HELP ME!MY FISH IS DYING! please!?

Question

its not urgent, in fact i dont even have fishies. but im sure this got attention.

so anyways, i am getting fishies : )

how much are guppies each? how much are platies each?

Does Petland have platies and/or guppies?

out Petco went out of bussiness and they had like every fish you could think of, and i cant even go there. : (

petsmart only has different species of goldfish, algae eaters, and fish called sharks, and bettas, and i dont want any of those.

i am getting my 20-30 gallon tank from my cousin, her fish died like last month, so they arent getting any more and im buying the tank and filter for like 10 bucks, or free. i would like to get 2 platies and 2 guppies. all female. i know everything i need, so thats not a problem. everything minus the fish and the 10 dollar tank costs $40. which isnt bad, so ill end up paying about 60? any advice on anything? thanks!

Answer 1

ok, 3.99 for guppies and about 459 for platys. Also, pet land is BAD! I am boycotting them as are a lot of people I know because their puppies come from puppy mills. So if you ask me, it is better to order fish from a reputable website, like this one. If you order a lot at once the shipping is not that high. about 25$ no matter the size of the order.

http://www.aquariumfish.net/home.htm

They have more fish then I knew there where available!

Also, just letting you know that the females you buy will most likely already be preggo and they can hold sperm inside of them for like....8 different births. So if you don't want babies I say go with all males. Some of the babies will be males so you will still be overrun by fry! If you get all males that eliminates that possibility. If you have any questions on stuff about the tank like cycling it or anything don'hesitatete to e-mail me at [e-mail]  

Answer 2

Since you are getting all females, I would guess they would be around $3-4 each. 2 of each is a great start, but with a 20 gallon you could probably go 3 of each. But just to warn you, any livebearer you buy from a petstore is almost always pregnant. Especially guppies and platies. So you are looking at around 50-100 babies!! Female guppies can also store the sperm from a male for up to 3-4 months after being in the same tank with a male. This means, she can still give birth to fry (baby fish) up to 4 more times, and with an average of 40 fry per birth, that is a ton of fish!! The parents will eat the babies which may benefit you with overstocking. But if the fry survive most local petstores will take them for free. With platies, it's hard to tell who is male and who is female, so please be careful and make sure your getting females!! If I was you I would get a nice displey of a couple male guppies and male platies. Which means no babies! YEAH! So good luck with your fish, and babies! :)

Answer 3

I would sugeest just getting the platys or guppies instead of both.. Get one male and at least 3 females. Both guppies and platys are livebears which means they will reproduce and most come "pre-impregnated".. they hold sperm for up to 9 months.

For a 20 gallon tank, you can definatly put more than 4 fish in it.

First you will need to cycle it: http://www.firsttankguide.net/cycle.php

I just got some dwarf sunset platys which are small and very adorable.

Whatever you decide .. make sure to get a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio of females to male so that they dont get picked on.

Btw my petstore was having a 3 for 5 sale on platys.. but the normal price is around 3 dollars a fish.. maybe 4.

Good luck

Answer 4

wow.   i was all ready to tell you how to help your fish.  not very cool if you ask me.  and i get guppies for around $20.

Answer 5

hahaha the first answer.

just go on petsmart or petco website and figure it out for yourself.

Answer 6

Good ploy to get people to look at your question but you shouldn't do that- you probably had ten saps like me freaking out and feeling bad for you in the few seconds to find out it wasn't true.

  Anyhow, Platies and Guppies are cheap because they breed like crazy. You are looking at a couple bucks per fish.

Answer 7

**STOP***

Did you stop?  Good

Step 1-  Set up the tank, do not put ANY fish in it fro at Least 3 weeks.  If you can you need to get a bactira going first to "Jump start" your tank, you should borow some one's filter media or get some of there water because this has bacteria in it.  and this will start the bacteria groth.  think of your tank as an eco system.  It Needs the bacteria to break the fish waist down

**DO NOT**

Ever get fish from a discount or bid box Pet store, they are 97% of teh time going to have issues.  look for a shop that only deals with fish tehy are a little more costly but they wont die. (Almost lost my tank 2xs because of one "Prity little" fish)

rule of thumb is 1 inch of fish for every gallon of water...  not the size of teh tank ( I have a 20 Gallon tank with 16 gallons of water, the rest is taken up by the rock caves I've made and plants..)

You should start with a hardy fish like guppies, 3 (1M 2F)  possably a Pleco bottom feeder to start to break in the tank this is called the nitrogin cycle.

I have been breading Guppies, Platie/Sward tail hibrids.

one good soure for info is //www.ratemyfishtank.com  they have all sorts of tips on setting up the tank dealing with sick fish preventing sick fish

I also have put in "Moon Lights" to simulate the night, and you can see the bottom feeders come out at night... this also  stimulates breading..

Feel free to email me at [e-mail]