# Not a betta, maybe a guppy?



## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

A fry? I think was scooped up with my stepmoms goldfish, they threw it all in the pond she is working on but this thing is TINY. I took my net and netted it out, its tail is nipped and its TINY and clear, a guppy fry maybe? Anyone know? I put it in nice water and a bit of aquarium salt and i dont know what it is/needs fully so i put a sponge filter/airater in a 1gal just in case. Otherwise itd be fishfood tonight, which i think was its purpose anyways being in a big fishes tank? Heres the best pic i could get, its not doing well, nipped tail, a couple of small red dots on its head, its just sittin still breathing....


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

Its starting to swim now, nipped fin, but still okay, not sure what the two tiny red dots on its back are, its hard to see things well with such a tiny thing. Anyone got guppies that can confirm this is a guppy? I have no idea how to take care of it, but it was getting bullied in that pond and i pitied it >.< Reminds me of a minnow lol. 
Heres a quick vid, guppy fry? minnow? XD
http://s165.photobucket.com/albums/u43/punkiiiiiii/?action=view&current=P1140701.mp4
once i know what it is i can figure out what to do


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## xMandy (May 21, 2011)

Could be a minnow? Don't know too much on them.
If it were a guppy it would be a female. The tail looks purple and sort've looks like a guppy female tail. What I don't get is the body being long and there being no gravid spot. I wouldn't lean towards guppy.
Where did she get the fish from?


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

She had some goldfish scooped out at petsmart yesterday, today they mentioned it so i went to see her new pond, it had filled with algae but i caught sight of this thing, she said there were quite a few swimming with the goldfish and i thought it looked a bit like a guppy so i scooped it out out of pity. Whatever it is it was very see though, its starting to get a bit of a "shimmer" to its body now but still pretty see though. I tried crushing up a flake but it isnt showing interest in anything. She sort of just threw it in, i acclimated it to clean spring water and aquarium salt but have no idea what it is lol I just pitied it being chased. Its about a cm long maybe and transparent, its face looks like a guppy from what im seeing but it doesnt have that fat belly i keep seeing on guppy fry. I didnt want to show up at a guppy forum and find out i have a minnow ) I threw a single mosquito larvae in but it is just letting it swim around, i think it actually may be too small to eat that even. Hm...
Thanks for the response though.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Looks like a guppy to me, it has the same body shape. She may not have a gravid spot because she's too young to be pregnant or didn't get a chance to mate before she ended up in the pond. Minnows are torpedo or tube shaped because they are related to tetras. 
Guppy female (full-grown)








White Cloud Mountain Minnow








You can see minnows have a body shape that is more or less straight and the tail melds seamlessly into th body. Guppies, even males, have that funny rectangular tail attached to a kind of square body.


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

Ah! Thank you for the pictures, my google images is being stupid and wont load images. Def not a minnow. Now i need to see what they need, i luckily came across a 10 gallon tank my neighbor threw out yesterday, maybe i can run out and grab a couple more swimming with the goldfish at petsmart if they havent been killed. They look so odd though, im used to seeing bettas XD


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Does she swim at the surface a lot? Guppies are midlevel to surface swimmers and when they say surface, they mean it. Guppies practically have their dorsals sticking out of the water like sharks sometimes. She's such a cute little thing, so tiny. If she's too small for pellets or regular food, try crushing up flakes into a powder for her. Good ol TetraMin or TetraColor work fine.


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

At first she sat at the bottom, i thought she was going to die but now shes either at the top or at the middle, unless i come up then she swims down behind a leaf. No interest in food though, i worry since its a fry that it has much less time to go without eating before dying. Ill try again in the morning. I luckily have tons of tropical fish flakes i can crush since the bettas use pellets and the tanks come with samples. We'll see if she makes it through the night. 
Yeah oddly cute lol Just so so tiny, hard to spot unless you REALLY look for her, her transparency doesnt help things. I have a bubbler on low in 1 gallon for her tonight, if she survives a week or so ill think of something else. Id like to fully fishless cycle a 10 gallon though, my current 10g is cycling with my two bettas and frequent water changes. Im guessing guppies like friends, total opposite of what im used to. Ive only ever been into bettas XD


