u/ChazMcFeeley

So yeah title should give you the jist of it - I cycled my tank about 6 weeks ago, 2 weeks ago I picked up 3 guppies, 1M 2F, along with about 5 cherry shrimp. Then a week later I went back and got another 3 guppies (again, 1M 2F) and another 5 cherry shrimp.

Fast forward to literally 5 min ago, I walk in the door from work and go to check on my tank and fed my fish when I saw a piece of food moving around oddly in the water column so I squint to get a bet-OH MY GOD THEY'RE BABIES!?!

So I'll also add, I have kept and even bred (intentionally) guppies, I've seen them give birth literally hundreds of times, though never quite like this. Namely, because there only appears to be 2 fry, and ALL of the females are still plump and clearly pregnant. What on earth could this be?? None of the females are behaving like they're in labor, all the tank inhabitants are just chilling out.

Could these possibly be premature? Can fish even do that?? It's been so long since I've dealt with guppy fry, I tried to include a pic but it looks like they both may have a tiny bit of yolk left, but I remember it being usually much more pronounced. I find it hard to believe she could have given birth already and maybe shes just a fat fish - I spend (no exaggeration) hours in front of this tank every single day, there's no way a fish could've given birth to all those fry and then had them all eaten except 2 this quickly.

But yeah I'm at a total loss here yall! I'm really hoping it's maybe just a quirky female; gonna go run a few miles, when I'm back hopefully I'll have an update w more babies, but after watching this tank THOROUGHLY for the last 30 min, I'm not seeing anything at all to suggest she's going to have more fry, they all just still look pregnant.

Also, HOW DO THEY GIVE BIRTH ITS ONLY BEEN 2 WEEKS MAX, THE FEMALE I SUSPECT IS THE PARENT, I'VE HAD FOR LESS THAN A WEEK! I know the obvious answer is she came pregnant from the store, but they allegedly kept the males and females separated and its a GREAT lfs, maybe there was a male cosplaying in the ladies tank? (If so, great work little dude, your gene pool lives on)

I'm terrible w video editing, but here she is - 6 guppies (2 green cobra males, 1 black tuxedo female, 1 cobra female, 1 red comet female [who came pregnant!], and 1 Moscow female) and then 5 neocaridina, though lately I've only been able to spot 4 of the cherries. The tank is happily cycled and set up, now I'm just waiting for the curtain of bacopa and rotala red to fill in the back, and hopefully the little patches of dwarf teardrop will start to carpet thebgravel(if this is even feasible).

All the females except 1 are pregnant now. I'm not super concerned about the genetics right now. I used to be REALLY into breeding; I had red & yellow cobras, introduced a new female without realizing she had camallanus worms, ended up killing everything and devastated me. Like I cannot put into words how heartbreaking it was. I even used to post clips of the tank to social media. But right now, I just want happy, cool-looking fish, and I'm hoping the mix of genetics should prevent inbreeding issues that inevitably arise when keeping guppies lol.

My fiancée laughs because I will just sit in front of the tank for HOURS, just watching this whole little world that I've created, flourishing with life... it brings me such a deep, calm peace. I've been so stressed out with life and work and saving for a wedding, as a 34 year old guy I started to have anxiety attacks, bouts of depression, but with the tank? It all goes away. I don't know how or why... it's meditative and healing in ways that I never even fathomed.

Anyway, that's my rant. Even if nobody reads this, it just feels good to put all of this into words and actually express myself. I hope this hobby gives as much to you as it has for me. Thank you and God bless.

So yeah I've got a 30gal tank I've cycled that I'm breeding guppies + cherry shrimp in. It was running for about a month before I added 3 guppies (1M 2F) and continued to monitor water quality over the next few days. Once I was sure it had stabilized, I got another 2 guppies (again, 1M 1F) and 5 cherry shrimp (1M 4F) and they've all been happily hanging in the tank. Yesterday, I added one more female because the bigger male had started bullying the smaller one (ALL the females are pregnant now, so not sure if they're turning the dom male away so) and it seems to have fixed the problem. I also had the last of the plants get in yesterday (the dwarf teardrop, hop8ng it carpets in the gravel, but we'll see) and that probably mixed some extra stuff from the bottom into the water column. The today, I woke up and noticed the cherry shrimp weren't as active as they usually are - this early, they're usually zooming around the tank and grazing, now they're just kinda still and cleaning themselves. This got me a little nervous so I checked water parameters, which brings us to the pic - I'm not sure if this is temporary because of the additional fish, or if its possibly from planting into the substrate and kicking up nutrients that caused a little burst in A/Ni/Na??

Either way, I grabbed the neocaridina as a sort of "canary in the coal mine" as I know they're super sensitive to water quality. So basically, should I do a partial water change? Should I add some water conditioner to help blunt the levels? Should I add more API QuickStar/Fritz Zyme? Should I do all of these? None of these??

I want my little shrimpybois to make it, but there's so many variables here I'm not sure what to do, and as this is my first time successfully (so far at least) keeping neocaridina, I will GLADLY defer to qualified, experienced advise.

Thank you, God bless and I hope you have a good start to your weekend. Happy fishkeeping!

