The Guppy Ladies

Thank you, yes, I'm glad they look content, it's important to look after them. There are black male guppies, but the females are brown or grey, and only have a bit of colour on their tails and fins. They are bigger than the the males too. The Amano shrimp are real characters. I was worried they might be chased and nipped when I got the fish, but they handle them really well and right from the start were standing their ground and not acting like prey. The two species live very harmoniously now
 
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I'd love to see a video of what the shrimps get up to sometimes :-) Yes that explains it if colouring goes with whether they are male or female - as with other species like ducks.
 
I got six all female guppies from an all female tank and first thing the next morning woke up to find two tiny fry in the tank. When I bought the females I picked up some plastic plants as I thought they looked pregnant, and the fry hid themselves to avoid being eaten. I think some of the fry that arrived later were eaten, but many have survived. The males are in a Tupperware, but it's not ideal. The mesh container they were in gets too dirty too quickly.
 
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Ah I suppose it makes sense they would reproduce and the males and females need to be kept separately.
 
Yes, I'm have gotten off lightly so far. Once mature, apparently guppies can give birth to dozens of fry at a time. I should have gotten all males, but I thought they might fight with each other. However the young males in the Tupperware seem quite compatible. I will have to work out a better housing for them though.
 
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Pardon the piece of poop hanging down!
 
Little shrimpy thinking about moulting probably. Once it progresses, he will adopt the classic bent almost double shrimp posture and his exoskeleton should burst open with him jumping out of it. My tank is very small. It is far better, even for shrimp, to get at least an 80 litre tank. That avoids the rapid build up of ammonia that makes fish and shrimps ill.
 
There are lots of big and small shrimp species out there. Wood shrimp and vampire shrimp are quite big and impressive.
 
Socks Mum said:
That
The ladies looking elegant!
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That is quite mesmerising! They are beautiful! What are the little tiny ones in the background? Must have missed the poop!
 
Socks Mum said:
Little shrimpy thinking about moulting probably. Once it progresses, he will adopt the classic bent almost double shrimp posture and his exoskeleton should burst open with him jumping out of it. My tank is very small. It is far better, even for shrimp, to get at least an 80 litre tank. That avoids the rapid build up of ammonia that makes fish and shrimps ill.
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They're almost like underwater insects aren't they? I didn't know they burst out of their shells!
 
Maz said:
That is quite mesmerising! They are beautiful! What are the little tiny ones in the background? Must have missed the poop!
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Thank you! The tiny ones are their babies, wary of the adults in case they get eaten. They can dodge the big fish if they have a hiding place to escape into as they are very quick. Female guppies don't have a maternal instinct, but the young guppies are born quite agile, especially once they have inflated their swim bladders. The poop is a long, thin trailing thing dangling down, but I'm glad it's not obvious.
 
Ye
Maz said:
They're almost like underwater insects aren't they? I didn't know they burst out of their shells!
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Yes, they are crustaceans and are very like small prawns. Like crabs, they outgrow their outer shell and need to cast it off every few weeks. They need enough calcium in their diet to nourish their new shell.
 
Shrimpies say hello! They are Amano shrimps with lovely extra long antennae.https://youtu.be/IvWLbeNvKNo?si=dPQ3JeVWLc94xa_o
 
On that first video it looks like two of them are having a little chat :-) On the second video, it looks like they're not speaking to each other! :ROFLMAO: I didn't realise they could be almost transluscent like that.

Is the third video the same as the second one?
 
Oops, here is the first video, sorry about jumbling them up. Yes, they are so see through that you can see their dinner. It's the long dark straight line running down the middle of their body. They produce quite a lot of poop. It's useful as it makes it easy to see that they are eating well. They are very social and should be kept in much larger groups, ideally of at least ten. They are rather intriguing, attractive creatures.
 
That's much closer up. Rather cute aren't they?
 
They are enchanting little water creatures. My Amano shrimp have lived for over a year and seems to be going strong, but I lost my cherry shrimp one by one after about eight months, which was sad as they were my first pets for a long time and I gave them names, etc. I have learned since then not to name aquatic pets because they die rather easily unfortunately. The more commercial species are difficult to keep alive, but some, like koi carp and goldfish, can live for years and years. Goldfish and koi need really spacious tanks though, with koi usually living in ponds. Not overfeeding and not raising the water temperature too high helps to keep them from ageing too quickly.
 
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