Afraid To Do A Water Change

[veeja111]

A couple of days ago I noticed guppy babies in my 55 gal tank, about 4 skimming the top and 3 or 4 in one area on bottom, how can I be sure, there aren't fry on the bottom when I siphon ?, I keep one half of the tank lit and that is where I have seen babies, so thought I would siphon dark end, will look first, what do you guys do ? ty carol

 

[Tolak]

Brighter lights, thumb near the bucket end of the siphon ready to stop it. In a 55 on a standard height stand put the bucket on a folding chair, easier to reach the end. You'll eventually end up with a few fry in the bucket, no big deal. Use a large dropper or turkey baster to pull them out of the bucket and squirt them back into the tank.

 

[zuulan]

I have my fry with no gravel/sand in the bottom, so that makes it easier.

I siphon my water into a clear bowl and then double check nothing is in there before I pour it down the drain. Worked so far.

 

[OldMan47]

Another way that works is to cover the inlet end of the tube with one of your fish nets. The net keeps the fry from being sucked up but unfortunately interferes with cleaning the substrate.

 

[This Old Spouse]

I put either a piece of cheesecloth on the end with a rubber band or a piece of nylon stocking. Generally the fry don't want to be near the siphon so it hasn't been a problem for me. With the cheesecloth you can get bigger pieces of gunk off the bottom.

 

[amy1994]

I put tights (that i don't use ) over the end. As i have sucked up 1 fry before, he was alright though thankfully

 

[minnnt]

I use the fish net trick also. I don't bother cleaning the gravel until they are big enough and clever enough to get out of the way. If you do manage to get a few in the bucket then don't worry about it mate, just fish em out and put em back in the tank.

 

[veeja111]

Ty for all the great advice, if I feed them fry food 8 times a day, tiny bit, how often should I do a water change

 

[minnnt]

Thats a good amount. How old are they? Try them on some crushed high quality flake. You can basically make it as tiny as possible so they have no problem feeding. Make sure it's high in protein which will make them grow even faster. Also if you wanted to try them on 'live' food then you could try them with frozen baby brine shrimp, this is also beneficial for them to grow quickly. How often can you do waterchanges? If you could happily do them everyother day then that would be brilliant for your babies. 10% every other day would be ideal! That also makes for healthy fast growing fry.

Good luck!

 

[OldMan47]

If you are feeding that often, it becomes imperative to do daily or maybe every other day large water changes. You do not want to risk a build up of toxins from any uneaten food.

 

[ARMS87]

Use a jug and be careful.

 

[Aqua Marine]

I was doing a water change earlier this week, thought there were no fry in my tank and when pouring the water away suddenly spotted one. Too late though, down the drain he went

 

[veeja111]

did my first water change yesterday, didn't see any fry in bucket, I did notice that my 3 platy are 2, noticed this before the water change, can't find body tho, the two I have are real chubby so kinda think they are girls with lots of eggs. so could see lil orange babies soon, got a nylon over intake tube, wasn't out puting very well so dh put 4 straws around it with a rubber band to hold nylon away from holes so we would have less clogs then put nylon over them its working great. its so much fun finding baby fish

 

[OldMan47]

Platies do not carry eggs, they are livebearers. We have a post in this section of the forum to help you decide the fish's gender. I have a link to it in my signature area. With common livebearers like platies it is quite easy to do.