HELP

[Nemo99]

My silver lyretail molly had babies. I removed them from the big tank because my black molly liked to eat the fry. I want to know how to feed and care for them. can anyone help me.

 

[snowyangel]

So you now have moved the fry and prevented any from being further eaten right? Now all you have to think about is aeration(is there a filter or source of oxygen in their new home?), heating, and food. Babies grow faster with lots of light, warmer temperatures(77-79 F), and frequent feedings 3-5 x a day of nutrious foods, like blood worms, brine shrimp, tubifex worms, etc to ensure strong growing process. Fry are fairly simple to raise, just as long as these conditions are met. Once they reach 2 months old, feed them the same food and as regular amounts as their parents.
Most importantly, when you feed them, powder up the food as fine as possible for their tiny mouths(try rubbing food inbetween your fingers), the smaller the better, even if you can even see the pieces. Also, include some plants so they feel secure and safe. Live java moss is really liked b/c they can hide in it and nibble off it.
Congrats on your fry

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Just buy frozen baby brine shrimp. Also, you could crush the flakes into granules with a mortar and pestle or by placing the flakes in a sandwich bag and rubbing your fingers over the flakes for a while.

 

[gto_cowgirl]

Well first issue is the tank. What size of tank are you keeping the fry? The floating container used for when females are giving birth is okay for the first week but after that you have to get something a bit bigger. Usually i leave the newborns in the floating container for a week then i move them to a 1 gallon until about a month old and then i move them to a 5 gallon after about another month they are big enough to put back in the 10 gallon with the adult guppies.

Keep in mind though that i fed my guppies live brine shrimp and lots of nutrious fast growing foods so your fish may not grow as fast as mine did. Just whenever the fish look like they won't fit in your adult guppies mouth put them back in. I tried a few at a time and see how they did usually you can tell if the adults are going to harrass them until they bite something off or they will look at them funny for a second and then swim around as usual.

Next, the food issue. Most fry will eat just about anything that you can make tiny enough to food in their mouth. I fed my newborns live freshly hatched brine shrimp for the first couple of weeks and then moved on to finely crushed flake food (I put a tablespoon of flakes in a ziplock bag, close the bag, and then roll a pen over the food until it can't get any tinier, should look almost like powder.) and daphnia. You can feed crushed flake food to newborns as long as its small enough but the daphnia that i bought from the store (Hikari) is a bit bigger so don't give them something that big until they are a couple of weeks old. Around 2 months old they can eat just about anything the adults can eat just in smaller bits and takes a little longer but they should be fine.

The last issue that i can think of is keeping the fry tank clean. Usually the fry tank is pretty clean and normal (because the fry are so small) that it doens't need any more cleaning than the regular tanks but about 1 1/2- 2 months old is when the poo starts stacking up and you should start cleaning the tank a little more than your other tanks. This also includes when you move the fry into the 10 gallon, there isn't much room enough left in there for 20+ grown up fry and your adult guppies. On a normal basis i clean my normal tanks about once a week including filter sponge cleaning and my fry tanks about twice a week if the fry are big enough. Otherwise if you see any problems or diseases break out you will probably need to clean the tank a little more.

Anyway, have fun with your fry. If you don't get it this time around you will have plenty of chances. Guppy fry are pretty hardy and can handle almost as much as adult guppies after the first week or so.