Brief for Speed: a Guppy Tank Changes Fast
A guppy is small, active, and constantly on display near the surface, so brief your sitter to read the whole shoal's energy at every visit. Show them normal first: males flashing colour and chasing, females cruising steadily, everyone rising eagerly when food appears. Then describe the guppy version of wrong — fins clamped tight to the body, a fish hanging motionless just under the surface, colours washed pale, or one individual rocking side to side in place.
Heat and Filtration Come First for Guppies
A failed heater is the classic guppy emergency, so make the thermometer your sitter's first stop. Guppies kept in warm water go sluggish and gather near the bottom when the temperature slides, and they crowd the surface gasping when a stuck heater pushes it the other way. Have the sitter confirm the filter is running, the spray or outflow is moving the surface, and no plant leaf or decoration has blocked the intake and slowed everything down. Their job stops at restoring a plug, reporting the reading to you, and following your reply; pouring in cold or hot water to chase a number is how a recoverable dip becomes a shock.
Overfeeding Is the Guppy Sitter's Main Hazard
A guppy always looks hungry, and that begging is what your briefing must disarm. Pre-portion each day's food into labelled containers, because a generous pinch in a small guppy tank clouds the water, feeds a bacterial bloom, and leaves the fish gasping in water that was clear at breakfast. Show the sitter what the tank looks like fed correctly — food gone within a short watch, bellies rounded but not swollen — and tell them a cloudy tank with fish at the surface means skip the next feed, check the filter, and call you rather than feeding on schedule out of kindness.
Surprise Fry and the Pregnant Female
A guppy briefing needs a babies paragraph, because a female can deliver fry while you are away even if she looked only mildly round when you left. Tell your sitter not to chase newborns with a net, not to move the mother into a trap or box, and not to panic-count tiny fry hiding in plants; the instruction is a photo, a message to you, and then leave the tank alone. A female who isolates herself, stops eating, and hovers near plants may simply be close to delivering, while one who is bloated, raised-scaled, and listless is a different picture and deserves a same-day call.
Spots, Shredded Tails, and When to Call
Ask your sitter for a close daily look at fins and skin, because a guppy shows trouble on its edges first. A tail that looks newly shredded, white grains scattered across the body, fuzzy patches, or a male whose colour has drained overnight should all be photographed in good light and sent to you that day, with a note on whether the fish is still eating and swimming with the group. The sitter adds nothing to the water, separates nobody, and does not take advice from a shop visit or a forum over yours; isolation and any next step are decisions you make with the full picture. Leave your aquatic vet or trusted shop contact as the second call if you cannot be reached and a fish is clearly deteriorating.
One Short Sheet at the Guppy Tank
Rehearse it once at the glass before you leave, with the sitter finding the thermometer and the food containers unaided. Storing that sheet in KinsLe as a Care Pass keeps the guppy headcount, the expecting females, and your call order together, so whoever is watching the tank is never guessing about a fish that can change overnight.