Babies Becoming Food

Hi guys,

I have a 120L tank with Swords, guppies and platties and I'm trying so hard to breed them but every time they have babies they seem to become supper. I have loads of plants and weed in my tank for them to hide in but yet they still get eaten i was thinking of making a glass partition for my tank for the babies does anyone have some advice for me?

 

Is it not possible to move the babies into a small tank of their own?

If not and you decide to go the route of partitioning them off from the other fish there is a few things you should take into consideration. Firstly you must ensure that the water on 'their' side of the tank has adequate water flow, especially if you are 'sharing' the filter between the two sides. This may be a difficult task because if you put the glass division lower than the water level, the babies will just swim across to the other side anyway, if you drill holes into the partition that are too large the same thing will happen. What filtration system are you currently running???

 

I have 2 aqiclear filters in the tank and i was thinking of cutting out squares in the glass and covering them with netting and the partition won't be permanant just while the are small enough to eat?

 

That could work then. Try and put a long piece of netting touching the water surface perhaps held rigid between the glass (hope that makes sense) so that you have your surface movement throughout the tank still. It will probably be easier to use non-treated firm plastic rather than trying to cut squares in glass unless you already have pieces of glass which you can silicon the netting to. You could even use a large sheet of netting held in place by a rigid frame.

 

I've got 4 baby Swords right now. I originally had one of those plastic "guppie tanks" where the parent goes n the top, gives birth, and the babies fall to the bottom. The only concern here is that when you put the mom in the tank, she stresses out, and does nothing. (Or in my case, stressed so much she died!)

What I have done now is put a thick floating plant at the top, let the sword give birth naturally. (Dunno how many she had, but we saved 4). My theory is that the 4 we found in the floating plant were strong, and would survive. I then bought a net box which sits in the tank. Basically it has a plastic frame, and is totally covered on 5 sides with netting, and the top is open. I caught the baby swords and transferred them into this net tank. The nice thing about this is that they are actually in the same tank as all the other fish, water freely passes through the netting, and they are safe. It also makes it easier to feed them their specialised diet. (I just use 'fry food' in a bottle from the LPS).

I also through in some of the floating plants into this net so they can still hide, because they can still be seen through the net by the adults. The net is also a LOT bigger than the plastic Guppy tank.

 

floating plants always work best for me, elodia. Vallis is also a good plant for babies.

 

Those floating nets are great. As long as you don't put too many babies in there though, it could become a little crowded. Have you tried using 'guppy grass'? It's wonderful stuff and looks quite good too.

 

Hey Zoom - If you pay postage I got about 30kg of guppy grass looking for a home !!!

 

This is also fantastic.... unless of course you have what I call "KAMAKAZI ZEBRA DANIOS"... when they see the baby in that grass, the go like a bat out of hell into that grass. Usually they miss, get all tangled in the grass, the baby get's a fright, jumps out the grass, and get's 'gapsed' by a nearby lurking Angel!

 

Danios make really good Oscar food

 

Eish Zoom - sounds like you have some rather 'eager' fishies there I actually made Gavin get rid of his Giant Danio because it was eating all the guppies - of all sizes that would fit into it's mouth!

 

On the live bearers topic, just wanted to tell vee & gav that my guppies from Rowland actually bred already....saw a few babies inbetween my plants when I was doing a lil bit of maintenance in there. Imagine the odds

 

Ag nee Zafgak. Shame!

 

:bigsmile: Just goes to show that you can't stop guppies from going at it :bigsmile: Ours have also been going bos - babies all over the place and at least three females VERY pregnant :bigsmile:

 

I find it surprising cos guppies is one fish that doesn't seem to last with me lol

 

Anymore of that guppy grass??
If so i'll pay for courier costs.

 

What is a good male to female ratio for breeding guppies?

4 to 1?

 

Hi all,
I breed angels aswell as livebearers.
My livebearers actually get use to the guppy tank and net. I would put my livebearer female in the guppy net once a week. Now she does not get that stressed out, and she ends up having 30-60 babies. I would put a bit of guppy grass or java moss in, and the babies are safe. a Day after she gives birth, the female goes into a recovery tank where she can have a little peace from the males for about 3 days and goes back into her normal tank. I would siphon the babies out into thier own 30 L grow out tank. Thats what I do and it does actually work...

Regards Jason

Hi Gilbertr14,
I also have 4 females per male, but its actually 3 females to 1 male.

Regards Jason

 

Slojo - the guppy grass is now rotting on the cape town dump, was almost a black bag full...

 

Pity:noworry: