Fun Tank Decorating Idea's

I find that one of the funnest parts of creating a fish tank is decorating one! Here are a few little creative idea's I came up with to be more fish tank trendy, enjoy!

At most fish stores you'll find the usual natural looking backgrounds for your fish tank. If you want something more unique and different you could use a little tape and adhere nearly anthing to the backside of your fish tank...posters, pictures, drawings, wrapping paper or even these designs I created in MS_Paint and printed out (it does help if it's waterproof if you're concerned about possible water damage).

Decorating inside your tank? You don't need to use plants, you can use everyday items (as long as they're waterproof and fish friendly). You could use household items like dishes, pottery, action figures or even a tasty looking plastic hamster home as shown here.

Tired of looking at tacky fish food containers? I like to use a small spice rack to create a colorful display peice by my fish tanks but you could also use any other type of storage containers or jars.

Have any creative tips of your own that you'd like to share? Drop a comment or two, I'd love to see your creativity!

Guppy Personality Traits

I haven't came across much on guppy behavior aside from them being considered "schooling" or "community" fish, basically meaning they like to be kept with other fish (preferably their own kind I'd assume).

Honestly males and females act totally different most of the time...

~Males tend to chase, school together and occasionally pick a fight with other males.
~Females act more independent, not always looking for affection and generally eat more.

In a guppy world where eating and breeding are basically what they do, it only makes sense that they generally act this way. Occasionally I will see a guppy showing unusual behavior then its tank mates, which makes me question their true intelligence and individuality.

Here are two examples of this individual personality...

During a full tank cleaning I began removing all my guppies from the tank, which guppies are generally very easy to net as opposed to other fish I have. After checking to make sure no guppies were left in my tank I began to scan the water to see if I had any possible fry hiding in the gravel. Upon my visual search I then barely noticed one adult female cowering and hiding behind my filtration system, this was an unusual personality trait in my usually friendly guppies.

I had a female store bought guppy that really only felt comfortable around younger fish and fry, but it took me observing my fish daily to realize her behavior didn't seem too normal. I remembered when I had purchased her it was just her and tiny fry living together in a busy frequented pet store. She was either infertile or was reluctant to mate, as the entire time I had her (over a year at least) she had never reproduced. She was much more shy around older guppies and she would even occasionally stress herself resulting in an ick outbreak (but this was only once in a blue moon) while my other guppies were all happy, never had an ick outbreak and age was never an apparent issue.

Conclusion

Although I've found that some guppies act different in major ways it makes me question how different each guppy personality really is and if their relationships, health, well-being and so forth can change a guppies personality traits (rather then its mood on occasion as when a fish is ill), or if it's just an inheritated trait much like the way the majority of my males and females generally behave.

Sexing Guppy Fry

I believe I've figured out how to sex tiny guppy fry and it doesn't seem to be a super easy task but here's a new method which I believe MIGHT be accurate from my knowledge of guppy breeding (I haven't done any outside research on this topic).

Guppy fry are about a few millimeters in length with possibly no color thus far and it may take a few weeks or perhaps days to actually tell your male and female guppies apart using my method here. It helps to have a bright tank light on and to use your eyes rather then up-close photos to actually them apart.

As tiny guppies you may notice if you look VERY closely that some of the fry actually flex their gonopodium up toward their bodies and back out again, the guppies you see doing this are probably males as adult males are generally doing this during mating rituals with females. It may take some patience to see a guppy flex its gonopodium but if you can at least get a good visual on the transparent fins then it makes it slightly easier. If it doesn't flex its gonopodium after at least 5 minutes of viewing then it's possibly a female.

Another way is to look at the shape and size of their bodies. Female fry I believe are slightly more rounded in the chest/belly area and males tend to be slender/straight thus appearing very slightly smaller then female fry.

Guppy Fry

When I cleaned out one of my guppy tanks a few weeks ago I syphoned this tiny fry right into my dirty water bucket, apparently it's the only one from this new mommy guppy I have. Perhaps just a lucky fry, between the other fish that could've gobbled it up, the two filters that could've sucked it up...it managed to beat the odds. I'd make a guess that this will perhaps grow to be a female, anyone else want to take a guess?

Water Quality & Changes

I'm seriously not sure if a chart like this exists or not for an aquarium, but I created this chart to give my opinion on how you should calculate your water quality. In other words when you would probably need to calculate your water changes and full tank cleanings. Granted everything in your tank is working properly and gets maintained during your aquarium cleanings, so of course varying factors could pose issues outside of this chart(such as plants, lighting, fish, chemicals, etc) so it is important to always use your better judgement(I'm not responsible for what happens in your tank).

Reading the Chart...