So yeah, had been in the hobby DEEP maybe a decade ago - bred cobra guppies, had red, yellow and blue. Ended up getting a few new females from my LFS, turns out they had camallanus worms and tanked (no pun intended) all 3 of my 20gal breeders. This broke me emotionally and kinda ruined the hobby for me.

Fast forward 8 years, just got done cycling this bad boy and have my first denizens - 2 green cobra males (still super young but breeding) and then a cobra female, a tuxedo female, a red comet female (that came pregnant) and then just one generic random female. Im not super worried about genetic lines as I don't plan to sell these - just excited to have a tank again, I forgot how easy it was to just get hypnotized watching the tank for (no joke) hours on end.

Anyway, the last of my plants got in today (the bacopa) and im wondering what I can do to improve the look? Once they grow a bit I'll be filling in the whole back wall. I don't like how they're wrapped around or curled up, but I think this is just from how they were transported and they should straighten out soon?

Ive got 5 cherry shrimp in there as well which im pumped about (ALWAYS had them die on me in previous setups). But yeah I don't need anything crazy fancy, i just want a pretty tank that is set up well enough the fish and shrimp can breed. Im also hoping the diversity in females should help prevent inbreeding for a LONG time, and I'm honestly just excited to see what kind of fish I end up with over the next few months.

So yeah, totally subjective, but what would you do differently? How can I get the plants to fill in/unfurl?

So yeah had a beautiful planted tank filled w fry and shrimp (https://youtu.be/DTF6Ku5Zlyk?si=00eETE0wRlCE5uQL) until sadly I tried to introduce some genetic diversity, got a female who spread camelanus worms to the entire tank and killed everything. It was devastating (had some GREAT genetics in that tank) and literally broke me to the point I gave up.

Well, now I'm in my mid thirties w my own house and wife and figured its time to give it another go. Im working on my scape this weekend, going to start cycling Monday and then plant throughout the month as the plants arrive. It's a 30gal, 18" tall long tank my stepdad got rid of (hes also big into tanks, but hes a oscar guy). Planning on carpeting w dwarf teardrop, using bacopa and wisteria for the back/coverage and fry safety, and then some frogbit for some coverage/additional fry safety. Wanted to try Java moss but have never had luck w it and cant ever seem to get it to attach how I want and I REFUSE to tie it down because I hate seeing the string lol.

Planning on using about .75" of aquasoil throughout the base, locked in w egg crate and capped w fine gravel. I really wanted to do a look losely inspired by my local ecosystem (gravel limestone rivers of central texas) and want to do something w good flow since I dont plant to air the tank - just flow and plants! But I also wanted to get limestone rocks from some local parks (i already know to wash them and sterilize in the oven, aint my first rodeo) and I'm hoping this should also raise the ph slightly (like 7.8-.9) and harden up the water a bit, all which my guppies seemed to love back in the day.

I'll let the tank cycle til the end of the month, then introduce a breeding trio, then once I know its stable, add in some cherry and/or ghost shrimp for some diversity and shrimplet snackies for the fry. The issue here is I CANNOT FIND decent guppies!! If you click the link, you'll see some beautiful yellow/red cobras that actually came about 3-4 generations into my blue cobra starting pair, and I REALLY want to get back into it with those! Specifically, yellow/blue snakeskin cobras/galaxy, and maybe a red cobra/galaxy to mix it up a bit (though I just admit I'm not sure red galaxy even exists).

I'm not worried about super pure breeding lines as I don't plan to sell them, and I always LOVED letting different morphs interbreed just to get a bunch of different looking fish with tons of variety in color/patterning, and I don't mind shelling out a decent bit of cash to start off with great genetics and just let it run from there. The problem is the only place I found was an online vendor that sells a breed PAIR (1M1F) for like $70 and brother I just cant bring myself to spend that on a guppy. I've check online shops, all the big ones are out of stock, NOTHING at my LFSs, even tried asking if they had private breeders they usually stock with. I've checked Facebook marketplace, nothing - i cant even get a response on people selling their plant trimmings 😂 the best answer I've gotten was one LFS saying he MIGHT get some in later this month, but it was a big if and they might not be cobras :/

Again, my OG tank was destroyed by worms, so I certainly dont mind paying a bit extra for good, healthy breeding stock, but also don't wanna pay $100 for a pair of guppies lol.

TL;DR is this a good setup idea for a guppy breeder? Been out of the hobby for almost a decade, am sure knowledge has advanced in the hobby since then. Are the goal water parameters acceptable? Is using natural, local limestone ok? And most importantly, does anyone recommend a place to source my starter pair/trio? Or is there a place anyone recommends where private sellers??

Thanks again to anyone that took the time to read that. I cannot begin to express how much joy I've gotten out of coming back to the hobby before there's even water in the tank! Not even joking around, this has helped cure my depression. I can't wait for the days a few months from now when I'll be able to just sit in front of my own little world, transfixed at the movement of all the life, teeming in this tiny pool, hypnotized by the beautiful colors - and I'm sure the cats will enjoy it too 🙂

(Pics are of my old tank, was heartbreaking to look at. I know its dumb but I cared for those little fish so deeply and when the tank was killed off by worms, I felt like SUCH a failure)