# I'm ANGRY



## WINDY (Aug 17, 2010)

I bought 6 Male Fancy Guppies from Petco this past saturday. I now have only 2 left. little by little they have been dying off. One was caught on the intake section of the internal filter. I took that filter out and put in my old Whisper HOB along side the Aqueon HOB. The following day another one kicked the bucket. This morning found anothero ne stuck to the intake tube of the Aqueon hob. I have 2 left, and i know theres one guppy missing. god only knows ************ is going on here. They were all hanging out at the top of the tank since day 1. What gives? My parameters are fine. Ammo 0, Trates are about 20 and Trites are 0. Thank god I still have the reciept for Petco and its a 30 day garauntee. I spoke with someone and they told me it could be because of bad stock. sometimes i wonder wth was I thinking buying guppies. Obviously they are not hardy and a complete waste of money on my part. anyone else want to chime in and offer there opinions on what happened?


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## JimW/Oscar (Jul 4, 2010)

WINDY said:


> I bought 6 Male Fancy Guppies from Petco this past saturday. I now have only 2 left. little by little they have been dying off. One was caught on the intake section of the internal filter. I took that filter out and put in my old Whisper HOB along side the Aqueon HOB. The following day another one kicked the bucket. This morning found anothero ne stuck to the intake tube of the Aqueon hob. I have 2 left, and i know theres one guppy missing. god only knows ************ is going on here. They were all hanging out at the top of the tank since day 1. What gives? My parameters are fine. Ammo 0, Trates are about 20 and Trites are 0. Thank god I still have the reciept for Petco and its a 30 day garauntee. I spoke with someone and they told me it could be because of bad stock. sometimes i wonder wth was I thinking buying guppies. Obviously they are not hardy and a complete waste of money on my part. anyone else want to chime in and offer there opinions on what happened?


I've never bought livestock from Petco or Petsmart, just food & supplies, they do sometimes get bad batches (made bad by either poor breeding techniques or having been shipped from long distances to such far flung chain stores).

My guess is the guppies died before they got sucked into the intakes so there was no reason to change your filter.

Sorry, I know it sucks - good thing you can get your money back.


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## DTetras2 (Jan 20, 2010)

I never trust Petco. They never give a crap about there fish, just mammals, it's just a sad place for fishkeepers everywhere. All they do is have the fish shipped from far away places and not feed them and expect them all to be sold right away instead of taking any responsibility for the fish whatsoever before someone wants to buy it:chair: One time I went to my local Petco, they had a coral beauty angelfish just COVERED in ICH and IT WAS FOR SALE!!!!!!!!!!!!:chair: The only time I ever bought any livestock there was about a week ago when I wanted a cheap HM betta and some female bettas that weren't veiltails, and I got two healthy females that I technically "saved", and one male HM betta that I'm STILL treating for fin rot! I HATE THERE GUTS!!!!!! When you want fish again, try looking for a local fish store that will actually TAKE CARE of there fish. Also, just so you know, guppies are VERY hardy, which just proves my point.:chair:


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Here's a tip if you're buying guppies from a petshop:

Buy pregnant females instead of males. They may not look so good, but they will survive, and the fry they drop will also survive. Males tend to be weak and often don't survive tank transfer.


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## DTetras2 (Jan 20, 2010)

Wow, i never thought of that You're always on top of things TOS Also, Windy, you should try live plants They're not nearly as hard as you think, especially some anachris and cryptocoryne


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## WINDY (Aug 17, 2010)

JimW/Oscar said:


> I've never bought livestock from Petco or Petsmart, just food & supplies, they do sometimes get bad batches (made bad by either poor breeding techniques or having been shipped from long distances to such far flung chain stores).
> 
> My guess is the guppies died before they got sucked into the intakes so there was no reason to change your filter.
> 
> Sorry, I know it sucks - good thing you can get your money back.



Once I get my money back, I think I'll try 1 or 2 more platies, but no more guppies. I would have kept the neons but the fear of them catching NTD and passing it on to the other fish, is not a comforting feeling.


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## WINDY (Aug 17, 2010)

DTetras2 said:


> Wow, i never thought of that You're always on top of things TOS Also, Windy, you should try live plants They're not nearly as hard as you think, especially some anachris and cryptocoryne




I used to have a few live plants in my other tank (5 gallon bow front) but i was never any good at keeping them alive. and when it comes to adding ferts to the tank for the plants, there are so many ferts out on the market. Which ones do you buy or need the most. It was annoying. I kept anacharis and anubias nana and at one point I had 1 crytotocorine(Red Wendtii) and it dies within a week of me buying it.