0=new
This means the water is brand new, never used, 100% clean.
1-6=good
This means the water with your current fish setup is currently at its best water conditions.
7-14=average
As one to two weeks pass your tank will get to be an average quality level. A water change should be done no later then 14 days (2 weeks), if you haven't done one by now.
15-23=bad
Your water quality is now becoming bad for fish, they may be more prone to disease or possibly death at this stage.
24-30=toxic
This level can be deadly for your fish. Tanks should be 100% cleaned at this stage. It is possible your fish may seem fine at this point but there are some things we can't always see with the naked eye. If you were to do a 50% water change the fact of the matter is it still contains toxins left from the remaining water and adding new water won't help at this stage (just as acid would be to your flesh, adding water to acid would still make it harmful to you).

Helpful Tips...

-Any new tank with brand new never used water would be considered a "0" on the scale.
-Once fish are added and a tank is setup the first day is consider "1" on the scale.
-50% water changes are typically not recommended by most aquarists.
-For those of you that may not have noticed already you can really only go the first 2 weeks(14 days) of a 100% new setup before needing to start a water change.

How To Use...

First you must find out how many days have passed since your last tank cleaning(the one performed with totally new "0" water), in this example here we'll say 8 days have passed which would put your tank at a "8" on the chart. As you can see by the chart this would make your water "Average" in cleanliness and you could go 6 more days without a water change but lets say you decide to clean your tank on that 8th day. So now you decide to empty 25% of your tank water and add a new 25% water to the tank. This would now put your tank at a "good" level "6" on the chart.

8 / 4 x 3 = 6

Now lets say you go 10 days after your level "6" change had been done, so we'll be adding 10 to our 6 which puts our tank at a "bad" level "16" on the chart. Bad on the chart represents your water needing immediate attention before serious health issues could arise in your tanks water. So now you decide to change 50% of you tanks water and this puts your quality at an "average" level "8" on the chart.

10 + 6 = 16 / 2 = 8

Now lets say after your level "8" you neglect to do any water changes in your tank for 22 days, this now puts your tank at a "toxic" level "30" on the chart. Since it's not recommended to do over 50% water changes(doing so would only bring the water to a bad level "15") it's best to do a 100% water change to get your water back to a "new" level "0".

8 + 22 = 30 / 2 = 15

Also notice that going from 30 to 15 would be like taking 15 days off your tank, where as going from 14 to 7 during a 50% water change is like taking 7 days off. The higher the days you take off the more the water quality drastically changes, thus causing more stress to your fish. The more frequently you do water changes, the less likely it is to harm your tank. I wouldn't recommend doing 50% water changes if the days off you're removing from your take would equal over 10 days. If for some unknown reason you're having trouble changing a toxic level "30" completely I'd possibly suggest only changing 25% of the water which brings it to a bad "22.5", wait 3 days and change another 25% of water which would now bring it to a bad level "19.125". At this point I'd wait another 3 days and now change 50% of the water, waiting longer then 3 days would only add to the toxic levels again so doing this would bring your water to an average level "11.06". You're still not out of the clear yet so wait another 3 days and change 50% again, this now brings you to an average level "7.03". You can now wait 6 days before doing another 50% water change bringing you to a "6.525" level and your water should be back on track for weekly(7 days) 50% water changes. Also if you're not sure what your water quality is this may be an ideal method for getting your tank on track to a healthy ecosystem once again.

30/4x3=22.5 + 3/4x3=19.125
19.125+3/2=11.06+3/2=7.03
7.03+6/2=6.515 (round the decimal up to the nearest whole number and you have a level 7)

P.S. Never add new fish to a tank that isn't "new" level "0". As you can see water chemisty is changing from day 1 and new fish that aren't acclimated in your current tank aren't adjusted to their quality level of water, you could risk killing your new fish otherwise.

Sexing Guppies

I've bred guppies long enough to be able to give you 5 basic ways to determine which guppies are male and which are female.#1 Generally male guppies are much more vibrant and females are duller in color(although I've been breeding my females as photographed here to have more color then a lot I've seen). You may even see your male guppy doing an awkward dance during courtship to show-off these possible colors.

#2 The females gonopodium is typically fully expanded outward, and the males is usually tucked up toward his body and really only comes down during brief moments before mating with another guppy. The gonopodium is an anal fin used to impregnate. However, both sexes are capable of expanding and contracting their gonopodium.#3 At the end of the abdomen you may notice an often dark almost circular area which is called the gravid spot, if your fish has one then its a female. The gravid spot tends to change colors from pink to almost black(sometimes a combination of both), the color differs depending if the guppy has eggs inside of her or not. When the female has eggs/fry inside her the under belly will appear fuller and her body more rounded in shape(as seen above) and she may even start to develop a hunched/slumped spinal appearance.

#4 Males and females tend to act differently, the females being more submissive and independent and the males are more often found schooling together, perhaps acting a bit more aggressive and generally sexually mature males chase after the females.

#5 Adult females are generally larger then adult males, it also seems as most females continue to give birth their bodies seem to continue to get larger, where as the males seem to stop growing.

*Note* Some say the dorsal and caudal fins are usually bigger on males then that of the females. Although I believe I've seen some females with a fairly long dorsal fin.