J.S.
I will forever be amazed at how some people seem to know absolutely everything.
I guess I should go study more.
My daughter loves animals and taking care of things, so we bought her a 3-gallon fish tank for her 4th bday. She picked out 3 male fancy guppies and a snail. It's on her dresser and we help her feed them twice per day. Within 3 days, one of the guppies died. We talked to the man at the pet shop, who suggested a heat stick to warm the water, and we replaced the guppy. That was less than a week ago, and now the fish that we had replaced it with is dead. Water temp is perfect now, so I know that's not the problem. But I noticed that the other two suddenly seem to be acting aggressively toward each other and toward the snail! I'm wondering if we are not feeding them enough? They act very hungry each time we feed them, but they are so small that I'm afraid to overfeed them. Any experience with guppies? If these do not survive, does anyone have any suggestions for a different type of fish that might do better? I don't want goldfish or betta, but any other "pretty" fish will do.
I will forever be amazed at how some people seem to know absolutely everything.
I guess I should go study more.
What is the pH of your water? Have you had it tested? It takes awhile to get a proper balance in the tank for decent fish. Usually you start out with a couple of cheap feeder goldfish and let the water reach its proper levels.
You need to buy a water testing kit from the pet store and test the water, or take some water to the store and have them test it. If they won't do either, then find another pet store. If the water isn't properly balanced, they can make recommendations on how to get it right. You might need to add plants, or some anti-ammonia drops. Also, do you have a good filter? You need one with guppies. They produce a lot of waste and their water will need to be filtered.
If you lose all the guppies, start over with a couple little goldfish and when you get them to live, add a couple more fish. But make sure your tank is big enough to accommodate all the fish. I think a 3-gallon tank can only hold a couple of fish. Guppies are really hardy fish so once you get your tank in order, they should live and have babies.
best thing to do is use bottled water, the you don't have to mess with fluctuating ph and deposits in tap water. The fluoride and chlorine in city water is very damaging, it stresses fish. Since you just have a small tank its not that costly and you only have to get the distilled or osmosis water, not spring ( which often is tap run through a charcoal filter)... just really well filtered stuff. People often believe in an OLD myth that you can over feed a fish. That fish die from having too much food. Nope they don't. I learned this from working with fish at a pet store for some time. They die of too much UNEATEN food, that falls to the bottom, Rotting food eats oxygen. Live plants eat oxygen as well. Rotting food and plants also feeds algae, which eats oxygen as well. If you do not have an aerator that eats almost half the oxygen in the water. Dirty water kills fish. The other thing, is shock and stress, too much cleaning will clean them as well. The snail should be taking care of most of the algae. you might want to keep it to 2 guppies and a bottom feeder of some type. 4 gallons is fine for guppies. Not for gold fish. 1/4 clean tank ever other week. When its cleaning week the 3rd time full clean tank well. Never use soap or cleaners. Just warm water and hand. Refill and wait till room temp again before putting fish back in. I had a several Betta's that lived years... on average over 5 each with this method.
did you test the water? I have a 55 gallon tank and have my fair share of problems, especially with the water. I liv ein the country so my nitrate levels were high so I have to buy distilled water and add chemicals to the water about once a week to keep them balanced. I have 4 guppies in my tank and they seem to get along with all the other smaller and bigger fish. A lot of times when the water is not the proper ph, acidity, nitrate etc. It cause stress to the fish. Do you have enough items in the fish tank? They usually say 1 plant, statue hiding place, etc per fish. I also add a conditioner in w the water changes that help add a protective slim coat over them.
I am still learning and I have had this tank for over 2 years now! Good luck!
I was told when I bought my guppies that you need a male and a female or they will "die from lonliness"..... my female just died (we've had them for about a year), and the male isn't looking so good, but they had babies, so I'm hoping the babies will keep the male alive til I can get a new female.... Good luck!
Feeding twice per day is WAY too much. I have had Bettas that live for YEARS and I feed them MAYBE once a week. A hungry fish is a happy fish. =)
No, they don't need to be male and female unless you want to have babies. Which can be fun, but then you deal with the fact that the adults eat most of the babies unless you provide enough hiding places for the babies to survive. I raised guppies as a kid for several years. They are usually pretty easy to keep alive, but I agree with the others that it could be a problem with your water. I found out he hard way one time when I moved, set up the tank, put all the goldfish back in. I went out to dinner came back and they were all dead.
I would get a water testing kit from the pet store and check the quality (ph, chlorine level, etc.) of your water. Then you can decide if you can fix it with a treatment to add to the water, or if you need a filter running in the tank, or what. With just a 3 gallon tank, you could even buy filtered water.
Fish should always act hungry when they are fed, or you are feeding them too much. Read on the food label how much is recommended per day per fish.
By the way... Gold fish are NOT supposed to be in small tanks. It's so SAD! The stores won't tell you that gold fish are supposed to grow BIG, BIG, BIG. They don't because they rarely survive and they won't grow in too small of a tank. We had some people throw some gold fish into a pool that was shut down. The owners never took the water out of the pool and it stayed that way for a couple of years. The city finally forced them to drain the pool. When they did, they found an entire community of goldfish in the pool! These fish had grown to be a foot long and that's NORMAL for goldfish. So buying cheap goldfish means that they will DIE.
It takes quite awhile to get the tank truly cycled and ready for fish. The proper way is to fill the tank with water and use the chemicals to get the amonia out of the water. Most cities have very HIGH chlorine. It used to be that 3-4 days in the tank with the filter circulating would be enough. But not anymore. You start with the water, get to a steady temp, and then put in your snails. Feed the snails for a few weeks. They are pottying in the water and the filter gets a chance to start building up the biofilter. Do your small weekly water changes and keep doing the tests. Liquid tests are more accurate than dip tests. When the test comes back clear of ammonia and the tank is about 6 weeks old and you still only have the snails, get one fish. Let the tank get to be a few weeks old before adding another.
Keep in mind that most fish breeders are not really all that professional. A lot of stores will take fish in from anyone. In fact, people like my husband that really doesn't care and isn't that careful. He makes me so MAD! He has the tank cycled and he does okay I guess. But he has 2 tanks, too many babies, and he keeps adding more fish. Any fish coming from a store should be quarantined in a tank set up just for quarantining. Fish bring in diseases. You get one sick fish and 1/2 your tank could die in just a few weeks.
I won't do fish anymore. It's just too time consuming and I can't be cruel to a fish.
A good rule of thumb is 1 inch of fish for every gallon of water. But you don't measure them as babies. You measure them according to what they will be at their full growth. A 3 gallon tank is very small and hard to regulate. The larger the tank, the easier it is to get cycled and keep free of ammonia.