Knowing the right equipment helps a lot with maintaining the health of your guppies. Most of the time, you just need a tank, food, and a filter, though some fish keepers would also suggest a bubbler.
However, guppies do not need a bubbler. Though it can help contribute to the overall aesthetic of the tank as well as provide oxygenation for their water.
We can understand this by knowing first what bubblers are, their importance (or lack thereof), and their potential benefits. Then, we move on to further details from there.
Why Do Guppies Need a Bubbler?
An aquarium bubbler, as you might’ve guessed, produces bubbles of air in your aquarium.
It’s used to aerate your fish tank, which means adding more oxygen to the water for your fish. However, this often isn’t needed as you should have a filter on your guppy tank which should be more than sufficient to aerate the tank water.
Bubblers: Their Benefits
Aids in Oxygenation and Water Movement
Bubblers don’t just aerate the water in our aquariums. In this case, they move the water a bit more, which helps more oxygen to be dissolved in the water. Thereby, making the tank more habitable.
As mentioned before, low oxygen is rarely an issue in a well maintained tank. However, low oxygen can become an issue in one certain instance: high water temperatures.
High Water Temperatures
While the proper temperature rank for guppies tops off at around 80 degrees F, there are instances where we need to raise the water temperature.
This is typically done while treating illnesses such as ich. Higher water temperatures speeds up the life cycle of ich which can minimize the stress your fish experience over the course of the sickness.
However, as water temperatures heat up, water loses its ability to hold dissolved oxygen. Over time, this can slowly suffocate your fish.
In this instance, a bubbler may be just what’s needed to help keep the water as disturbed as possible to allow it to absorb as much oxygen as possible
For Aesthetic Purposes
In most cases, you don’t necessarily need a bubbler, but that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t want to install one. It can add to the aesthetics of the aquarium. There have been a lot of designs in every shape, color, or size you can think of nowadays.
We can also remember that when it comes to spending time with your fish beside their tank, you can’t help but be enthralled by the bubbles swirling in the water. Besides the motions of your little friend, of course.
Some Decorations and Filters Need Bubblers
Several decorations and filters do need bubblers so they would function properly in the tank. Action ornaments need to move. As for filters, like gravel filters, corner filters, and sponge filters, they need constant airflow. Bubblers can help keep the water moving and properly circulating.
Types of Bubblers
As we have mentioned before, there are a ton of new bubbled designs. Below are just some of the types of bubblers you can find in your local pet store:
- Airstones
- LED bubblers
- Bubble walls
- Bubbler ornaments
- Bubble wands
Reasons for the Depletion of Oxygen
Like most living things on earth, we all need oxygen to live. That includes marine life and our precious little guppies. Especially for freshwater fish, all the more reason for more oxygen in their habitat.
There can be a lot of causes for low oxygen levels in our aquariums. These just are just some of them:
- Real live plants with low lighting – plants do help with adding more oxygen to the water, but they need to be exposed to a good source of light so they would be able to produce oxygen.
- A packed fish tank – a lot more fish would need a lot more oxygen. If there are too many fish in the tank, they would deplete the oxygen faster as opposed to a single fish.
- High water temperature – lower temperature water can sustain more oxygen than higher-temperature water.
- Excessive waste in the tank – If you haven’t been able to clean your fish tank in a while, your guppies might need more oxygen. The extra bacteria break down the waste and other natural elements like oxygen.
- Less water movement – like what we have established before, more movement promotes elevated oxygen levels.
- Chemical additives – there are some chemicals we add to our aquariums that alter their pH or even combat some diseases. These could also affect the amount of oxygen in the water.
The behavior of the fish living in the tank would also be of huge help when determining the oxygen levels. For them:
- They move around less
- They eat less too
- They have a hard time breathing
- Their gills move more rapidly
- They start to gasp at the surface (though some species do this to breathe)
The Other Methods of Adding More Oxygen
Before you’re able to get your own bubblers at home, maybe you need to kickstart your guppy’s air for safety. In cases where you need to incorporate more oxygen into your fish tanks fast, there are several ways you can go about it:
Using Ice Cubes in the Water
If the temperature is rising because of the weather or the state of the room, just add a few ice cubes. When doing so, it’s best to keep the ice cubes in an airtight baggie so they won’t mix in with the tank water.
Moving the Water Yourself
You can just stir up the water yourself from time to time to promote more aeration.
Letting the Water Pour From a Height
This is a simple method to try. Pouring the water from a height swirls in the water more. Again, we are focusing on the movement of the water again.
Changing a Sizable Amount of the Water
Replace around 50% of the water in your aquarium. That way, you can add a lot more fresh water that’s full of new oxygen.
In Conclusion
Knowing how to properly take care of guppies is a priority so our little friends would be able to live peacefully in our homes with us. Do you need to buy food and a good aquarium? Yes. Do guppies need a bubbler? Of course, they do.
We talked about what a bubbler is, its benefits, and the types of bubblers. For an added measure, there is also a list of signs of low oxygen levels. At this point, there are ways to manually add more oxygen.
Overall, you can now fully see the importance of a bubbler to your guppy’s well-being.