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

:lol: I know, I tried guppies briefly a week ago. They spent so much time at the surface and dashing around like crazy I thought they were all about to die because in bettas, that's what that behavior means! Unfortunately, my guppies from Petsmart turned out to have worms so I had to return them (didn't want to risk infecting my bettas). I felt bad about it. But yup, guppies love friends. Maybe wait until she's just a bit bigger, though, before getting her pals. Guppies do eat their own fry. Do you have any frozen daphnia or brine shrimp? A lot of fry are fed daphnia or newly hatched brine shrimp, so maybe she'll eat that.


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

I dont have any brine shrimp but i have one of those "sea monkey" kits i bought ot play with, i think those are brine shrimp but im not positive and not positive they would be safe. Im mostely only stocked for bettas, this was just such a surprise pity thing. Maybe tomorrow i can go hunting, weve had alot of rain these past few days, maybe theres some smaller mosquito larvae out there that she could fit into her mouth. By the time i got home with her it was dark and i had a few larvae in a bowl outside but they are pretty big. Apparently petsmart puts the fry with goldfish, maybe guppies just breed so often that they use fry as fishfood, hopefully it wasnt a culled fry that happened to get away, i dont see any deformitys, but yeah its face makes me giggle, the position of its eyes are really far apart and huge XD Like its so shocked at everything


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

One mating can produce several groups of spawn and females can start spawning around a month old, so yeah, guppies are pretty prolific. :roll: I keep watching the video - she swims along pretty well for her size, doesn't she? Maybe the larva could be mashed up if necessary, although that does sound kinda gross.  I hope she starts eating though, she seems too spunky to go down just because she won't eat. Haha, and after what she's been through, she probably IS shocked at everything. "Where am I now? What happened to me?"


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## coet (Jun 26, 2011)

I'm extremely certain it's a guppy. About how big is it? 

I use to breed guppies, mollies, and platies. Guppies all look the same when they are fry, and get their coloring later. If it is a guppy, don't put it with bettas. Guppies are extremely slow moving and are easy targets for bettas. I've seen a betta swing a guppy around by the tail, after tearing another's tail to shreds and killing it. 

Guppies go well with almost any tropical community fish, however I don't recommend tetras other than Neons. Wait before you go and get it tank mates. It needs to grow up first, otherwise it will become a snack, unless you have dense plant and ornament coverage, but then you run into a problem with feeding it, because coming to the surface can mean the end.

At my PetSmart we have fry food. I forget the brand, but it's called something along the lines of "First bites." It's in either a yellow or white package. I want to say it's by Hikari, but don't hold me to it. Or, you can feed it a little bit of Sally's Frozen Brine Shrimp. I fed all of my fry this. Bettas and other tropical fish gobble it up too, but it can be messy, so be extremely careful. If taken care of properly, guppies can become full grown in a little over a month. 

PetSmart only mixes minnows with their feeder goldfish, which kinda makes me want to say it's not a guppy, but it's extremely possible that a baby guppy could have gone through the filtration system into the goldfish tanks. We keep a "maternity ward" tank at our store where we place all fry. Sometimes they end up in other tanks. We just move them back. Snails are the worst about this.


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

She seems like she is swimming hard to get around, putting alot of strength into it then hanging in the middle. Her back tail is half ripped though, like the corner is gone, so i thought maybe she had to push harder to get around. No longer panting though. She actually just swam up to her sponged airhose and checked it out against the current. Shes still got some life left in her. I need a magnifying glass though, i want to see all the details of her, finding her top fins took awhile, and finding the bottoms is a rare glimpse, i want to check them out XD


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Yeah, it's Hikari's First Bites. I got a free sample when I bought one of those Tom's Dip and Pour things that you use at Petsmart to bag fish.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Aww, you got yourself a new baby to spoil. :-D I can't wait until she gets a bit bigger and starts coloring up for you.


