russells55
Community Member
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2021
- Messages
- 84
- Reaction score
- 33
- Location
- kitchener
- What state or country do you live in
- Canada
Hi all.
no sure if this is the right area to post and also not sure if anyone cares about my experiment but I figure I would share. it’s some data/info for someone.
so I have read a few times about guppies being able to be brackish. I figured I would give it a go.
I had a 15 gal tank with about 25 guppies in it of different sizes. They were all from my lps and listed as feeder guppies not much for colours etc. I have had them for about 6 months in that tank heavy planted was about 12 to start then babies came and came I bought 2 fancy males that died after a few weeks ,feed a bunch to my cichlids and gave a bunch away anyways a healthy group.
so here is goes took out a half of the guppies and put them in another tank along with a few plants I did a 70% water change took out all the live plants left and gavel vacuum (mostly sand actually, plants were in pots) then cleaned the tank well.
refilled with as much RO water as my system could handle and the rest tap water lets say 50/50)
i then did about another 20 % water change but only filled back up about 5% with a weak mix of salt water.
let everything settle and counted guppies and tested
13 guppies
2 - 2 inch , 4 - 1+ inch 6fry about 1/2 inch , 1 - 1 3/4 inch with a nipped tail.
salt 1.004
long story short I’m guessing on a ratio of salt to mix with tank water to go up 0.002 salt a day.
the. Read that guppies can go full reef/salt water. No way!
day 2:
Everyone is alive and seams very happy and healthy I added more salt and tested at 1.008
Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0-20
Day 3: 0,0,0-20 1.009
My salt mix guess is working ish..
Day 4: 0,0
Morning,1.013. Then added again Evening, 1.015
Some guppies Acting a bit weird and breathing fast and on the bottom only, but come back to normal to feed.
Day 5:
Morn 1.016. / Evening, 1.0165
Guppies fine
Day 6: 1.017
Day 7: morning1.017 / evening 1.023 went a bit to strong on the 2nd salt mix but
everyone happy healthy, tail guy , tail is healing and is a male.
Am 0.0-0.-4 Nitrite 0.0-0.25 Nitrate 1(i got a new test kit)
Day 8: 1.020
Took out more water (20%)but didn’t replace . I need to make room to add more strong salt water
Day 9: morn 1.0205 ,
I added 2 blue leg hermit crabs today and a bit of salt water from another saltwater tank.
About 4 hours later….
Am 1.0 , Nitrate 0.5 , Nitrate 2
Evening 1.022++
Day 10: 1.023
0.5 , 0.25 , 2
Guppies fine doing the same thing as there brothers over in the freshwater tank.
Day 11: 1.025
0,0,2
guppies fine
Day 12:
1.025
Guppies still fine it worked! No one died.
Day 13 now
0,0.25,2
Guppies all acting normal, spent more time watching them today and moved a few rocks around.
Everyone accounted for , no deaths , not much I can see for issues in this whole thing other then possibly breathing fast
also not sure where my tank cycle is? I had a small pieces of “life rock” that I added but that’s about it. Point proven though
Guppies survived in salt water.
no sure if this is the right area to post and also not sure if anyone cares about my experiment but I figure I would share. it’s some data/info for someone.
so I have read a few times about guppies being able to be brackish. I figured I would give it a go.
I had a 15 gal tank with about 25 guppies in it of different sizes. They were all from my lps and listed as feeder guppies not much for colours etc. I have had them for about 6 months in that tank heavy planted was about 12 to start then babies came and came I bought 2 fancy males that died after a few weeks ,feed a bunch to my cichlids and gave a bunch away anyways a healthy group.
so here is goes took out a half of the guppies and put them in another tank along with a few plants I did a 70% water change took out all the live plants left and gavel vacuum (mostly sand actually, plants were in pots) then cleaned the tank well.
refilled with as much RO water as my system could handle and the rest tap water lets say 50/50)
i then did about another 20 % water change but only filled back up about 5% with a weak mix of salt water.
let everything settle and counted guppies and tested
13 guppies
2 - 2 inch , 4 - 1+ inch 6fry about 1/2 inch , 1 - 1 3/4 inch with a nipped tail.
salt 1.004
long story short I’m guessing on a ratio of salt to mix with tank water to go up 0.002 salt a day.
the. Read that guppies can go full reef/salt water. No way!
day 2:
Everyone is alive and seams very happy and healthy I added more salt and tested at 1.008
Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0-20
Day 3: 0,0,0-20 1.009
My salt mix guess is working ish..
Day 4: 0,0
Morning,1.013. Then added again Evening, 1.015
Some guppies Acting a bit weird and breathing fast and on the bottom only, but come back to normal to feed.
Day 5:
Morn 1.016. / Evening, 1.0165
Guppies fine
Day 6: 1.017
Day 7: morning1.017 / evening 1.023 went a bit to strong on the 2nd salt mix but
everyone happy healthy, tail guy , tail is healing and is a male.
Am 0.0-0.-4 Nitrite 0.0-0.25 Nitrate 1(i got a new test kit)
Day 8: 1.020
Took out more water (20%)but didn’t replace . I need to make room to add more strong salt water
Day 9: morn 1.0205 ,
I added 2 blue leg hermit crabs today and a bit of salt water from another saltwater tank.
About 4 hours later….
Am 1.0 , Nitrate 0.5 , Nitrate 2
Evening 1.022++
Day 10: 1.023
0.5 , 0.25 , 2
Guppies fine doing the same thing as there brothers over in the freshwater tank.
Day 11: 1.025
0,0,2
guppies fine
Day 12:
1.025
Guppies still fine it worked! No one died.
Day 13 now
0,0.25,2
Guppies all acting normal, spent more time watching them today and moved a few rocks around.
Everyone accounted for , no deaths , not much I can see for issues in this whole thing other then possibly breathing fast
also not sure where my tank cycle is? I had a small pieces of “life rock” that I added but that’s about it. Point proven though
Guppies survived in salt water.
