Didnt Expect This!

[UK_Dave]

Well, the other day we went out and bought some guppies for the tank in my nippers bedroom, as we only go for cheap fish for his tank rather than the special fish I get for mine.

Next thing we knew, our older child came into the living room the next night and said that there was loads of small fish in there, so went to have a look and low and behold, we now have 19 babies!!! 1 of the guppies must of already been pregnant as we only bought 3 females!

Because breeding was never on my list to do, we werent prepared! So what I did was catch them, and acclimatise them to my tank (as mine is bigger, plus its been set up longer) but instead of just putting them to swim free in my tank, we put them into a small bowl with holes in it and covered in tights so they cant escape through the holes, and allows the water to get in and out. (Best I could do in a short period of time)

So, we want to keep them as I dont believe in just throwing them away, or leaving them as fish food...But I have never cared for such small babies!! So I dont know where to start!!

What do I feed them? Last night I gave them crushed up fish flake, but thats about it for the moment as I dont know what to do!!

Please help, really need info on whats best for them, how to care, what to feed, and how long they need to stay segregated from our larger fish

thanks

 

[bricko]

Whenever guppies bread in my old community tank I just let nature take its course.

They were fed on flake and must have forraged for leftover crumbs from the bigger fish, guess it depends on what type of fish you have in there really.

You can get fine fry flake, not sure if this is nutritionally different than standerd flake to warrant it but may be advantageous.

Is your tank heavily planted as mine tended to survive by sheltering in plants etc.

Again depending on what size / type of fish you have in the main tank I would consider releasing them as soon as possible i/e 1cm long

 

[UK_Dave]

well, in my tank I have:

Silver Shark
2 x large Angels
4 x Blind Cave Fish
3 x young clown loach
1 x young common plec
4 x Glass catfish

In the kids tank we have:
2 x Gourami
3 x Blind caves
and 2 Guppies (another died)

My tank is heavily planted, although most are not tall plants, and the kids tank has a few large fake plants, 1 of which they hid under well, but the gouramis were showing a bit too much interest which is why I removed them as I felt they were going to eat them

 

[Honeythorn]

Guppies are livebearing fish ( they give birth to live babies as the name suggests ) they are EXTREMELY prolific breeders and will keep on breeding unless you separate them.

Mlaes and females are easy to separate by sex. Males have the bright patterened fins, and females are usually very dull and greyish. The sex organs on a male guppy are noticably different to that of a female. Males have a long pointed appendage under the belly near the anal fin. Females don't they just have a rounded fin and no dangly bits.

Remove the females and take them back to the shop. Buy a guppy breeding net, this is a floating net to go in your tank, most LFS' do sell them. Catch all the babies and put them in the net.

You can buy fry food to feed them, this is usually a thickish liquid. When they're bigger you can switch to finely crushed flake food.

Once the young are a couple of months old you should take them to the store. You won't get anything for thm but you'll at least get them off your hands.

If you don't keep the sexes separate you will quite literally end up VERY overcrowded .

 

[Harlequins]

Be prepared for a few more drops yet,the females can store sperm for up to 6 months with no male present,so they will continue to drop fry every month or so until its ran out...

All of your fish will eat fry given a chance.

 

[OldMan47]

A breeding net will allow the fry to survive until they are old enough to be released into the tank without being eaten. You can easily feed them with crushed flake as you have been doing. Be careful not to overfeed teh fry and use a gravel vac on the net frequently to prevent a build of decaying food.