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

Shes about a cm long, transparent, and makes a 2 day old mosquito larvae look way to large to eat. She gets around but seemed slow, i wasnt sure if that was normal, but she tries hard. Yeah id say shes about 1/10th of my bettas size, definitely would be fish food in seconds for them. Right now shes in a 1gallon kritter keeper with a sponge filter/airhose. I couldnt find any of the others in the pond so shes alone with minor damage.


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

lol yeah shes a baby girl? i guess ) If she survives a bit longer ill have to think up a name, ive seen those first bites at petsmart, if tomorrow mornings feeding try fails i will try and make a trip up there.
Maybe ill make an offtopic thread and update on her. Im comfy in this betta forum, i dont wanna make new friends in another area *whines* lol


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

I just looked at my ruler - she's so TINY! I bet you could keep her in a cereal bowl and still lose her in there. Maybe they all look like it's hard to get around at that size, plus if her fins are a bit torn, she might have to put in extra effort. Once there were live fry in the mollie tank at one of my local pet stores but they looked like they were older than this girl, by the sounds of it. And who knows, maybe she's a he?


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Haha, go to the "I Have No Self Control" thread. We talk about everything there, including Great Danes and corydoras catfish, so guppy fry updates would be welcomed.  I know, I love this forum. The people here are so friendly and helpful about everything.


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## coet (Jun 26, 2011)

That'll be okay for now, but you want to get it in a aquarium soon. Guppies are tropical so they need their water maintained similar to bettas. Luckily, guppies are so small when fully grown that you can keep them in >10g, unlike most tropicals, so if you don't want to go all out with a 10g you can get less.

I've never heard of feeding them mosquito larve, or Sea Monkeys. From what I know, Sea Monkeys are a form of brine shrimp. So, that's your call.

As far as her injuries, she should be okay. I keep saying she, but I don't know the prime age for sexing guppies. I just waited for mine to get color. Males get really bold and beautiful and the females stay kind bland, sorta like bettas. 

Sakura; My store doesn't give free samples, ever. So sad.


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

Could be. Yeah from what ive been reading shes probably less then a month old. I think Coet might be right, it found its way into the wrong tank through filtration lol. In 1 gallon im squinting and turning lights on and mostely just seeing her eyes then making out the rest of her, the video and camera seem to catch a shimmer the eye cant see so im getting my best view of her by zooming in on a pic lol


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## coet (Jun 26, 2011)

Poor thing. It can't be more than a few days old. Guppies barely get an inch long when they are fully grown. Tiny little things. I love them.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

coet said:


> That'll be okay for now, but you want to get it in a aquarium soon. Guppies are tropical so they need their water maintained similar to bettas. Luckily, guppies are so small when fully grown that you can keep them in >10g, unlike most tropicals, so if you don't want to go all out with a 10g you can get less.
> 
> I've never heard of feeding them mosquito larve, or Sea Monkeys. From what I know, Sea Monkeys are a form of brine shrimp. So, that's your call.
> 
> ...


What a bummer. I bought the Dip N Pour thing to use as a medication container and when I opened it, there was the packet of First Bites. Now it makes me want to breed my bettas or something. 

Can you keep four or five guppies in a five gallon, coet?


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

I have a 3 gallon i just emptied and storaged because i JUST bought my bettas a 10 gallon, but my neighbor threw one out the next day coincidentally. Im not so sure i want a huge tank of guppies, but i dont want her to be lonely either.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

If you weren't on the opposite side of the country, I'd say send her to me when she gets big enough to travel.


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

Ill refer to it as a her until i see different lol, it feels right for now since its so small and dull XD Wow, a few days huh. They must be hardier then Bettas fry, shes been put with goldfish, scooped, bagged, then threw into a pond filled with bug larvae, algae and more goldfish, then scooped out and acclimated to spring water in just 2 days!


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## coet (Jun 26, 2011)

Sakura8 said:


> What a bummer. I bought the Dip N Pour thing to use as a medication container and when I opened it, there was the packet of First Bites. Now it makes me want to breed my bettas or something.
> 
> Can you keep four or five guppies in a five gallon, coet?


