# Question about uhh... guppies, of all things (soft water)



## dirtmonkey (Mar 12, 2007)

It's almost embarrassing asking such a basic sounding question when I've been keeping aquariums as long as I have, but...

Will guppies - specifically wild type guppies or Endler's livebearers - do OK in a soft water, CO2 & EI tank? Googling gets a lot of "Guppies are hard water fish," which I already know, but it seems like there might also be quite a few out there doing well in soft water planted tanks. I've never even thought about putting these kind of fish in the kind of tanks I have now.

The reason I ask this is that I have a young relative wanting a tank. I think she's responsible enough now, and older than I was when I started in seriously. She's enamored of guppies, and leans more toward wild types than the highly modified ones (I might have encouraged that a little bit).

I'd be keeping the females, though, so I can discreetly control the population. She'd rather just have the colorful ones for now anyway. The problem is that my water is extremely soft, and all my tanks are planted based on that. I'd rather keep it that way to have one less water parameter to worry about, and be able to use a plant grow-out tank for them. On the other hand, if I _have to_ keep them in harder, more alkaline water, I guess I'd just have to set up a tank that way... I'm sure the poor, suffering Philippine Java fern would like that ...and maybe do a little shopping for other plants I don't grow because they like more minerals. That sounds terrible. I hate plant shopping. 
_(Joke. Plant shopping is probably my favorite thing to do with the computer, except when sellers try to argue that they've sent the right plant, even after I explain in detail how the plant is not what it was sold as. Turns out that ordering _Ludwigia_ from a big online auction site is exactly the same as betting on a roll of dice, or ordering mosses from Johor, Malaysia. Luckily, we have the FS/T forum here where everything I've gotten had correct IDs.)_

Anyway, if I discover that a few people successfully keep & breed these fish in my type of tanks, I think it would be worth a shot. Have you?


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## illustrator (Jul 18, 2010)

I found that guppies can have very big problems to adapt to changes in water chemistry and some guppies from trade carry diseases which become apparent when they are stressed by the changes. I suggest to try to find fish from a local breeder to start with, these are likely already adapted to your water conditions.


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## Newt (Apr 1, 2004)

What's soft for you?

My tap is ~1dGH and ~1dKH. I add GH booster to bring it up to 5 to 6 dGH. In the past when keeping live bearers had no issues.


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## dirtmonkey (Mar 12, 2007)

I'd be getting locally born fish, so not more worried than usual about that. I think most people who raise them do add minerals, though; at least some crushed coral, dolomite, aragonite or whatever. 

Our water hardness is essentially zero; basically just rain water dripped over a bit of forest and non-carbonate volcanic rock.

I guess I could just try it out, but would hate to harm the fish in experimenting.


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