Guppy fry feeding schedule?

[biofish]

Hello! My current batch of fry are three weeks old today. They’re my first batch, so they are my ‘experimental’ and ‘I don’t know what I’m doing’ batch. In fact, I thought my pregnant guppy had a couple more weeks before she popped so I wasn’t able to move her to the fry tank to give birth. Only 6 babies survived till discovery and I quickly extracted them and put them in the fry tank. Luckily, all 6 are alive and well with no obvious deformities 3 weeks later!

and I was just wondering how much they should be fed as they age?

my adult guppies eat once a day and I’ve been giving the baby guppies 4 small pinches a day of ground up flakes and freeze dried bloodworms at different times and I just wondered what the weaning schedule is? I started feeding them 3 pinches a day a couple days ago.

a couple of them have started getting black in their tails, which I’ve read is a sign of their colors starting to come in. However I still have no idea what genders they are or even how exactly to gender fry. I’ve read the “long anal fin on men” but is that as pronounced at a month old (which I’ve heard is when they can be gendered)? Right now they all look very much the same.

 

[jonny-5]

Freeze dried food is not the best for fry.

I feed any fry i have 4 times a day with different foods until around 4 weeks old, Then i feed 2 times a day with again various foods, Morning & evening for maybe another 4 weeks then after that i simply feed them with the adults once a day. They grow at an excellent rate when i use this way but without the waste food

 

[jonny-5]

Oh & chances are if the fry are male they will colour up first. Although i have had females that also colour up but dont forget females mainly colour up on the tail & top fin only, But again i have seen females with body markings too

 

[JazzyV]

3 weeks can be too young or early to sex them..grow them out more so you can see by just feed them around the clock like Jonny-5 share …they are easy baby that don’t absolutely need live foods to grow but feed nutritional food..freeze dry doesn’t have much for them to grow. Make sure keep water clean accordingly to feedings…and Gratz mommy/daddy

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

There isn't any set feeding schedule for raising fry, everyone does it differently! I've seen everything from 2-8 times a day recommended. Guppy fry will survive and continue to grow if fed twice daily, but with small stomachs and a lot of energy needed to grow, they'll tend to grow faster and better if fed 3-5 small meals per day, when possible, and especially when very tiny. Then you can taper that down as you wish as they get bigger. Not everyone is at home all day and able to feed that often of course, and in those cases, 2-3 times a day is fine!
Also remember that they're omnivores, and in an established tank, especially one with live plants - guppies and fry will also eat algae and micro organisms they find in the tank between feedings. But I know you've said yours are in a fry tank, how large is the fry tank and how long has it been up and running?

Just as, if not more important for healthy growth of fry is frequent, large water changes. The more often, the better, and the more you feed, the more frequent water changes need to be - especially if it's a large batch of fry. Smaller tanks also need far more water changes than larger ones, since there's less water volume to dilute the waste being produced.

As for sexing them; yes, it's normal for them to start slowly colouring up at that age, and black is the first colour they develop. It's tough to sex them at three weeks, but by weeks 4-5 it becomes clearer, as the males develop the gonopodium. You can watch a few youtube videos showing how to sex guppy fry, you'll soon be able to spot the differences yourself! And you get better at spotting the differences earlier and earlier in their development as you raise more and more fry. In a couple of months, you'll find it easy to tell the difference at 3-4 weeks of age At around two months old it will be easy to tell, and you'll want to separate the sexes, since they can begin breeding before reaching three months old!

Congrats on your first fry! Six is a good number to start with. Enough to be exciting, but not an overwhelming amount! Be aware though that a female guppies first batch or two of fry tend to be smaller, she may have only had six this time, and you didn't lose any to the adults. But the batch size usually increases after her first batches, with 20-40 per batch being pretty typical... Have fun!

