The Secret to Healthy Guppies

[@tenmillionvolts]

Thank you so much for this. I love Guppies and have been keeping them for a few years. I have a 40 litre running on Auckland water. I had trouble keeping them alive and I would have ph dives sometimes. I used oyster shell to raise the ph which worked well. I started to run half a tablespoon of oyster shell continously and found it kept the ph around 7.6 to 7.8 and the Guppies love it. They are the most active and eating the best they ever have. No more fin burn and haven't lost any fish now. I couldn't believe you said exactly what I had worked out, haha.

[@theaquariumprojectnz]

Hey that is awesome to hear!

[@Glenn_AE6YT]

Most of the common live bearers, guppies, platies, swordtails, and especially mollies benefit from living in hard water. Central America, where most of these fishes are native, has largely a limestone base, and mimicking that will help your fishes. My tap water is hard and high pH, and I add some RO water to get those values down. I'm setting up a tank for Endlers, and have added a little salt (1 ‰) and am figuring out what plants can grow in that environment before adding the fish. Take care.

[@theaquariumprojectnz]

For sure that is a great way to explain it! Some really cool fish there!

[@nixequestrian3721]

Just to buck the norm- I have soft water tubs (rainwater) one of which has a bunch of seemingly heathly guppies in it (they've been breeding & living in there for years now & the water is soft enough that snails don't survive for long as their shells get so brittle that the guppies eat them). I'll have to test the gH & kH gain to see where it is sitting these days- last year it was 1 & 0. Might pull a few out & chuck them in another tub to see what if anything changes in terms of behaviour or phenotype if I add some crushed shell to the substrate. Could make for an interesting summer experiment.

[@theaquariumprojectnz]

oh nice sounds interesting for sure

[@theaquariumprojectnz]

Do you prefer to listen to our episodes via your favourite podcast provider? Well do I have the link for you! podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aquariumprojectnz/episodes/The-Secret-to-Healthy-Guppies-e2b152s