Guppy had 6 babies! :)

I have 4 female guppys in my smaller tank, moved them there as 3 males disappeared in my larger tank (think it was the tinfoils...) anyway, so one has given birth to 6 fry, it is day 2 today and they are actually doing well... I thought they would have been eaten by now, but they seem to be good at hiding out in the plants... I am feeding them brine shrimp and crushing flakes for them too. I went and bought a net for fry that I can place inside the tank, but I am not sure how to catch them to put them in there, or even if this is advisable, please can someone that knows about this let me know how to do it and if I should or not.. don't want to stress the little ones out and the instructions are to place the mother in there and take her out when she is done giving birth which I cant do now that they are already born, I do think that she is going to have more though as she is still big.

Thanks,
Candice

 

And soon there will be alot more!

When i 1st got mine i was advised to leave them in the tank (not in breeding net). Some will be eaten but if there is enough hiding spaces you should be fine.

 

I catch them with a cup... then put them into the breeding net in the tank until they've grown out. Takes them about 5 weeks to get to a size where they wouldn't get eaten in my tank... But I don't have hectic predators in my tank.. besides the big Angel.

The bigger the breeding net, the better.

 

6 babies? Sounds like most of them got eaten.

 

It depends on whether you want these babies or not. If there are lots of plants (finer leaved plants) for the fry to hide in then leave them where they are. If you really want these babies not to be eaten, then catch them and put them in the breeders net.

 

Oh my word its YOU!!!! Irma!!

[off topic]

Hey haven't realized that you are the same Irma from the Guppy forum!!!

[on topic]

Seems as if everyone who has guppies, breeds them. (Whether they like it or not)

TM

 

She is still pretty big, so I think that's all she had for now... perhaps I should put her in the breeding net now for her to have the others... I was told that they release the fry when they feel safe to do so, is this true? after the water change yesterday morning, I put the light off and covered the tank with a black towel as there is some fine white moss on the plants, and I wanted to kill it, and then about an hour after doing this, I checked on them, and that's when I saw the fry.. maybe she felt safe cause it was so dark?

---------- Post added at 14:10 ---------- Previous post was at 14:10 ----------

Thanks Ashley, it is pretty big, especially compared to how small they are... lol... I can try with a cup, I just don't want to frighten them... will give it a try though.

---------- Post added at 14:10 ---------- Previous post was at 14:10 ----------

Thanks Irma, I actually do want them, so going to try the cup method mentioned by Ashley if it doesnt work, thats also fine as there are quite a few hiding places for them in the tank anyway.

 

You shouldn't frighten them. Guppies are fairly hardy... and hey... if they don't survive... you'll have more in no time. I've actually stopped breeding guppies and put them all into my community tank for the betas to eat the fry because they were starting to take over the nano tank that they were in.

 

gonna try then and see what happens... doubt there will be any more as the other 3 females are all normal size and I don't have any males left, think they were eaten in the big tank by the tinfoils cause they literally disappeared, so it will be cool to raise the fry, for the experience of it & the kids are enjoying it too, esp after losing Rex, had a whole cycle in one day, death and birth.

 

Females can store sperm so just be ready for more. . .

 

TM beat me to it... yes... I had a lonely female with no males give birth to 4 batches of fry.

 

Very interesting! I dont think I will raise more after this... so I have put the fry in the breeding net now, there are about 7 or 8 of them actually... I will keep checking if she has more and just put them in there too... looking forward to seeing their colours and if they are male or female

 

Good luck and in no time you will need to get a bigger tank for all those new guppies...lol

 

Sometimes when you go to buy show guppies you may see a female show guppy tank with one or two ugly looking males in there. This is to prevent you from breeding the strain purely. It would take a few batches to get rid of that sperm . . .

 

LOL, actually think I want to get another bigger tank regardless... went from one 30lt to an additional 220lt community tank for me and 47lt for my son...and a goldfish bowl for my 8 year old son, in the space of 4 months lol... MTS has officially set in!

 

Some pics of the babies and one of the mother, there are 10 now! they are so cute!

 

I find that all of mine survive if i take them out of the tank a day or two after they get born. I usually end up with between 20-30 fry(alive) at a time