 

[JazzyV]

they do increase..my female had 3 babies..in quarantine lol literally just miss giving birth in the bag from the lfs ..then a dozen after that and it has not stop

ooh forgot..I also leave a cube of rapashy gel food sometimes so they can snack on that and algae from plants inbetween meals if they get hungry..kinda like leaving out kibbles lol

 

[jonny-5]

Yes as they get a little older they have more fry each time, At present i only have 2 females that are old enough to breed. I always seperate males and females as soon as possible.......so far ive been able to sex the 20 odd broods i have had

 

[biofish]

What foods do you recommend for fry? I wanna give them the best chances possible!

the fry are in a 10 gallon. When they were born, I was in the process of cleaning the tank out and giving it a thorough scrub, so I had to rush a bit on the construction. I filled it with clean water and I do weekly 20% water changes and I used stability to prevent new tank syndrome. And I put in a little of the main tank water into the fry tank with each water change. It’s not an ideal situation…. But I’m doing my best with my current knowledge.

the only other fish in the tank with them is a baby Cory cat. He’s recovering from an eye injury, so I put him in a place where the adult fish won’t pick on him (before that though I had him in my salted medical tank for a few days and then moved him into the fry tank for recovery). The fry are half as big as him and incredibly active so I’m not too worried about the Cory wanting a taste.

 

[biofish]

Currently cycling an empty 10 gallon for future babies.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

What foods do you recommend for fry? I wanna give them the best chances possible!

the fry are in a 10 gallon. When they were born, I was in the process of cleaning the tank out and giving it a thorough scrub, so I had to rush a bit on the construction. I filled it with clean water and I do weekly 20% water changes and I used stability to prevent new tank syndrome. And I put in a little of the main tank water into the fry tank with each water change. It’s not an ideal situation…. But I’m doing my best with my current knowledge.

the only other fish in the tank with them is a baby Cory cat. He’s recovering from an eye injury, so I put him in a place where the adult fish won’t pick on him (before that though I had him in my salted medical tank for a few days and then moved him into the fry tank for recovery). The fry are half as big as him and incredibly active so I’m not too worried about the Cory wanting a taste.

Food - as long as it's small enough for them to fit it into their mouths, they'll eat! Variety helps make sure they're getting everything they need nutritionally. Use good quality dried foods, don't over do the bloodworms - once a week as a treat is fine, but think of it as "pizza night" food for them, not something to feed more than once a week or so. If you go with frozen foods, there's a huge variety available See what your LFS has in stock. Daphnia, cyclops, moina and baby brine shrimp were always my staples, so they'd get a different one each time.

If you'd like to venture into live foods (which the fish go wild for, both fry and adults! Fun to watch them), the ones I started with (because they're super easy to culture) are microworms. Walter, Banana, Micro- all cultured the same way and easy to do, don't cost much at all to get a starter or in equipment, and provide endless free food as long as you make a new culture every few weeks.

For cycling the new fry tank - take some substrate and/or filter media from your established tank, not the water. The nitrifying bacteria that detoxify and process ammonia and nitrites live on hard surfaces, not in the water column. So they're in the filter, coating the gravel, living on the glass etc, and you can jump start/boost the bacterial colonies in the new set up by taking a bit of the filter media or substrate from the main tank, and adding it to the new one.

I would increase the percentage of water you change out. In the main tank as well as the fry. Remember that if you only remove 20%, you're leaving 80% of the bad stuff in there. Fish and plants can easily handle much larger water changes, 50-75% is a good rule of thumb, so long as you use water conditioner, and make sure the temperature of the new water matches the tank temp before adding it in. You don't have to worry about crashing your cycle through water changes, since the bacteria don't live in the water column, and fresh clean water is the key to healthy fish, and resolving most issues people have.

Poor little cory cat! I'm a cory fanatic Hope he gets well soon!

 

[biofish]

Put a handful of gravel from the main tank in the fry tank!

 

[biofish]

The fry are officially a month old and I still can’t confidently gender them

They all kinda look like females but I’m not sure…

I will try and upload a picture tomorrow

 

[jonny-5]

Look for any colouring or markings in the main body, They are more than likely Males, Sometimes it can take a little longer than 4 weeks to sex them......Depends on how fast they grow, i.e Feeding schedule, Water changes, Genes

 

[jonny-5]

Also all young males do look like females as the gonopodium wont be developed until 4-6 Weeks. The males start chasing the females at this stage

 

[biofish]

A couple of them do have colors! Only black for now. And I think for sure at least one of them is female. I spied what looks like a gravid spot developing.