Culling Deformed Fry

[bigfish]

Yes i'm back again i did have 13 guppy fry but now left with 6, 2 of which are deformed i.e a kink in the back bone.

I know its cruel to some people but how do you cull deformed fry? i only have platies and guppies in my tropical aquarium.

I have decided to take Williams advice and not to buy females guppies from that garden centre as they obviously carry a defective gene coz it's happend twice now to me. Ithink i will buy sword tails instead or platies.

 

[pondfreak4365]

bigfish,
Some will think me cruel, but I just let mine live as long as they can. It's too sad for me to put them down.

 

[CFC]

Buy yourself a mini predator so that you can feed the deformed fry to it,killing two birds with one stone that way,free food and getting rid of the fry without any mess.
Dwarf pike cichlids,leaf fish,some sleaper gobies or possibly a dwarf snakehead would be good choices and a single specimen wouldnt require too bigger tank (about 20-25g).

 

[dolphin]

Hi Bigfish.

Do we kill physicaly disabled babies?

Unless you are breeding for selling, let them live. Give them names, and treet them as your special fish.

Dolphin

 

[William]

Wise words dolphin. If you want it to become a fish breeder in it for the money then you should cull the babies as feeding them will just waste space and money on food. However as a hobbyist you can choose what you wish to do, many deformed fry will die but some will survive and if you wish to keep them then do. For killing deformed fry he usual method is crushing the head using a heavy object this way the death is instantaneous. Although as CFC says if you are a breeder you most likely will have some predatory fish for faster disposal and less effort in disposing the deformed fry.

 

[bigfish]

Oh thats ok coz i wanted to keep them i'm now down to 4 fry now and they all seem to be putting weight on and have large appettites.

 

[William]

I hope these little ones pull through, do you have any platy / sword or molly fry yet? as they will almost all survive For some reasons guppies these days whole litters can die As i explained earlier due to genetic weaknesses from years of inbreeding

 

[bigfish]

No not as yet my blue mickey mouse platies are pregnant and my calio platy is too, so fingers crossed i might have some babies in the middle of June.

I'm allowed to have a new tank but not sure where we are putting it,well make space

 

[platy&guppyluver]

i also agree with dolphin and william