Guppy Tank Guide: Tankmates, Diet, Setup, & Requirements

Guppy fish are tiny little tropical fish indigenous to the coastline of the northeast of South America. They aren’t huge and grow up to a size of 1.5 inches. Guppy’s’ small size makes them one of the easiest and comfortable fish to deal with in an aquarium.

The tank for guppy fish comes in 5 gallons and 10 gallons, both can work, but 10 gallons of the tank are recommended for the startups. Here, we will discuss the complete tan guide for your Guppy.

Do Guppy Fish Need A Tank?

Yes, guppy fish needs a tank to survive. Though it sounds fascinating to keep guppies in a glass bowl, a guppy can’t survive even a little length of time without a proper tank or aquarium setup.

A glass bowl can be around 1 to 3 gallons, far less than a guppy to swim freely. Without aquarium setups like filters, plants, gravel lights, and thermoregulatory guppy cannot survive.

Guppy fish reach the maximum size of 2 inches, but they still need somewhat vast aquariums to provide them with the right place for swimming.

Guppies don’t need high-quality sustentation, but a few important things have a considerable influence on their health status and the measure of how long they will live.

Few necessary apparatus or gadgetry are also crucial for the upbringing of healthy guppies. Though some of the equipment is not necessarily essential, it would still benefit you in raising your guppies, especially when you are a beginner.

As pointed out already, guppy fish is not very delicate, and they need to be monitored continuously. Still, indeed, they need a few basic things that assure their healthy life inside the aquarium. A good tank presenting the guppy with natural habitat resembling an environment is one of those few things.

Ideal Guppy Fish Tank Size (5 Gallon or 10 gallons)

As we already have discussed, guppies are not big fish and grow up to a maximum of 2 inches.

They don’t need Volumatic vast tanks, but it is essential to know the ideal tank size for the guppies to keep.

Undersized tanks are more troublesome than large tanks as guppies will be more jammed, and aquarium parameters will become harder to be kept in order.

Oversized tanks are also not a good option as they can put a strain on your pocket, and it will become harder and tired for your guppy to find the food. However, if you plan to keep guppies in large numbers, then go with the larger tanks.

That is why a good tank is the finest way to warrant the easement of your guppy fish and
render them with safe water parameters.

In choosing the tank size for your guppies, Always remember a general rule of thumb. One inch of guppy per gallon of tank. This means if you are going to have a 5-gallon tank, then a maximum of 2 guppies can be kept in the aquarium.

Actually, after setting up your tank with the filter, substratum plants, and decoration material, there is not enough space left in the tank to make it a 5-gallon aquarium.

Actually, after setting up your tank with the filter, substratum plants, and decoration material, there is not enough space left in the tank to make it a 5-gallon aquarium.

10 gallons of tank size is generally thought to be a good minimum size to hold a small number of the group of guppies. 5 guppies are a good number to keep in a 10-gallon tank.

Guppy Fish Tank Setup

Taking care of guppy fish is comparatively easier than taking care of any other aquarium pet. However, putting up a little more effort to set the best possible habitat inside the aquarium.

Selection of the tank with a perfect size

Guppy fish are not evolutionarily adapted to live alone. So, it would be best if you did not keep them alone. Choose a minimum of a 10-gallon tank that can easily keep 5 guppies inside it after the setup.

Keeping more than 5 guppies is not of any harm. But the aquarium will take a little more effort to maintain.

Setting up power filters

External power filters other than under gravel filters are highly proposed for the new aquarists. There is a reduction or a cut made on the tank’s rear end where the filter is positioned.

The filter should sufficient enough to regulate the filtration of 50 gallons of water every hour. Ornamentation and live plants are kept away from the filter.

Substratum (Gravels)

Gravels are best if you will use them as a substratum for guppy fish aquarium. There should be 2 to 3 inches of the gravel layer to cover the base of the tank.

Collecting the sand from your courtyard is not recommended as it can contaminate and bring new bacteria and parasites into the aquarium. Gravel should support plants to grow.

Decorations & plants

The next step is to decorate your aquarium, setting up live plants, rocks, and hideouts to provide your guppy fish a sense of natural habitat. The plants can be bought from the pet store. Firmly set the rocks and decorations in the substratum.

Thermostat (Heat Regulator)

Guppy fish flourish in water, having an optimum temperature of 24-27 degrees Celsius. Fit the heater with a thermostat inside the tank and turn it on only after filling the tank with water.

Plants For A Guppy Tank

Guppy fish are magnanimously humane aquarium fish. They can adapt themselves to different conditions, but for them to conduct best, the presence of specific things like few concrete plants is inevitable.

Guppy fish do not plant selective when making choices, but they prioritize individual plants. Guppy fish love the plants, and plants make them flourish well in the aquarium.

Plants provide natural hideouts, and they like broad leafy plants that can cover them and protect them from their hostile tank partners.

Here are a few most popular broadleaf aquarium plants suitable for Guppy fish aquariums, which are easy to grow and require no special care.

Plants List For Guppy Tank

• Hornwort
• Java Moss
• Frogbit
• Chain Sword
• Anacharis

Hornwort

Hornworts are the most in-demand plants for a guppy fish tank, and they are not difficult to find from any pet store. They have broad moss-like leaves, which supply the guppies with good hiding and resting places. They have a speedy growth rate.

