Thursday, June 3, 2010

Cold Water Guppies

In April of 2004, I read an article in the April 2004 e-Bulletin of GuppyLabs entitled “The Full Blue of Rio de la Plata – Part One” by Rosario Arijon. In this piece, the author described how a certain Professor Daniel Tejedor, a man of impressive credentials, maintained a fish farm in Olidin, Uruguay where many varieties of ornamental fish were raised. Of specific note was the fact that the gentleman raised, among these various species, guppies that were perfectly adapted to breed at 18 degrees Celsius, and live at 14 degrees Celsius. That is 57.2 to 64.4 degrees Fahrenheit! “No way,” I thought. At the time, I was barely keeping my fragile IFGA strains alive at a constant 78 degrees Fahrenheit, and drops of fry were out of the question! Further, I would later find out I was dealing with some of the tougher strains. Was there a misprint in the GuppyLab’s article? It was just so inconceivable to me.

Over the years that followed, I would occasionally search the web for any other corroborative information on “cold water guppies”. I found some who swore they had some in ponds or in coldwater tanks with goldfish, but other forum members would always dismiss the claims as lies, or insist such guppies were, in fact, Gambusia (mosquito fish). One rather famous American guppy breeder claimed that he knew for a fact guppies would not reproduce below 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and as a long-time New England resident, he should know.

My interest in the subject was born out of a bit of necessity. As the owner and inhabitant of a 115-year-old Victorian cottage, things can get a bit, shall we say, “drafty” in winter. The fact is that the house does not get above 68 degrees from November until the first of April. Due to high utility bills, even those with modern homes typically set the thermostat to 70 degrees during the winter. In my case, with winter temperatures between 10 and 35 degrees Fahrenheit, my home never sees anything warmer than 68 degrees even with the furnace running non-stop. It is usually around 64 degrees through most of the winter.

Since I do not have a room I can designate to my tanks, my tanks are spread about the house and are part of the decorum, if you will. I have 14 tanks at the moment. I have 5 gallon and 10 gallon. The 10 gallons I divide in half with a piece of fitted glass siliconed in place. Obviously, I do not have the luxury of being able to heat a single fish room, as my tanks are strewn about the entire house. Electric heaters I have always used in the past, but always found them highly inaccurate. Perhaps the really high-dollar ones are better. No, I found that clamp lights held 12 inches from the water’s surface and fitted with 100 watt Sylvania “chick brooder” bulbs provided a nice, safe, even heat during the winter, keeping the tanks at about 80 degrees Fahrenheit if the ambient room temperature was around 68 degrees. The problem, however, should be obvious. Essentially, it is like sleeping with the lights on.

The Great Recession of 2008/2009 found me returning to school for nursing, while pinching pennies to cope with ever-rising energy costs. If I was to have this many tanks of guppies, they would have to be able to survive at room temperature, whatever that “room temperature” was. Either that, or perhaps my living arrangements were better suited to goldfish. Cold water guppies were no longer some esoteric consideration, but a hard cold reality, no pun intended.

I have a line of German Red lace Snake Skins imported from Germany by Luke Roebuck and Edgar Chiasson, a line of Blue and HB Blue Deltas out of Bob Lewis stock, a line of Yellow Lace Snake Skins from Anthony Fischinger, and a line of Green Lace Snake Skins out of Joe Rosenberry. Anthony Fischinger had “proofed” the Yellow Lace Snake Skin line—that is, subjected them to extreme water temperatures and conditions—before I even received them. The German Red Lace Snake Skins and Blue/HB Blue Deltas had been greatly toughened over the last half decade in my care, as like Anthony Fischinger, I unequivocally reject the sterile, constant conditions of guppy husbandry set forth by most of the guppy fraternity—I feel such conditions have resulted in the weakened immune systems we currently see and wrongly attribute to inbreeding. But that is another article, and a bit of a “hot potato” at that. My Green Lace Snake Skins were new arrivals, however, having been received in March of 2009. I awaited, with high levels of anxiety, fry from these Green Lace, but was rewarded with tiny drops of up to 5 fry now and again very sporadically. Things were not looking too good going into the winter of 2009/2010.