Easily. With a good filtration system you can keep around seven or eight if you wanted.


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

lol Its too bad, itd be quite a lucky fish, saved so many times )
I wonder if two in a 3 gallon would work or 3 in a 5 gallon, i think i could manage that. The 10 my neighbor threw out i dont have plans for exactly yet, just keeping it in case i ever have more room.
edit/ Ah answered that question )


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## coet (Jun 26, 2011)

Punki said:


> I have a 3 gallon i just emptied and storaged because i JUST bought my bettas a 10 gallon, but my neighbor threw one out the next day coincidentally. Im not so sure i want a huge tank of guppies, but i dont want her to be lonely either.


A three gallon would be fine for her and a few tank mates. If you don't want more guppies though, make sure you sex her properly when the time comes, and don't add the opposite. Guppies and livebearers and will kick out babies once a month. 

Guppies are pretty hardy fish. As long as she has it easy for a little while she should be okay. :]


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

Do they get depressed alone? I was wanting to make a ghost shrimp tank out of my 3 gallon in the future lol


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## coet (Jun 26, 2011)

I don't think so. She'd probably enjoy the ghost shrimp. We have ghost shrimp with the female guppies in our store, and they like to observe them. It so cute!


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

It sounds like a plan then! When he/she grows up in a couple of months ill move her into a cycled 3 gallon tank with a few ghost shrimp. Gonna cycle it first. Shes happily swimming circles at the surface so i think shes adjusting


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## coet (Jun 26, 2011)

That's great. I'm glad to hear it! She probably lost in that big 1gallon as small as she is. I can't wait for updates!


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Thanks for the advice, coet. I put one of my bettas in the bathroom temporarily and my mom got used to having fish in there. But I don't want to put another betta in there because they thrive on human contact and I hardly spend any time getting ready in the morning (run a brush through the hair and the teeth and out I go), so I was thinking a 5g with guppies would work. They don't seem to get quite as attached to humans as bettas do. For the one night my girl Anju was in the bathroom, she sulked in a corner like she had been exiled to a deserted island.

Punki, I know, she just feels like a "she" because she's so small. And she sure is a survivor!


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## coet (Jun 26, 2011)

Sakura; You're welcome. I'm glad to offer advice when I can, especially when you and OFL helped me so much already with Berry!

The guppies would be fine. They just need day/night cycles and all that jazz like bettas. I'm beginning to notice that the care for each is extremely similar. :]


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

coet - I hope Berry is doing better, he's so handsome. Punki, I can't wait for updates. And I'd like an update on Electra, too. :-D


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## coet (Jun 26, 2011)

He ate a total of five pellets today, but I noticed when the pellets get swollen with water he can't fit them in his mouth. Hopefully, he'll recognize me as the food bringer soon and come up automatically when I get near his home. That way he can eat the pellets before they get too big. Haven't tried the freeze-dried blood worms yet, I'll do that tomorrow before I go to work. :]


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

Yes shes got tons of swimming space, about as much as an adult betta in a 5 gallon would have it looks like. Im off for the night, thank you both for the advice and suggestions. This feels pretty fun now that i have a plan. Hopefully she stays tough. Still swimming circles easily at the surface. Ill post a thread in offtopic tomorrow on her so i can stop bumping this one.  night!
Electra is doing quite well! Her and old man both. If you have facebook (or not, im not sure) you can view them in their 10 gallon split 
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1838136918454&comments
shes got some eggyness from seeing him on and off but no ill effects so far


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Glad to hear Berry's eating and g'night, Punki!


