Pregnant Guppies

jedimom

AC Members
Jul 6, 2008
10
0
0
Hi all,

I'm pretty new to this hobby and could use some advice. I have two pregnant guppies in a plastic breeder. The directions say to leave the grate in, the fry will fall through the grate, then put the mommas in the regular tank while leaving the fry in the breeder, with no grate, for about three weeks. But how do I clean the breeder of waste while there are fish in it?

Also, do the chain stores (Petsmart and Petco) generally buy guppies from individuals?

I'm sure I'll be on here with a million more questions, but that's it for now!

Thanking you in advance for your help...
 
Don't use them. They often cause miscarriage, and as you say, they are very hard to keep clean.
 
They wont buy them from you, sometimes they will take them unpon surrender. For them to give you money you would have to be a supplier and be able to supply all of their stores with fish. If you see her dropping get the fry out and get a small tank with a sponge filter and set it up to put them in if you want to keep them
 
I have a 20 long with 5 huge female guppies. I have finally found homes for the males but apparently the females will have babies for a while longer. I just have some parrot feather and anacaris (spelled wrong?) floating in the tank. The babies head straight for it and do very well til they are big enough to face the big, wild, world on their own.
 
As some of the previous posters have stated that the breeder boxes are more trouble than they are worth. I remember when I was little and my mom took care of my guppy tank, she hated the breeder box. Here pretty soon I am going to try the guppy world again and I have just purchased plenty of plants and floaters to keep them hid.
 
Breeder box was no good. Next I opted for a breeder net rather than the box and it worked out but not the best idea. I then tried just leaving them in the main tank and try to fish out the fry. My 4th attempt was to do nothing. Brood 5 & 6 I put the female in a 5gallon tank alone. Left the light off. That seemed to give the best results. Mother was removed from tank after birthing.
 
In terms of cleaning, you can use an airline tube. Just make sure you watch very carefully while your doing it, otherwise you could "shoop" up a few babies.
BTW, I really like nets much better, I've tried the boxes and they just don't work as well.
I've had pet stores take fry from me before, they'll usually give you store credit for half the amount they're worth.

HTH!
 
AquariaCentral.com