I relate a bit of background information about my fish because some, reading what follows, will no doubt say, “Well, he is a bit of a nutter anyway, and his fish can live happily in a sewer.” I will deny none of that, but what is important to note is that going into the winter of 2009/2010, I had not had the Green Lace Snake Skins long enough to improve or destroy. Therefore, the experience which I am about to relate can well pertain to those of you who have, what I would call, “puny” fish. This is meant as no slight, for here in America, many major pet shop chains have quit stocking guppies because they often fail to thrive under even the best conditions. So perhaps a disclaimer is in order. Changes to a guppy husbandry regimen should be gradual. Since my fish and I all inhabit the same house, and since I like to do an outcross now and again, I had, for example, stopped disinfecting nets and hoses when going from tank to tank for quite some time. Initially, an outbreak of disease would result, but soon those that survived the outbreak imbued future generations with a vigor superior to that with which I had started.
I have not had an outbreak of any disease since 2007, and I perform water changes very rarely—perhaps twice a year under normal circumstances--- and virtually all my tanks have an appreciable substrate of mulm. Algae is part and parcel of nearly every tank, and plants of some variety or another inhabit most. I am also a great believer in the merits of the Ramshorn Snail. I also attribute most of my success to feeding a good commercial flake food such as TetraMin Betta Flake, as the formulation of these products will not foul water as will some of the “specialty” flakes from the so-called “specialty” dealers. Modernity does have its benefits. No, I leave the homemade beef heart and earthworm flake concoctions to those with either more time on their hands than myself, or an automated water-changing system. Like the aquarists who wrote at the turn of the last century, I belong to the Cult of the Old Water, and have the highest regard for a strong nitrogen cycle and ancient, seasoned filter media.

18 comments:

  1. So did you develop a cold water guppy?

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  2. I keep guppies, mollies and platys in aquariums in my house over the winter (Minnesota), and the temperature ranges from 65F to 72F in my house. In the Spring, they are moved to a small pond outside. Temperatures there have varied from 45F to 90F during Spring and Summer, and they seem relatively unaffected. Of course he mortality rate goes up during "pond time"--mostly predators and deer drinking off too much water, but we've not had problems with disease.

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  3. Wow! I'm so encouraged by this...I thought sure my guppies would be dead by the end of winter...I don't have a heater and the trailer I live in has been about 58°f at night...no fatalities yet...and one batch of babies last week...I was hoping that like all God's creatures they would adapt!

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  4. Interesting. You and I both have developed similar care techniques for our aquariums. I too do little to no water changes and have allowed mulm to build to fuel my plants. And I also have snails, my favorite however are the acute blader snails. I've been selectively breeding them as well.

    I hope to raise a guppy that will winter in the outdoor pond here in PA

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    1. Robert Doe, could you gave a little info about what you are aiming for in your selective breeding of the bladder snails? Thanks.

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    2. Robert, how low of a temperature can your guppies now take? Are you leaving any outside longer in the fall? Thanks!

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    4. Sorry for a late reply.

      I look for more color variations in my snails. I've been trying for a dark shell (preferably black) and yellow stripes. So far I've got brown and white stripes, clear, and solid gold. Of these, I've got blue and pink skinned.

      As for my guppies, i haven't had enough generations to get much further down than 68°f. Though, they are still breeding at those temperatures.

      I've also introduced terrestrial plants to the tank. Specifically Pothos. What a magnificent plant for your aquarium.

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    5. Thank you kindly for the reply Robert Doe. Have you tried selling any of your fancy snails yet? Do you have photos of them posted somewhere online? Glad to hear that you are still working on coldwater guppies. I wish you the best with both the snails and the guppies.

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    6. Back with an update. It is quite a slow process. Without a heater to keep fish metabolism up, it's hard to get more than one generation of guppy each year.

      My guppy continue to reproduce at temperatures kept bellow 72°F indoors during the summer (A/C in the house). The babies grow slow next to a window during this passed Fall and current Winter. Tempratures are currently kept at the constant 68°F next to the winter cold window.

      Ive introduced a new male guppy from the LFS to improve genetic diversity. The main phenotype I selected for in this last generation was shorter and thicker bodies. This form looks healthier and hardier. The tails are kept upright and there is less "dragging" of the tail fins. This does slow down the end goal for 'Cold Water Guppies', but is necessary to avoid the loss of the line due to excessive inbreeding.

      I feel confident to introduce this next batch of culls into the outdoor pond without it being unfounded. I will then retrieve the strongest from the pond before Winter of 2020.

      P.S.
      My snails continue with their color differences. Ive also seen some odd mutations that include a third antennae. It would react to stimulus like any of the other two, except it was similar to our Ring and Pinky fingers. In that two of them would react when one was touched.

      Ive since introduced a couple snails from a separate tank to breed out this third antennae. In doing so, ive also lost my stripped snails.

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    7. This is a link to this winter's photos. Was unable to gather older photos with better snail colors. They were uploaded to G+ Communities, which has since been discontinued by google. Had some good pictures showing growth of my Muppy too...shame.

      https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1BPeT_8KSnhXbDuze9gcFb8YZTHvhAj4R

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    8. So glad you still have your snails and guppies Robert. Thank you for the update. So sorry to hear about all your lost photos. I am glad you decided to add some new guppy blood into your breeding program. Wishing you the best.

