See mesmerizing stars in your aquarium with the striking Galaxy Guppy fish, this article includes premium care requirements, tank setups, feeding, and breeding tips for keeping this brightly colored guppy.
Are you ready to see stars with the stunning Galaxy Guppy? In all the years of experimenting with selective breeding for unique and striking guppy fish patterns, never did breeders imagine they’d stumble on this celestial aquarium fish!
This vibrant galaxy-patterned guppy also called the Cosmic Guppy for its starry and colorful scales, became popular for its physical appearance. Aquarists looking to beautify their tank with a unique patterned fish can trust the star-speckled guppy to do the trick!
Although they share other traits like physical size and temperament with other vibrant guppy varieties, the Galaxy Guppy has some unique care requirements. Keep reading to learn everything about caring for this bright and bubbly species.
Origins and Breeding Development
The Galaxy Guppy heritage traces back to the South American and Caribbean waters, but that’s not their immediate lineage. This species has a selective breeding journey that takes them from their natural habitat to our home fancy guppy aquariums.
Because of the naturally intense color and patterns some of the wild ornamental guppies displayed, breeders in the 19th to 20th centuries tried isolating their genes to get specific combos. They found success with many fancy guppies, especially the Galaxy species.
Through their experiments, they were able to enhance the star-patterned guppy genetics and create this Cosmic guppy with its deep colors and dotted scales that remind you of a starry night.
Today, the development of celestial guppies goes beyond having a specific starry scale but extends to its other distinctive physical features.
Distinctive Physical Characteristics
Why do aquarium hobbyists and fish pet enthusiasts love the Galaxy Guppy?
Coloration
When you see a Galaxy variant, its iridescent guppy scales are the first features you’ll notice, even before the patterning. Its starry night coloration shimmers underneath all kinds of lighting with its blue, green and red color combinations.
Patterns
A closer look at the Galaxy Guppy’s cosmic fish patterns draws your attention further, making it difficult to look away. Their scales have dotted spots and patterns connected across their bodies like star constellations, hence the name Galaxy, Cosmic, and Celestial Guppy.
Fin Structure
These patterns and coloration extend to the Galaxy Guppy’s long, flowing fins, giving them a graceful appearance while swimming. Due to the length and design of this species’ fins, their 1 – 2 inch bodies have an extra 2 inches.
Size
So, despite their 3 – 4-inch small sizes, the Galaxy Guppy manages to stand out in the tank because of its other shimmering guppy traits. These physical features make this variant sensitive, which is why they have specialized care requirements that I’ll share with you next.
Essential Care Requirements
These Galaxy Guppy care essentials aren’t the only tips you need to ensure your pets have a full and healthy life, but they’re a good start. It includes the foundation of every fish care guide, which is the immediate environment — the aquarium’s water parameters.
Taking Care of the Water
You already know your pets will spend all of their lives inside their aquarium, which is why it must always be in optimal condition. Set the following parameters to make it like the freshwaters of the Amazonian river:
- Water Temperature: 78 – 80, which is cool but not cold.
- pH level: Slightly normal to alkaline at 6.8 – 7.8
- Hardness: Soft to moderately hard at 5 – 20 dGH
Once you sort these water parameters, you must focus on water stability for iridescent fish because sudden stress will lead to discoloration and other health complications.
We recommend using a master test kit like the one form amazon linked below to frequently test your water parameters.
Yes, you read that correctly. You can start your pet’s health maintenance by keeping it clean and using ideal water parameters. Now, let’s discuss setting up the ideal tank.
Creating the Ideal Tank Setup
The essentials for your Galaxy Guppy tank setup include lighting, aquascaping, and filtration. So, let’s take each aspect one after the other.
Lighting for Your Shimmering Fish
It’s tempting to install bright lights in your aquarium because you want to flaunt the patterns and coloration on your Galaxy Guppy’s scales, but don’t give in to the temptation.
Instead, use moderate LED lighting that’s bright enough to showcase your pets and dim enough not to burn their scales or harm their sensitive eyes.
Aquascaping for Celestial Guppies
Use aquarium decor like live or silk plants to shield your Galaxy Guppies from direct light reflection while beautifying the tank.
It’s also a great way to infuse South American heritage species into the space by using traditional freshwater plants like Anubias, Java moss, and Amazon swords.
Next up is the base for your tank. Use soft and gentle substrates like fine sand, smooth gravel and pebbles. Then, you can create hiding spots like caves with rocks and driftwood.
By the time you add all these pieces, you’ll have your mini Amazon River in a glass box.
