Write the Feeding Amount as if the Sitter Will Be Charmed
Guppy sitter notes should start from one honest assumption: the fish will beg, and the sitter will want to believe them. State the amount as one small pinch of the named food, crushed lightly so fry-sized mouths and adults can share it, given at written times and never repeated because the males are crowding the glass. Explain that a guppy stomach is roughly the size of its eye and that uneaten flakes settle into plants and gravel where they rot in a warm tank quickly. Ask the sitter to watch the food disappear; if flakes are still drifting after a couple of minutes, the next feeding should be smaller, and that observation is worth more than any fixed instruction you can leave.
Prepare the Sitter for Babies They Did Not Expect
Few sitter notes matter more for guppies than the paragraph about fry, because a female who looked merely plump at your departure may release a brood mid-trip. Tell the sitter that newborn guppies appear without warning, that they shelter in floating plants and need no rescue, moving or separate feeding beyond the crushed food already described, and that a female looking suddenly slimmer is the explanation rather than an illness. Ask them not to net, count obsessively or add nursery equipment, and to send you a message and a photo instead. Also state plainly that adult guppies may chase fry and that this is normal colony life you have planned the planting around, so the sitter does not intervene in a panic.
Make Warmth a Daily Tick-Box Item
Guppies are tropical fish in what is often a modest-sized tank, so your water-care notes should give the heater a named daily check. Write the temperature the thermometer should show, ask the sitter to confirm the heater's indicator light is cycling, and tell them exactly what to do if the reading has moved well away from normal: message you before touching the dial, because a heater adjusted by guesswork can overshoot in a small volume overnight. Cover top-ups briefly: evaporation is replaced only with the conditioned water you prepared, poured gently to the marked line, and no water change is attempted during a short trip unless you direct one personally.
Describe Normal Guppy Behaviour and the Short Alarm List
A useful sitter note paints the ordinary guppy day: males displaying to females with flared fins, constant grazing along leaves and glass, and the whole colony rising hopefully whenever a person approaches. Against that backdrop, the alarm list stays short and credible: fish hanging at the surface breathing fast, fins clamped tight against bodies that were open the day before, a white film or spots appearing on several fish, or the filter falling silent. Each item carries the same instruction, a photo and a message to you, plus the number of the aquatic shop you trust if you cannot be reached. Keep your own phone number on the same page as the list, not in a separate message thread.
Keep One Version of the Guppy Routine and Improve It
Guppy colonies change fast, so date your notes and revise them after every trip: fry born, a heater replaced, a feeding amount that proved generous. A sitter working from last year's description of a smaller colony will underfeed some fish and overfeed the water. Holding the current version in your KinsLe Care Pass hands a trusted sitter temporary, clear access to the colony's real routine, from the crushed pinch to the fry warning, without you reconstructing it from memory the night before you travel.