Feeding the baby guppies...

[thefishylover]

I was just awarded a litter of a hundred guppy babies by the wonderful Guppy Mom . I've raised fancy gups a few years ago, and had to deal with this problem. You see, an Internet article said something like "In order for your guppies to mature correctly, you need to feed the fry the #1 food: baby brine shrimp. Rotate other live foods, flakes, etc. into their diet." However, a friend (who has hundreds of beautiful gups) said simply, "Just give them regular flake foods. They'll grow."

How contradicting!
Well, I did not find live baby brine in any stores nearby, so I just fed Tropical Fish Flakes and Pellets. They did not mature as fast as I'd expected, but, however, did reach a "gigantic" size.

Now I've got new babies to deal with ! Their current diet is as planned: flake food, pellet food, and egg yolk. No brine shrimp or anything live (still nowhere to get it from).

So I'm just sharing my experiences. Do you think brine shrimp is a "must" for baby gups? What do you feed them (anything live?)? Any ideas about this is welcome.

Thanks! (Sorry for this loooonnnnngggg thread...lol)

 

[downloader]

your doing fine, If you want them to grow faster, put them in a small tank with no gravel. This will make it easier fro them to find the food. Good luck
www.bluewhippet.net

 

[daveedka]

with guppies I have never fed special foods, and don't know of folks who have. I tend to grind up the flakes as much as I can between my fingers, to make them easier to handle for the fry, and I feed a lot of freeze dried daphnia, which is almost a powder to begin with. mine grow very quickly, and seem to be quite healthy. I also plant a lot of Java moss, and use prefilters. the j-moss gets hammered by the babies. I don't think they really eat the moss, but it is said to house a lot of infusoria, and they feed on that. the filter sponges trap a lot of stuff and the fry constantly graze on the sponges.
Dave

 

[Lazersniper]

Mine grew just fine with crushed flake from the minute they were born to their ... adult life. They really do like the plants. Unfortunately I found out the hard way that the band I bought the plants in were lead. Killed all the future guppies I ever put in there, as well it made all the fry that grew up with the band sterile. Too bad, they were beautiful when they grew up. So now I have to start all over again.

A varied diet is prefered however it's not necessary. Besides baby brine shrimp seem to be more of a hassle then they're worth.