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## coet (Jun 26, 2011)

Good night Punki. I love the two bettas, they're beautiful! I'll be looking for the thread. :]


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

Thanks you too  Posted a link to a vid of electra in her new area above, not usre if i edited too late to notice XD She lived in the 1g for a few weeks to make sure she didnt have anything she could pass to old man XD
Edit/ Ty coet, ill be sure to keep her updated


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

RIP to the little guppy who died too soon. Got up to check on her and she was on her back, carefully transferred her to a very low filled cup of aquarium salt and got a good look at her as she took her final gasps. She had a cut down her side and her stomach was fuzzy along with the cut. If guppys get columnarius then thats what it was, too bad i was too late. My stepmom plans to bring any others she finds over here tomorrow if there are any left but if it is that disease her goldfish may end up with it also, if they can contract it. If i end up getting anymore from her tomorrow then ill post in the offtopic section, and dose the aquarium salt again, worth a shot. :\


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Aww, I'm so sorry to hear that. But she was so tiny and she DID go through an awful lot before you got her. At least she didn't die all picked on and forgotten in a pond. There wouldn't be anything left of the little girl if that had been the case. She got to die in clean water in peace and quiet with someone who cared about her nearby. Considering it's the first time you've ever had a guppy or a fry, let alone a guppy fry, you did really well, Punki.  And yes, I think goldfish can get columnaris. Plus, they don't have very good immune systems to begin with because of the inbreeding.


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## coet (Jun 26, 2011)

I'm sorry to hear it Punki. But Sakura is right. You did really well with your first guppy. It was a lot better for her to pass in good care than in a pond. If you get anymore check them over carefully if you can.


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## CrowntailTwitchy57 (Jun 25, 2011)

to me it looks like a minnow...


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## Wyvern (May 19, 2011)

Just chop the food up, its what Ive been doing with my babies and now they are eating everything Ive added. Just make sure you chop it very fine. they eat the same foods as our betta's so you can try different things till she eats. It did take my new kids a few hours before they ate anything.


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

Thanks, luckily guppies are similar to bettas, cause i treated it as if it were a betta lol  Definitely columnaris and now im sure my stepmoms pond is full of it, i told her to try and treat it so the rest of the fish/future fish dont get it since it can live up to 30 days in her water alone. She went out of her way to filter the pond and get a test kit but then got too excited and threw fish in too soon, sick fish apparently D; Im gonig to dispose of the guppygirl now, but that fuzz spread her overnight, now it all makes since, a nipped at looking fin, a light spot on her side, her heavy breathing early on, all signs. I treated immediately when i got her home *just in case* but it was too far in. If any more happen to need saving from the pond ill take it out of the bag before she throws it in. I think shes wanting to buy more goldfish today so they may have more mixed in again. If she doesnt treat that pond/keep it empty for a month its just gonna be a death pond.


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## Pitluvs (Jun 22, 2011)

To me she looked like a Swortail fry  Her tail looked more poitned than rounded like a Guppy. Sorry to hear she didn't make it, but she was loved.


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

That pic is exactly how she looked, just transparent and thinner. I know absolutely nothing about swordtails, Hopefully i didnt go about treatment wrong if thats what she was. Whatever she was theres 5 others like her in the pond at my stepmoms if they are still living. Interesting!


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Punki said:


> That pic is exactly how she looked, just transparent and thinner. I know absolutely nothing about swordtails, Hopefully i didnt go about treatment wrong if thats what she was. Whatever she was theres 5 others like her in the pond at my stepmoms if they are still living. Interesting!


Yeah, that makes sense, swordtails are livebearers too so they breed just like guppies. Treatment for a swordtail would be the same for a guppy, if I'm not mistaken. They are similar, just swordtails are much bigger when grown. And they have uhm, sword-like tails. ^_^ I'm worried about that pond of your stepmom's, Punki. I know how easy it is to get excited and rush when putting in the fish, but they're all going to die.


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## Pitluvs (Jun 22, 2011)

Sword tails and Guppies are very much a like! When I seen her tail in your video it reminded me of mine, since my Danios nearly tore up one of my Swords tails. Rest assure you did everything you could.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

I had never seen a guppy fry OR a swordtail fry before. But now that I have seen one (or the other, who knows for sure), all I can say is they're so cute!


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## coet (Jun 26, 2011)

I'll get some pictures of my store's maternity ward so you can see guppy, platy, and molly fry. They all look the same, but they're sooo cute!

You need to contact that particular store about what happened, and you CAN take all of the goldfish back, granted they were not the feeder goldfish. They need to know about what happened.


