my cold water guppy experiment!

[jonny5]

So I was growing some plants outside to acclimate to brackish for my brackish tank, but I needed mosquito control and added 3 guppies( I thought they were all female). Anywho I ended up with a lot of guppies by the end of the summer.

I took the good looking males and put them in my 30 gallon community, but what to do with the other 30 or so fish.

Feed them to my brackish fish? I couldn't really stomach that

Turn them into LFS? I could but every inexperienced fish keeper, soccer mom, and every other person who has no idea how to run a tank I see buying guppies. So no

I then tried to see if they could survive southern California winter.

Days were still hot come October and started to cool down in late November. At 65-70 degrees the guppies were still quite active and I even got another batch of babies at around 70 degree water temp.

As nights went to around 60 and days still got to 68-70 I noticed they became sluggish in morning and night but mid day were still very active.

December hit and I got a couple of cold spells, every day hovering between 50-60 but some nights or even 3-4 nights in a row would drop to 45 degrees and rise to like 55.

They were very sluggish but still in the water column and still kicking!!!!

However the fatal blow seemed to have come at a cold spell a few weeks ago with outside temperature dropping to 42 degrees for 2 nights and not much higher than 50 degrees for the day high.

So it is sad they did not make it but I could not house them and didn't want them to die in some diseased tank.

However I am surprised by the survivability, these are tropical fish and should be dead at 65 degrees water but I have found them survivable up to 45 degrees. Amazing!!!

So it was either 42 degrees threshold that ended them or consistent water temp below 50 degrees.
They did survive quite well for the few weeks when lows were around 46-48 degrees. I would conclude any tank that does not drop below 50 degrees(for the low) can house guppies year round.

[Honey Badger 1]

So it is sad they did not make it but I could not house them and didn't want them to die in some diseased tank.

So instead you let them freeze to death. I don't see the difference between being with you or you giving them to the lfs so every inexperienced fish keeper, soccer mom, and every other person who has no idea how to run a tank could kill them. Why didn't you buy a heater for whatever it was you had them in when the nights were starting to cool down?

[Goes to 11!]

I conclude that you somehow find guppys freezing to death in inappropriate conditions more palatable than them being feeders or the other options you mentioned.
Ninja'd by mommy lol

[isaactifist]

yeah that experiment was never going to go down too well here! D-:=

[Zander]

I can understand your logic but when the temperature was dropping into the 50's it should have been obvious they were going to die. You should have taken them inside during the cold spell.

[ScottishFish]

I sense a mods presence may be needed in the near future

[jonny5]

I understand the bit of rage here.

I would have loved to house them but im out of room, my tanks are max stock, and my room is maxed out in terms of both weight the floor can handle and space.

[Tiari]

A pond heater would have worked.

[jonny5]

which I agree looking back I should have done. I looked at average temperatures in my area and the average lows were around 46 degrees for January and that is the coldest month. knowing guppies are able to live above 50 I was just hoping they could stand one month at slightly lower temps but I was wrong not thinking about cold spells.

But there is a fundamental problem with very rapidly reproducing fish, eventually what do you do?

Some offspring will die from being weak but eventually you will be overrun with fish. Your friends can only take so many of them off your hands and giving them to the LFS is kinda dicey for me. Every time I hear an inexperienced fish keeper speaking to a sales person, they are always directed to either goldfish or guppies for a beginner fish. Then they are like do I need a heater? do I need a filter? I have to change the water???

Some fish you give to the stores might find a good home but the majority wont, so I took a risk hoping they could survive but I was wrong.

[Goes to 11!]

.But there is a fundamental problem with very rapidly reproducing fish, eventually what do you do? That's just it, It's not a fundamental problem at all.

You plan ahead and get all males & if that is not possible. Those fish are not for you. Your failure was one of research because M/F livebearers are really easy to tell apart.

Some offspring will die from being weak but eventually you will be overrun with fish. Your friends can only take so many of them off your hands and giving them to the LFS is kinda dicey for me. Every time I hear an inexperienced fish keeper speaking to a sales person, they are always directed to either goldfish or guppies for a beginner fish. Then they are like do I need a heater? do I need a filter? I have to change the water???

See the problem above? Sales people are not a reliable source of fish keeping information. People can complain all they want that they SHOULD know this stuff but the simple truth is that it's NOT a major focus wrt what they are trained to do. It's key to deal with the world as it really is not how people wish it were.

The best thing you can do to do right by your fish is research and the subsequent application of that knowledge. Set a good example with the care you keep and be honest with people about the realities of the hobby.

We quite literally control everything about their environment and as Voltaire stated quite succinctly "With great power comes great responsibility". Clearly. It's all on us to be informed about their requirements, Preferably before we bring them home.