I had a set of breeding red Moscow Guppies. I lost all my females, but had one spectacular male left. He has been in a tank by himself with just a clown loach and an algae eater for over two months now.

Unbenownst to me, my daughter's fiance brought me a female red moscow with him to Thanksgiving dinner. He dropped it in the tank with the male as a suprise. He was really being sweet and thoughtful. I love him for the thought.

This morning I found my suprise. Not only was the female dead, but my beautiful male is dead also.



I think I am doomed to never get a pretty red guppy set going. I do so love the bright blue moscows and the red moscows. Every blue but one female is gone and all my reds, now. I shall have to try again in January or the warmer months and get another set shipped in. Sigh.

oh daryl, i'm so sorry.

Oh that is awful - do you know why they died? I have never raised guppies but have always heard they were very hardy fish.

really sorry to hear that daryl

As near as I can determine, guppies are very hardy once you get them going. Stress is the greatest killer of guppies - that and the "guppy plague" - which seems to be a combination of stress and bacteria.

I have lost 60% of all guppies given to me - they die within 24 hours of shipment. If they are in contact with any others, I have often lost the ones they were in contact with. This leads me to believe they also are carrying some infection that comes to the surface when stress lowers the immunity.

If I can get a guppy past the first week, (the first 24 hours!) it usually survives. Once again - quarantine was broken and had a horrible outcome. As new fish arrive, I treat immediately with Melefix and isolation. They are kept warm, dark and as unstressed as possible after arriving. I have had a fair amount of success with this regiment, but having a new one tossed into an established tank was just the wrong thing to do. His heart was in the right place, but it was death to the guppies. Sigh.

I have a set of beautiful leopard tuxedo reds and a set of lyre tail sunrise that are thriving. But the moscow lines - very large, strong (supposedly) and solid red or blue guppies have been my downfall. I do so love those strong colors. I will get a pair to live and breed eventually. I just hate losing all the others before that time.

I'm sorry about your fish daryl!

awww im sorry Daryl that it isn't working out so well with the guppies.... im not sure what could have happened with your guppies

Not a very nice surprise but his heart was in the right place.

Daryl,that is really too bad about your guppies.I've always had guppies through the years,but not the ones that you have had.I too always thought them so hardy.I'm tempted to give them a try...Maybe I can send you some babies!

I agree with Daryl that guppies seem to be fragile when you first get them.

Years ago, I kept guppies and they seemed like the toughest things imaginable. I then started keeping guppies about 10 years ago, and I didn't find them nearly as hardy as the fish that I kept back in the '70's. Although, as Daryl mentioned, if you can get them breeding in your own tanks, the offspring seem hardy enough.

The best guppies I have gotten recently came from a young girl who had a tank of them in her bedroom.

sorry about your guppies!

Maybe their genetics aren't as strong as they used to be due to overbreeding. My stepdad told me that the females aren't as brightly coloured as the males. He got a bunch of females and a bunch of males. He said that the more they bred with each other the females would get brighter colours and the genes would be more interbred. As a result his guppies had a lower tolerance to disease and such.