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  5. I have guppies at 64 degrees along with zebra and leopard danios, and peppered corries.The guppy girls all look pregnent.No heater.I'm in the uk by the way. I also have a tank with n 8 inch Koi carp (had her years) who lives happily with peppered corridoras who have been with her since they were tiny and shes never attempted to eat them or the ramshorn snails and they also live with weather loach, two goldfish and a shubunkin. Previously I've kept zebra danios, rosie barbs and mountain minnows with this same Koi and she never touched them.I just eventually moved them.They were always in a cold tank. previously I had a Paradise Fish and corydora survive a plunge in temperature to 30 degrees F.! they were quickly moved but i have read of peppered corrys surviving minus 8 degrees in a frozen pond . I will be interested to see if my pregnant guppies actually have fry survive.

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    1. I'm in the Uk and have coldwater guppies. NO heater, no water changes, no filter. Just loads of Moss Balls and Amazon Sword Plant. No lighting either. temperature went as low as 55 when they lived at my daughters house and a few got sick. So I brought them to my house where it is between 62 and 72 but went up to 84 in high summer. When I brought the guppies to my house I put the sick guppies in shallow water with Hymalayan salt added and within 5 days all were well again and returned to the others. I initially had a small filter but when the first babies arrived at 84 degrees they did not survive more than a week before getting sucked into the filter. The guppies themselves did NOT eat them. As the temperature went down to 72 degees more babies arrived. I took the filter out. the parents did NOT eat them and the babies were left to swim among them. I feed tetramin only with occasional daphnia. The water seems fine, the babies have grown and another batch of babies arrived at 62 degrees two weeks ago and again doing well without being eaten. (Wild guppies often don't eat them to begin with but my adults just don't want ). The temperature (October) is now fluctuating between 62 and 68. I have just removed the adult males to a tank containg a few moss balls and blue ramshorn sanils. I will remove baby males as they become obvious as I am inundated.The babies are growing well but obviously slower than if they were at a higher temperature. Incidentally I did ad some Zebra and leopard Danios and Peppered Coridoras in the Spring which were also doing well until the water hit 84 degrees when they all dies of fungus, but the guppies were resistant. I did not change the water even then hoping things would sort themselves out and they have. i did add a bit of aquarium salt. I just add a cup of untreated tap water daily that has stood for 24 hours first. I don't have lights as I found that also seemed to contribute to the fungus and pushed the temperature up. I don't believe fish like bright lights. Its unnatural. I am careful to use only plants that tolerate dim light. I test my water quality and it appears fine, using the Moss balls and snails, I also have Java fern but Java moss did not survive.

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  6. I am currently breeding from 3 pairs of German green elephant ear guppies. Not my favourite colour range but I like the size and vigour of the breed. The 450mm square tanks each pair are in are at different temperatures over winter. Its too early to have confidence in the observation, it may the trait of the different females however it seems that the higher the temperature the larger the number of but the smaller the size of each fry. The time to maturity of different batches despite big differences at birth seems roughly the same, and there may be different gender ratios although this strain has lost a large degree of the sexual dimorphism of my "wild" guppies and early sexing isn't as easy. More info when I have 10pairs. Interesting comments about water changes I dont do any but I top up with pond water kept for the purpose. It's full of microalgae and the little critters that graze on it. It seems a reasonable substitute for microworms and baby brine shrimp.

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  7. You might be interested to know of the "Dutch Wildguppy 80/90". These were the descendants of guppies that irresponsible Dutch guppy keepers released into the wild. Normally guppies do not survive the cold Dutch winters, but it so happens that the lakes into which these guppies were being released in were artificially heated through industrial water that was dumped there; so, they survived, bred, and adapted to temperatures a lot colder than normal aquarium water, not to mention the predators that also existed in these lakes. The Dutch guppies eventually evolved to be very different from their fancy ancestors: the males were grey and dull of color and the females regularly reached sizes of 10-12cm long. Later on, the Dutch government had to wipe these populations of exotics out, so they no longer exist in the Dutch outdoors, but there are apparently a select few aquarists who keep descendants of these Dutch guppies in their tanks. By telling this history, I mean to express that guppies are a very hardy and versatile little fish, that DO tolerate colder water, as long as you give them a few generations to adapt.

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  8. And for the volume? Really 60L as it's said usually? How is it measured?

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  9. Thank you so much for sharing important information. Visit this website to get an elegant and friendly Guppy to relax your eyes at the end of our daily busyness. If you visit this website you will find many beautiful and different colored guppies.

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