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

They werent feeder goldfish. Ill let her know. I told her about the disease and how to treat it. Ill let her know she can return the dead ones also. She needs to drive 5 more minutes out and go to petco, petsmart/walmart sucks.
Yeah Sakura but to many ppl say "its just a fish" granted they know im sensitive about it so they listen quietly, i can only hope she takes her time a bit more. shes had those professional people out that build rocks around it, benches of rock around it, planters out planting ect its really beautiful, waterfall and all, just needs to let the water settle and run some tests ya know )


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## coet (Jun 26, 2011)

Unfortunately, PetSmart, Petco and Walmart all vary by store. My PetSmart is awesome, but one about an hour and a half away is the total opposite. The PetCos near me suck, but the ones in the lower state are pretty good. It all depends on the management, and none of the companies seem to care about uniformity. 

To return the dead ones she needs the, uh... fish. So make sure she freezes it out of courtesy. Too many times I get fish being returned after sitting in the 100 degree heat for an hour or so. It's not fun. You can't identify the fish, and it smells horrible. She needs her receipt also. They'll offer her a replacement or a refund, but I would take the refund and not buy anything from that particular store until they get that under control. If you got issued a survey, or get issued one, take it, and inform corporate of what happened. Corporate doesn't want to lose customers for any reasons. It's a blessing and a curse. Someone practically abandoned their dog at my store tonight, and tomorrow if they don't come get it we have to surrender it to the shelter. We're going to ban this customer from our grooming salon, but corporate might force us to take them back because they want to keep as many customers as possible.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Corporate is what's ruining animal care and other, more politically sensitive issues (^_^).  It's all about the money, I know, I get it, but it's sad nonetheless. That person shouldn't just be banned from the grooming salon, they should be tracked down and fined for animal neglegience.

Punki, you're a best friend to every fish within a fifteen mile radius. :-D And it's sad that after all the time and money your stepmom spent on the pond, it could get ruined and set back months because of one moment of weak impulse.


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

Very true, patience always is a positive thing! She thought "oh ill just buy some cheap goldfish and throw them in, if its not okay ill just buy more once i get the perimeters perfect" But now her pond is a columnaris pool. She has found two other guppies/swordfish? floating today with fuzzyness on their backs but the goldfish are still hanging by the waterfall. They are much bigger so it may take longer to affect them maybe, they swim too fast to get a good look. After talking to her i guess shes going to just count it as a loss and not return them, even though they/or the fry are carrying a disease she feels a bit embarrassed to show up with them after impulsively throwing them in in the first place. 
Stores really do vary, most people hate walmart but in all honesty, around here petsmart is GROSS, dead bettas in nasty water, always 70+ in stock, stacked on racks and also stacked between their wall of other fish tanks, displays of two bettas in a half gallon with a glass divider, unimpressive because they are just laying there with fin rot too weak to even flare at each other anymore. All their tanks have fish stuck to the filters, they must lose so much money. The one time i did buy a betta from there was Coraline, she was tiny and ended up having some mysterious issue that caused alot of sadness and grief for me, last week i went there looking for aquarium silicone for my divider for the 10 gallon i bought at PETCO (lol) since id forgotten to buy it at petco also, and they had me wait (no kidding) 35 minutes to be talked to, just to ask that, because a guy came in with a dead fuzzy betta in a bag, she tested his aquarium and it was 4.0 ammonia....... She told him to do a 50% water change once a month on a 10 galon filled with about 10 different fish + a new betta..... Once i asked about the silicone she had me follow her cause she forgot where they stocked it, but never found it, they stopped carrying it i guess, but they are horrible here. =/ My walmart had 0 bettas last time i went but their cups were 2x as big as petsmarts and never nasty, Petco is just fancy here, bettas on shelves in cups with cards between them, clear nonblue, non-poopy water, just showcased really, and behind them is 2G tanks and up. Their printed page is accurate on their care, even suggesting a heater. They are smart, they are honest, give the best suggestions and make the fish look so pretty and healthy that someone would WANT to buy a nice tank and heater to keep them alive.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Well, goldfish ARE inexpensive . . . maybe they'll be fine, who knows? But I think they can get columnaris. If not that, something else, they're pretty weakly. 

