Help Emergency - Guppy Is Giving Birth

[Rox]

I just saw two fries in my tank, for the first time ever! So my guppy is in the process of giving birth... I don't want these fries because I don't know how to take care of them. Also, they are so small I am almost certain that they will get sucked in the filter. I turned the filter off once I realized this. I don't know how long it will stay off. What should I do?

Also if the mother is big/hungry enough, will she eat the fry?

 

[ProjectMayhem]

I just saw two fries in my tank, for the first time ever! So my guppy is in the process of giving birth... I don't want these fries because I don't know how to take care of them. Also, they are so small I am almost certain that they will get sucked in the filter. I turned the filter off once I realized this. I don't know how long it will stay off. What should I do?

Also if the mother is big/hungry enough, will she eat the fry?

What else is in the tank? Chances are the other fish will just eat them, they're easy to take care of however, you can either get a new tank or put in a nursery station in your existing tank, if you feed dried flake this is fine to feed the babies.

 

[Meggie :)]

Without doing anything at all besides crushing up the flake food whenever I fed my fish I ended up with 12+ baby guppy fry and none got sucked into the filter my advice is to just let nature takes its course. Some may get eaten. If you want some to survive just make sure they have places to hide...plants, live or fake, are a good place for fry to hide

 

[Rox]

Thank you for your replies. Here is my update.

I read on the web that guppies will give birth to a minimum of at least 5 fry. Well, I only have 2 here so I assume the others were eaten. I saw the mother chasing one of them too so I may be correct.

It is really hard to take care of these fry in the same tank as 2 adult fish (female guppy and platy). When I try to put some crushed flakes in, the adults are the first to run to it scaring the babies away. I don't want them to go hungry however they do nip a lot at the decorations much like the adults; I believe they are eating algae.

To protect them from the filter, I covered it with some light cloth held with rubber bands. Works fine, they can get close without getting sucked in.

Edit: I forgot to mention, yes they have plenty of fake plants to hide in, in fact that's where they spend most of their time.

 

[swanseastilo]

Just leave them get on with it. If you really want them get a little hatchery or something like it. Mine survived ended up with way 2 many and I seen plenty get eaten as well

Easiest thing to do is crush flakes and push them down a little and feed big flakes at same time. Then some will sink

 

[Meggie :)]

When did she give birth? Because if it was a week or less ago, maybe a little more, I guarantee you have more than two! Lol

 

[Rox]

It must have been on the night before I started this thread, or early in the morning on the day of this thread, because I always inspect the tank and this was the first time I saw guppies. There are only two and like I said, if there were more they were probably eaten.

I am thinking of buying a ½ gallon bowl, borrowing some gravel (and the water) from the tank and raising the fries in there. I would have to change some of the water every other day not with conditioned tap water, but with water from the tank, correct? And then replace that water from the tank with conditioned tap water. I would feed them powdered flakes about 3-5 times a day. The room temperature is around 80°F.

Would this be a good idea?

 

[Meggie :)]

I highly, highly suggest not putting them into a bowl. In my opinion it is worse then keeping them in a breeding trap. I found three baby guppies swimming around in my tank and I put them in a breeding net...and I know I shouldn't have. Because in a week I found ten more and I keep finding more..and the ones swimming around in the tank were twice the size of the ones in the net...so I let them out and they are all still alive. What I would do is just let them into the main tank. They re extremely fast. My mollies tried to eat some a few times but the babies were too fast. If you have any decor in your tank, I wouldn't bank on the fact that you only have two...they are extremely good at hiding!

 

[Delloy12]

If you've for a lot of plants you'll be fine and there is a small chance that your guppy could be still giving birth

And BTW I fed the fry normal flakes but I crushed them up really small.

 

[Gavo]

Same as Meggie said, I kept 40 fry in traps then noticed more babies swimming around twice the size, so I put all the fry in the tank and there are plenty left now.

 

[ProjectMayhem]

Thank you for your replies. Here is my update.

I read on the web that guppies will give birth to a minimum of at least 5 fry. Well, I only have 2 here so I assume the others were eaten. I saw the mother chasing one of them too so I may be correct.

It is really hard to take care of these fry in the same tank as 2 adult fish (female guppy and platy). When I try to put some crushed flakes in, the adults are the first to run to it scaring the babies away. I don't want them to go hungry however they do nip a lot at the decorations much like the adults; I believe they are eating algae.

To protect them from the filter, I covered it with some light cloth held with rubber bands. Works fine, they can get close without getting sucked in.

Edit: I forgot to mention, yes they have plenty of fake plants to hide in, in fact that's where they spend most of their time.

I had a new baby fish I bought which had trouble getting food, I crushed the food into practically dust, with filters running it spreads all over the tank and sinks all over with no way that the adults can get all of it.