Can Never Get My Guppy Fry In Time :(

[crazyguppy]

i have a 40L tank with 3 male guppies and 9 females... and i can NEVER get my fry in time!!
i've read all the forums about when females are about to drop, the signs etc, but i normally wake up in the morning and there's only 2-3 fry left!!
i've set up a 9L tank for the only fry i have left and i'm hoping to be able to add some more to my fry tank.

any tips on being able to pinpoint the time of birth any better?

please help!!

 

[BettaCrazy7]

You can set up another tank with lots of hiding places (floating plants are great) and when the female is about 2 weeks from dropping put her in the tank. This is less stressful than a breeder trap and you'll save more fry.

 

[OldMan47]

Forget all of the special arrangement systems and just get plenty of cover for your fish. I keep my junk guppies, the ones my wife picked out at the LFS, in a 10 gallon tank. That is between 37 and 38 litres. I have a simple approach to that tank. I feed it daily to excess, until the fish look sated, not merely well fed. I also have a clump of java moss in it as cover for any fry that come along. This is the tank.

What happens is that every 3 or 4 months I must remove all adult fish to keep the population under control. Because the fish are always in top condition, they demand a much better price at my fish club auction than I should expect. The result is a self perpetuating breeding colony of guppies that produces far more adult fish than I have any reason to expect. They even manage to pay the fish food bill for many of my tanks.

 

[crazyguppy]

isn't it bad to overfeed the fish?
the guppies look like they're constantly hungry... i think they would eat all day if they could.

i have plenty of dense plants and little hiding places... they just seem to disappear!!

what's the best food to feed the babies? i've just been crushing up the flake until it's really small!

 

[OldMan47]

It is a bad idea to overfeed but feeding all they will eat causes no harm. I feed generously but not to excess.

 

[orangefish]

Just as BettaCrazy said, you can set up another tank and put her in it. There doesn't even need to be too many hiding places as the female will release a hormone as she gives birth that supresses her appetite for 12hours or so. Therefore, even if she does give birth in the night, she is unlikely to eat them and then you can release the mother back into the tank.

 

[OldMan47]

I have heard of the hormone release before but have never seen it affect a female's appetite. That is why I try to keep mine well fed.

 

[crazyguppy]

i put three heavily pregnant females in my 9L tank.... i think they aborted!
they look really skinny and now so i've put them back with the rest of the fish and they look a little happier!
hope they dont die

 

[orangefish]

I have heard of the hormone release before but have never seen it affect a female's appetite. That is why I try to keep mine well fed.

Ah well I'm pretty sure that's it's in the pinned thread about a guppy's birth cycle or something in this section of the forum. I put my female guppy in a trap just before she gave birth, and she wasn't interested in eating the fry at all as she gave birth to something. I may be wrong as I'm new to birthing!

 

[OldMan47]

I am well aware of the fact that the hormone release thing is widely circulated on the internet, including here on our own forum. What I have never seen is any scientific evidence that supports the concept. I have plenty of personal anecdotal evidence that any such effect is not effective in preserving fry but having a well fed female does tend to succeed for me. I wish I knew the real story from a truly reliable source. I would imagine that trying to ensure that both groups of fish, the experimental ones and the controls, were fed an identical amount prior to a drop would be difficult to control experimentally. I know from experience that any tank that is not being fed artificially, like when I am away on vacation, is a tank that will have no fry when I return, even if it had some when I left.