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## WINDY (Aug 17, 2010)

DTetras2 said:


> I never trust Petco. They never give a crap about there fish, just mammals, it's just a sad place for fishkeepers everywhere. All they do is have the fish shipped from far away places and not feed them and expect them all to be sold right away instead of taking any responsibility for the fish whatsoever before someone wants to buy it:chair: One time I went to my local Petco, they had a coral beauty angelfish just COVERED in ICH and IT WAS FOR SALE!!!!!!!!!!!!:chair: The only time I ever bought any livestock there was about a week ago when I wanted a cheap HM betta and some female bettas that weren't veiltails, and I got two healthy females that I technically "saved", and one male HM betta that I'm STILL treating for fin rot! I HATE THERE GUTS!!!!!! When you want fish again, try looking for a local fish store that will actually TAKE CARE of there fish. Also, just so you know, guppies are VERY hardy, which just proves my point.:chair:




I bought my platy from there and its doing great. I had also bought my neons from there but the thought of NTD worried me alot so I brought those back. I know what you mean about Petco and petsmart. I've seen dead fishes in there tanks and overcrowdedness also not to mention strange names some fish have. For instance the dalamtian molly? The name on the tank was MEASELED mollies? The Dwarf Gouramis were called pygmy gouramis and the shubunkin goldfish(the real chunky ones) were called and I kid you not on this name...CHUNKY ORANGE Goldfishes with the label of NEW species?


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## WINDY (Aug 17, 2010)

*I'm angry*

Thnaks for all the advice gang. I'll try and get at least 2 more platies for my tank from another lfs when I get my money back after dropping off the carcases.


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## DTetras2 (Jan 20, 2010)

That's good The anachris, I'll admit, does need a lot of light, and the cryptocoryne needs space and doesn't like to be moved. Any anubias is harder to keep then anachris or cryptocoryne. What you should get, if you do choose to get live plants, is to get an iron supplement, it really helps with plant growth, my anachris in my 10 gallon with 3 female bettas has only like 4 pieces of anachris but because of the iron supplement, they've grown like crazy! I let it float and it's all over the place and the bettas LOVE swimming through it With a 5 gallon, you should get a female betta, they are interactive and they move a lot more than a male betta Also, if you do get anachris, let it float cause it grows a lot better floating than set in gravel, and with cryptocoryne, just put 1 in the gravel because it will out grow the 5 gallon and you may have to take some of it out and put it in a bigger tank, in the long run Hope I could help


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## cossie (Dec 19, 2010)

Sounds like the US version of pet at home.

Pets at home have overcrowded tanks, untrue names and even more worringly the fish they get don't go into qurrantine.


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## DTetras2 (Jan 20, 2010)

Wow, that sucks for the fish I get so mad at people who do that! I'm not going to, but I could go on and on about how much I hate Petco! The qurrantine thing, the same thing with Petco, they just get them in and put them on for sale the next hour, it really pisses me off!


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## PostShawn (Dec 22, 2009)

Are guppies likely to fight if he had 6 males? Should the happy amount have been 1 or 2 males and rest females? I only ask because I'm considering 3-5 guppies too. 
Thanks.


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

The second I read the title of this post, I knew it was Pet Smart, Land, CO. ... That's a pathetic reputation. The guppies should have been fine, but big box stores seem to enjoy screwing people over and killing animals. I've gotten all of my fish from PetSmart and only one of them died within the first month. It was the only fish I've ever had that died prematurely. Some stores are great; others suck. Just know about the place where you're going. I Google the names of new to me stores and read reviews. If they suck, they don't get my business. Write a review. Maybe it will be the one to get the store shut down. As much as you want to, I wouldn't buy/trade anything form that store. If you have to, I'd go into the store and start yelling and ranting about the care of their fish and other animals. (I'm guessing the dog/ cat cages have wire bottoms. What happens when they pee?) They'll probably deny your claims and other customers will all walk out, mad at the store. The worst thing that happens is they ban you from their store; which is a good thing. Do it.


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## platies pwn (Nov 29, 2010)

the ratio is 1 male to 3 females


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## Mickmac (Dec 19, 2010)

Hi Windy, Agreeing with what has been said about the chain store fish. I also do not buy anything that needs water from them. Not sure hwere about in NJ you are but look into the local fish clubs in NJ. I think there is a few in NJ and you will be amazed at the fish sometimes FRE that you can get there. They love newcommers and give al the info you need for FREE also which is a great deal. There are guys and gals who have been doing fish for years and want to pass on their info and stock to those willing to learn how to do it right. Hee is a link that might help and belive me it is worth a ride in they are not close just to see how its done and what you learn will help make you a better fish keeper. Keep us posted Mick

http://fins.actwin.com/dir/clubs.php?c=1&r=41


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

I've heard 1 m : 2 f; but all males should work fine; I've seen it work perfectly!