Java Moss

Java moss can provide the right hiding place for guppy fish because of having broad leaves and prove to be a good filter for the aquarium. It grows faster and doesn’t need any plant food to grow.

Frogbit

Frogbit is another floating aquarium plant, it is well known for its rapid growth in the aquarium, but it has a controlled growth and does not expand rapidly. It has long fluffy roots, which provide a good hideout for little guppies.

Chain Sword

It is the most simple and effortless plant to grow the chain sword plant in your guppy aquarium. It can easily get through quite lower lights and C0 2 levels inside of the aquarium.

Having broad lengthy leaves, they prove to be ideal hideouts for this faint-hearted little creature.

Anacharis

Anchors are one of the preferable plants for larger-size aquariums. It’s the long stalk, and the tiny leaves that make it possible for the guppies to swim freely and get the perfect hideouts.

Filters For A Guppy Tank

Guppy fish is thought to be the easiest fish to deal with, and they don’t need the right filtration unit in the aquarium. This has just nothing to do with reality.

They can manage to thrive in the water, which may not be clean, but as an aquarist, you should know that you are not investing in this creature just for it to survive barely.

The Guppy fish aquarium must have a satisfactory filtration unit that can filter the given water amount to a maximum of 4 times.

Carrying out all of the crucial biological filtrations of ammonia products such as nitrates
and nitrites, chemical filtration of removal of waste products like toxins, decolorized decorative polish, and other things, and manual removal of litter and wreckage.

A corner box filtration set is ideal for the typical filtration of smaller-sized aquariums for smaller fish like guppies. Sponge filters, under gravel filters, and canister filters are some commonly used filters, but the corner box filter is highly recommended because it’s more pros and fewer cons.

External power filters are highly proposed for the new aquarists in the beginning. There is a cut made on the tank’s rear end where the filter is positioned and fitted through the pre-spot cut.

The filter should sufficient enough to regulate the maximum filtration of 50 gallons of water every hour. Ornamentation and live plants are kept away from the filter as they can provide hindrance infiltration.

Decorating A Guppy Tank

It should always be kept in note that cleansing and washing the decoration stuff before setting them in the tank is an important part of the sustentation of the aquarium any brush with stiff bristles will serve the Purpose Plants are a necessary part of aquarium decoration.

They can be artificial or live plants. Live plants take much more time in setting them up in the aquarium as they need proper care to grow well. They need fertilizers and proper lighting to perform photosynthesis.

On the other hand, artificial plants will be resistant to any damage and won’t need care, unlike live plants.

But still, their fact of being just plastic or just chemical stuff is their major con in replacing the live plant’s Substratum, not just only anchors the plants and other stuff like decorations, filters, and thermostat but also serves as a decorative piece itself, substratum includes gravels, rocks, and sand.

An Eye-catching covered image would make a perfect background for decorating the tank.

Temperature & Water Conditions

Guppies are marine tropical fish that are native to the warm waters of South America. The ideal aquarium temperature for guppies at which an ideal oxygen level in the water can be presented to guppies is 24-27 degrees Celsius.

Guppies can survive little higher temperatures like 32 degrees but not for a longer duration as oxygen levels are low in relatively warmer waters. The temperature of the tanks should always be checked and maintained as needed.

Guppy Tank Mates

Guppy fish can share the tank with other fish species without any resistance, making them fantastic community fish.

Being harmless guppies like peaceful tank mates. There are some other small fish species with which guppy fish can have a 100% compatibility ratio. You can keep mollies, corydoras, platies, tetras, and gouramis.

Though the care level of different fishes in a single aquarium tank can be different but maintaining overall suitable conditions will help your guppies to make up a wonderful community aquarium.

Feeding Guppies In A Tank

Guppies are omnivorous fish, they are not selective and moody in eating. Guppies can eat anything presented to them.

They are omnivorous fish, which means guppy needs a variety of nutrients present in both meaty and grassy food. Do not feed your guppy with just one type of food continuously.

Make sure to have changes in your guppy’s feeding routine with a little tilt of mixed food enriched in nutrients. Fish flakes account for the significant diet for guppies.

It would be best if you avoided flakes with filters. You can Feed Guppy with vegetable scraps, lettuce peas, and cucumber scraps as a part of the herbivorous diet. Frozen proteinic food like bloodworms, and shrimps, are also given as a part of the meaty diet.

Final Words

Guppy does not need a large space in a tank but still, an optimum level of needed stuff for
An aquarium is important to maintain a healthy guppy fish aquarium.

The guppy aquarium comes in a whole set of kits, or you can buy a tank. You can purchase the filters for the aquarium, a hood with light supplies, and a warmer in the form of a water heater one by one.

The aquarium can be kept uncovered at the bottom, but at the substratum of about 1 to 2 inches of gravel or some other thing is highly recommended to keep the water clean.

The fish’s dejected fecal matter, which is not collected by the filter, will be layered upon the gravel. You can remove it later while cleaning or vacuuming the gravel.

FAQs

What do guppies need in a tank?

Guppy needs proper feeding and a friendly environment with proper temperature in a tank. You can make it a more friendly environment and a guppy-loving environment in the tank by using plants, filters, heaters, and other decorating materials. It is recommended to use filters in the guppy tanks.