Info about my Guppies

I currently have a 10 gallon tank entirely dedicated to guppies (There is almost 20 Guppies in the tank now). I started of initially with 3 guppies, soon I lost all of them and it was very painful to watch them die.That's the reason why I am creating this web blog.so that, someone new to this hobby can at-least avoid some of the pitfalls and take good care of the guppies.

So,I took some time and did a Fishless cycle. If you love your pet please don't go for Cycling the tank with the fish. It puts too much stress on the fish and even if the poor thing survives this ordeal, It will become more susceptible for disease. After, the tank fully cycled, I added one male guppy bright red tail with Dark green body. This time I wanted to take it slow and steady. So everyday  after I added the fish I measured Ammonia and Nitrite and NO3 just to be sure that Mr.Guppy  is safe.

After two weeks, when I was sure that Male guppy showed no signs of stress or disease, I introduced two more female guppies. However by weekend, I observed that one of the female fishes was standing still in a corner, her eyes were protruding and she appeared bloated. I checked for ammonia/nitrite level, both showed zero reading and nitrate was well below 30ppm. This is because I did a 30% water change as a precaution, just before introducing the female fishes to the tank.

Later, I realized that she got the disease from the Local Pet Store (LPS). The Idea of having a Quarantine/Hospital tank made sense now. But, it was too late for Quaretine tank now since I already introduced the fish in the main tank.

However, This time around I was ready and had a medicine called Maracyn 2 from the LPS .This is for a wide range of bacterial infections.First I removed the filter cartridge for the time being and added the medicine for 5 consecutive days. Once everything was back to normal, I put the filter cartridge back.

Also, during  this time I downloaded a chart on various guppy diseases and how to treat them. You can download it from the following link.
Download Chart for various guppy Diseases and cure.

Since then, once in every two weeks,I do regular maintenance activities mentioned below.

1. Fetch cold water from tap add chlorine remover and 1/4 tablespoon aquarium salt and let the water sit for overnight (I do this because I heard heated tap water has lot more chemicals than cold water)
2. The Next day siphon off 20% water Aquarium water. It is important to siphon the debris under the gravel along with water.Please dont remove 20% of water just from surface and then top up the aquarium with fresh water. The reason is that  the collection of debries over time will put too much stress on the bacterial colony and which in turn will harm the fishes.
3. Ensure the fresh cold water that was stored overnight has returned to room temperature
4. Top up the aquarium by pouring water slowly on the sides or insert the wider part of the siphon (As shown in the below picture) alone in the aquarium in such a way that it touches the bottom of the tank and slowly pour  fresh water into the aquarium.

*IMPORTANT* Don't forget to change the filter catridge atleast once every month.