I've kept guppies for years and have never seen this before: I went into a dark room and turned on a light next to my 10gal 'boys only' guppy tank to find a hopeful stud laying (tummy down, lookin' comfy) on the sponge filter. I assume that he's ill, but *maybe* he was just sleeping?

I've been keeping the water level down in that tank because I'm trying to encourage my mystery snails to lay eggs again (another question in the making) so there was room for me to add a gallon of fresh (dechlorinated) water to the top as a quick water improvement maneuver. By the time I got back with the water he was swimming around looking fine.

(I do weekly 50% changes in this tank since my snails are such poop machines - today IS change day but I can't get to them 'till 12 hours from now)

Anyone else ever catch a guppy in an all out sleep? Or is it certain that he's ill?

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current tanks:
20gal: one small fancy goldfish, 4 mystery snails
10gal: many mystery snail hatchlings & 2 female guppies
55gal: 4 juvenile blood parrots & 5 giant danios, 2 gold tetras.
55gal: 10 mystery snails, 1 CAE, 7 guppies and 6 cory cats
wishlist: 75+ gal for BPs before they get big

Sounds like sleep to me.

One time I had just turned my lights on in the morning and one of my main breeding male Platies was nose-down in my breeder grass in a near complete vertical position and I could only see the back half of his body. I thought he was dead. I watched him for a few minutes and he just stayed there so I stuck the back end of a net in there to nudge him and when I did he popped out of there and took off. It was the funniest position I had ever seen while they sleep. Since then I've seen a few other funny things. I think sometimes they just end where they end up.

they just sleep

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"http://freshwater-aquarium-passion.blogspot.com" - for people with passion for aquariums

sounds like sleep to me too.

Sounds like sleep to me as well.

I remember the first time I saw my fish do this I got a real fright. You may not have seen them sleeping before because it takes them quite a long time to settle after the light is off and they are up in the morning before us but they will be sleeping every night.

My guppies like to snuggle in the fluffy algae on the driftwood. Unfortunately for them my new pleco has eaten all the algae.

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Elly

Mine sleep on the leaves close to the top of the water. And if not startled, (probably just me), they seem to kinda strech and and start moving lazy around. Lazy Buggers

Hi my name is Chris, I'm new but I've been breeding guppies for about 15 years.

Yep, sponge filters must be comfy, I've seen guppies sleeping on 'em before. and on the bottom. So no fear, he's probably fine, you just surprised him.

Good luck,
Chris