Filter Systems for Clear Water
With the amount of aquascaping you’ve done, it’s important to add a high-quality filtration system to clean all the corners of your aquarium.
Use a hang-on back filter or sponge filter because it allows low currents and slow-moving waters that won’t suck in your small guppies.
Feeding and Nutrition
When choosing food for your pets, you must prioritize a nutrient-dense, guppy diet that caters to all aspects of their lives. You can use color-enhancing fish feed like high-quality pellets and flakes as a staple food source and then add fiber-rich vegetables like spirulina and algae as supplements.
Remember that the diet for starry-patterned fish focuses on maintaining their unique scales and other physical traits while maintaining their internal health.
For more on feeding your aquatic pets check out The Ultimate Guide to Fish Food: Pros and Cons & Best Choices!
Creating a feeding regimen as discussed in the next section is another way to ensure proper feeding and nutrition.
Feeding Schedule for Vibrance
You must practice portion control when feeding your Galaxy Guppies. Give them only enough food that they’ll consume in 2 – 3 minutes about twice or thrice daily. This routine helps them reduce waste and maintain good health since there’ll be less bloating from overfeeding.
Lifespan of Galaxy Guppies
The downside of keeping this species is their short-lived existence. The Galaxy Guppy lifespan in the best health conditions and maintenance is between 2 – 3 years and rarely four years.
If you want to enjoy having your fun pets around for an extra year, here are some tips to help enhance guppy longevity. You already know most of them if you’ve followed this guide carefully from the beginning to this point.
That’s to tell you that lifespan care practices are the same as essential care activities, which include maintaining optimal water parameters and tank maintenance.
So, healthy guppy living is the only and surest way to ensure your vibrant, starry pets live up to 3 – 4 years.
Breeding Galaxy Guppies: Key Insights
Breeding star-patterned guppies is easier than you think once you understand the basic needs and uniqueness of this species. With your new knowledge of the care requirements, you’re halfway there, so let’s complete the process. Shall we?
Galaxy Guppies, unlike most fish, are livebearers, meaning they give birth to live fry instead of going through the egg to larvae to fry stage. So, here’s how to multiply your pets in good health
Breeding Tank
Galaxy Guppies are small fish, and even though they move in pairs and mini-groups of five to six, an average-sized tank will do.
Your breeding tank setup should be similar to the regular setup with only a few tweaks, like a slightly warmer temperature and more hiding spots.
Get a 10-gallon rectangular tank for your breeding pairs with the same kind of aquascaping and water parameters as the regular aquarium. Also, add floating plants to the water’s surface to prevent your new fry from jumping out.
Breeding Pairs
Preserving celestial patterns and the vibrant coloration of the Galaxy Guppy species is the goal when selecting the breeding pairs.
You’ll notice that the females are larger and less vibrant than their male counterparts, so ensure you maintain a ratio of 1:3 with more females than males. This video has been very helpful in identifying the sex of Guppies, I highly recommend it:
Mating behavior starts with the male Galaxy Guppy chasing the female by displaying its colors until they’re receptive. Once they mate, the females gestate for 21 – 30 days before birthing their live fry.
Fry care
When your Galaxy Guppy births its fry, you must first feed them crushed specialized fry food and infusoria. Then, as they grow larger and have defined mouths, you can introduce them to live food like baby brine shrimp.
Through their growth, ensure they live in clean waters because Galaxy Guppy fry are more sensitive than adults; any sudden change in water parameters can greatly affect their health.
Luckily for community tank enthusiasts, the Galaxy Guppy temperament makes it a suitable tank mate for ideal species. Learning that they’re friendly and calm doesn’t mean you should pair them with other fish without testing for community tank compatibility.
When choosing guppy companions, always ensure they have the same needs and physical similarities. Don’t pair the Galaxy Guppy with fin-nippers, territorial or aggressive fish like Barbs and Oscars. Instead, you’ll have harmonious fish interactions with Harlequin Rasboras, Tetras, Mollies, Corydoras, and other guppy varieties.
Conclusion
We’ve come to the end of today’s Galaxy Guppy care summary. I hope you gained useful tips because adding this celestial beauty to your aquarium is a cheat code to having an interesting tank. You also don’t have to go in blind because I’ve shared enough unique Guppy care tips to help you start a new aquarium or introduce this species into a community tank.
Whatever you choose to do, I can assure you that choosing the Galaxy Guppy is the right decision. And on that note, I say goodbye, be sure to leave us a comment below. Until next time.