would be much darker in the gravid spot.
--
Repeat after me,
I will read the Immediate Help
[ Parent ]

I may be wrong again, but that female's gravid (none / 0) (#8)
by unclescott on Sat Jul 30, 2005 at 06:48:24 PM PST

area doesn't look so red. It is lighter colored than a lot of female guppies, but she is also displaying some yellow along with the black in her tail.

If you look at other photos of lighter colored females, their gravid spot may not be so dark. Albinos obviously aren't. Perhaps overall pigmentation, as well as health, tank decore (certainly gravel hue), mood and age are all factors in the mix.

As miskairal suggested, she does seem to be aging. Guppies are not long lived fishes. One to two years is about it. The higher the temperature, the shorter the life span.

Another way to check her relative health and potential for parenthood would be to gently herd that female into a jar. Hold the jar and shine a flashlight through her from the back. This "candling" can show if she has fry in her. That is also a good way of sexing egglayers or to determine how ready a female egglayer is for breeding.

Sometimes it is just fun looking at Guppy photos. Of course your official reason is to compare others with your female. ;)

I was frustrated in that this site's search function gave a lot of hits for guppy photo, guppy image, guppy photos. There wasn't much in most of the hits on photos though. Google wasn't much better. I know that a couple of guys (Parttimer? PeterW? everb?) recommended some great visual sites and I can't find their post on the subject.

Below are some other sites which have been mentioned (or should have been mentioned) from time to time. By no means is it comprehensive - do a Google image search for Guppies and see what I mean. Still the following are fun to browse. Some have many pages, so look around and check their links to other sites.

Undoubtedly others who happen upon this have other favorite guppy images. Please share the URLs.

Thanks and all the best!
uncle scott

http://www.tropicalfishintl.com/guppy.htm

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/medaka-ken/k.t/framepage5.html

http://www.world-guppy.de/

http://www.laurellakeguppies.com/

http://www.ifga.org/

http://www.deltaguppies.com/

http://www.arihood.com/azgenetics/guppycolors1.html

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/medaka-ken/k.t/framepage5.html

http://www.ifga.org/guppy_store/gs_roebuck.htm

http://www.guppy-art.de/galerie01.htm