HELP!!! Guppies fry!!

chrisinha

chrisinha

AC Members
Jan 5, 2005
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brooklyn, ny
Hi!

I found a little tiny fry a while ago which i believe is of one of my feeder guppies. Later i found more and i managed to put four of them in the breeding net (actually, plastic) and i've seen other 2 hiding among the plants. the problem is I dont know which guppy is dropping them! i have 4 female guppies and they all look pregnant! i put the heaviest ones in the breeding net, but they look so stressed for being there. my concern is the males because they harrassing them!! what should i do?? should i just leave them free in the aquarium or keep them in the breeding net? i know i cant control the fries and that eventually they might end up being eaten. My real concern is the females!! What would be less stress for them? I dont have another tank where i could put them!
 
How big is your tank they are in now? As long as the males are with the females, they will continue to harass them. However, by capturing the females you risk having them abort the babies, which isn't very good. How many males do you have?
 
I believe the real stress on the mommas is when they get confined to such a small area, such as a breeding net or tank. If you aren't trying to breed tons of fish the best solution is to provide plenty of hiding places like plants or stacking rocks (I use mexican beach pebbles) to create tiny caves the parents can't get into. The babies will hide as they get born and the mommas will deal with the males on their own. The fact that they "bother" the females used to irritate me too, it still does actually, but I don't think they are half as irritated as I am. (They aren't actually hurting each other - are they?) I'm sure that's just the way things naturally are. I don't usually have as many fry as I hear can happen, but I'm not planning on selling them, and a 15gal will only hold so many fish. Hopefully the highest quality fry are what's surviving and I can enjoy my fish even more.
 
they're in a 20 gallon long tank! i have 4 males and actually 5 females but only 4 appear pregnant. i bought a baby-hide out grass yesterday, so i guess the fry might have a pretty good chance, and maybe the females can also use it to hide herselves. i decided to release them back in the aquarium because they were really stressed in the net. i just hope they dont die because of the males' harrassament! i know there's not much i can do. :(
 
flyingfish said:
I believe the real stress on the mommas is when they get confined to such a small area, such as a breeding net or tank. If you aren't trying to breed tons of fish the best solution is to provide plenty of hiding places like plants or stacking rocks (I use mexican beach pebbles) to create tiny caves the parents can't get into. The babies will hide as they get born and the mommas will deal with the males on their own. The fact that they "bother" the females used to irritate me too, it still does actually, but I don't think they are half as irritated as I am. (They aren't actually hurting each other - are they?) I'm sure that's just the way things naturally are. I don't usually have as many fry as I hear can happen, but I'm not planning on selling them, and a 15gal will only hold so many fish. Hopefully the highest quality fry are what's surviving and I can enjoy my fish even more.
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you are absolutely right. at least that's how i feel about it too! i've released the females! thank you and EMS for helping!!

BTW, what should i feed the fry???
 
i bought this dried baby shrimp to feed the fry. is it ok?
i have only 4 of them in the breeding net, but i've seen others swimming around. now, how can i do water changes/vacumm without sucking them??
 
Your best bet is to feed them liquifry for the first few days. Thats what I feed all my guppy and betta fry and they grow up tough :) lol when doing water changes you just need to be careful, if they swim near the gravel vac put your finger on the end to stop the flow until they swim away, they'll probably be scared of it for the first little while. Hope that helps.
 
chrisinha said:
...how can i do water changes/vacumm without sucking them??
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I siphon my water into a 5 gallon bucket with a rather large hose. So far I've only "sucked up" one or two fry an have been able to retrieve them from the bucket no worse for wear. Aside from that, it's usually easier to chase em in the bucket then the tank anyway. ;)
 
Sorry, I was out for a day - I just crush the flake food up really fine. One pinch finely crushed for babies, one regular pinch for anything over two months old. I've seen babies only days old take bites out of tiny flakes. Guppies also really like algae, so if you've got much of that, as any well established tank does, they'll probably be fine. (Now if only I could train them to scrape the tank walls and gravel instead of just "pecking" them . . . ) :D
 
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