Your Petsmart sounds like it needs to be shut down. At least you saved Coraline from a horrible Petsmart fate. If she had been purchased by anyone else, they wouldn't have tried so hard to save her as you did. But honestly, your Petsmart sounds horrific. Mine is bad but not that bad. They don't get in many bettas, only a shelf's worth plus a few females they put in the back. But there's always a dead or sick fish in the tropical fish tanks. My Petco does the best they can, they have a nice display and a nice selection but at least one employee there insists they don't need heaters and will argue about it. :roll:

Just googled: yes, goldfish can get columnaris. Also, there's apparently something called saprolegenia that LOOKS like columnaris but shows up around open wounds and sores on injured fish. Maybe that's what the little fry had? I think only a tissue sample can tell for sure.
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Columnaris.html#fungus


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

Yeah we'll see about her goldfish, i just didnt like her thinking they were disposable and im not a fan of goldfish at all, but they still live so yeah  They have the most silly shocked looks on their faces 24/7 and are so fat to me XDDD
I think i may snap a few pictures if im ever at petsmart again, Walmart was 99x better then there, not 1 single active betta in a clean cup, just sunkin clamped striped bettas in nasty water. They display a finrotted crowntail laying on its side in a 1/2 gallon divided so proudly, its the first thing you see when you walk in. -.-
Well ive posted an update on my bettas in the betta chat section since you wanted an update on Electra.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

I agree with you, I hate this mindset that people have about fish and them being just disposable. It's very sad. Hopefully her goldfish will pull through despite everything. And yeah, these fancy goldfish are really funny looking. I don't really care for the round fat ones either and they're really prone to swimbladder problems because of the shape they've been bred to have.

I'll head over and check out the Electra update.


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

Well she took out her goldfish and the 1 remaining guppy, cleaned it out, let it sit in the sun for a day, refilled/treated and they are all swimming happily in her pond. She added mosquito fish today though so i dunno how they work with goldfish/guppy, Hopefully no issues, she just hopes to get rid of some mosquito larvae. Anyways i got a picture of her pond. Heres her pond i was speaking of all this time, thought you all might like to see


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## regalesse (Jun 5, 2011)

that is either a guppy or amerry widow. both are live bearers and very easy to take care of.


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## regalesse (Jun 5, 2011)

mosquito fish are cousins /same as merry widdow. they will do fine.


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## TheBlueBettaFish (Jun 30, 2011)

Its not a guppy fry. I breed guppies and they don't look like that AT ALL.

______________________________________________

Fishy Friends-

Betta's: Tom, Sarah, Shark

Guppies: Trouble, Molly, Claire

Algae Eaters: Avon (snail), Sprite (sucker fish)

Fry: 16 guppy fry :shock:

:blueyay:TheBlueBettaFish:blueyay:


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## MikiMaki (Jun 23, 2011)

My Petco puts in minnow with goldfish in divided long tanks, maybe he just skipped through.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Some mosquito fish might fall prey when the goldfish get bigger but other than that, I hear they do fine. What's a merry widow?

Punki, the pond is pretty. I'm glad to hear the remaining fish are doing okay. If she gets another guppy, you may end up with guppy fry anyway. :lol:


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## Pitluvs (Jun 22, 2011)

I'm still saying swordtail fry.


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

Yeah a lady on craigslist saw a really old posting id made and she lives about 5 minutes away, has a 1g and a 2.5g both with filter/lights free and THAT is hard to resist, not for guppies but for bettas )


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Yes, Old Man needs another girl to flare at. And Electra needs a nice younger guy to impress. :-D


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## Punki (Apr 30, 2011)

LOL Im so hesitant because with each tank comes the need for a heater so that gets pricey, I doubt id use the 1g for anything other then a hospital tank or give to a family member but the 2.5 sounds nice


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

And it's always good to have a few spare tanks on hand in case something happens with one of your regular tanks.


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