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## charking (Aug 12, 2009)

TheOldSalt said:


> Here's a tip if you're buying guppies from a petshop:
> 
> Buy pregnant females instead of males. They may not look so good, but they will survive, and the fry they drop will also survive. Males tend to be weak and often don't survive tank transfer.


i bought 2 x females and 1 male.. i now have around 60 guppies and about 20 fry swimming around in there.. i'm so over run i've put them in my paper free to collecter! deffo get pregnant females.. safe the first drops and then bring them on and there ya go.. you'll be so populated you wont want anymore! lol! i use to have this trouble though, i was always told it was bad stock. their hardy but they dont cope with alot of moving around and the petco by me has their stock in on a tuesday at 3 and by 5 oclock their being sold! and they wonder why they give people white spot?! the poor fish are in transit for hours!! go there and then end up in transit again!! 

all the store i go to have a weeks quarentine


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## cossie (Dec 19, 2010)

or you could even just buy 4-5 females so that way you wont have the babies being spawned rapidly or the troubly of the males chasing the females until they are exhausted. 

hope this helps


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Hey, Charking! Long time no see! Welcome back.

Almost all petshop female guppies will already be gravid, ( pregnant ) so you'll never really need any males at first. You'll never know what to expect from their fry, but that's part of the fun, too. Take the best males that you like the most and breed them with a few of their sisters, and when they have their own fry, cross your male with his own daughters. The next generation will be full of good fish that you'll really like.


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

That's what I'm trying to do now! (Of course... How do you always know what I'm doing?)

I had an orange snakeskin (died of some spine issue...) breed with a black tailed guppy (died of stress after being cured from ich...) I now have an orange tailed black morph with some purple on the sides and two females; one with an orange tinged tail, the other with a yellow tinged tail. They just won't drop! (After three months, I really don't care...) Eventually, they'll either drop some dead food for my goldfish or just absorb the fry... Then, I can get some awesome looking fry!!!


Point being: guppies are awesome. Find a good store, and you should have no problems.


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## redpaulhus (Jan 18, 2005)

check your KH and GH as well -- if you live in an area where the tanks have low KH and GH (like I do) and you don't buffer to bring it up, guppies will tend to do poorly. I've had better luck with platies (although still not as good as in my buffered tanks).
Especially if you find that tetras and other softwater fish do well in your tanks, you may need to add salt and buffer for the livebearers.

And I have to second what Mickmac said -- if you really like guppies check out local clubs/breeders. I never buy LFS guppies any more (and I work at a LFS) - I only buy privately raised stock. I think the mass-produced stuff is generally weak and disease prone.

(I haven't tried TOS trick, but I may try it soon - its a good idea. We've got some nice big sailfin mollies in stock, and I may grab some gravid females )


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

Big Al's which is our lfs never seems to have pregnant female guppies anymore. Whereever they are buying from keeps the males and females separate. This is fine with me because I only buy a new guppy when I want to insert new genes or colors into my home bred group.
At our local Petsmart a good many of the staff have their own tanks and there are several older ladies working in the department.(old being a subjective phrase here!!) A lot of the fish that are are unpacking are very poor specimens and I think the stores are getting shafted by the suppliers . looks like some of the fish are really old. The staff do say they agree that the fish are poor when they are and if they know you know something about fish they will suggest you come back in a week and see what fish have survived. These would then be quite hardy.
I saw their blackboard in the back room when the door to it was open. They list over 30% lossage on the fish department and oddly enough the reptile and small animal rates are about the same so it seems that animals in transit suffer greatly.-- Not a nice business to be in I don't think.


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## charking (Aug 12, 2009)

TheOldSalt said:


> Hey, Charking! Long time no see! Welcome back.
> 
> Almost all petshop female guppies will already be gravid, ( pregnant ) so you'll never really need any males at first. You'll never know what to expect from their fry, but that's part of the fun, too. Take the best males that you like the most and breed them with a few of their sisters, and when they have their own fry, cross your male with his own daughters. The next generation will be full of good fish that you'll really like.


thanks! been busy  but back again,


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## dan3345 (Jan 27, 2010)

I was just at our lfs and was thinking about this post so i looked at the guppies and all of them were missing fins and generally looked terrible.. sad


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

Again, all of the stores by me (Except for Petlands/Cos) are awesome. They all know a bunch and have great fish!

Also, today I saw a bumper sticker that said ,"Boycott Petland!!!"


Awesome.


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