I Has Baby Guppies!

[21rm]

I agree with oldman on he java moss, i dont think anythin else cud beat it
but if u've trouble gettin to a pet shop r somewhere to get the plants, use houshold items to clutter up a corner of the tank for the fry. when id my first batch it was unexpected, and i used couple of small plastic baskets i found i my place. the holes in baskets were big enuf for fry to swim through but way 2 small for adults.
Basically any thin that'll be a hazard to bigger fish when they tryin to chase the fry, cos the fry'll easily dodge round the place bein so smal. Of course be sure that none of the stuff ya use would b hazardous or poisonous to fish, or that it wouldnt pollute the water. that shud do til you do get to the shop to get plants

 

[deadlypoison]

right i shall remember java moss i have some more log in there that has some hidey spaces for them so that helps. being unexpected i saw one and went "baby!" and then i saw 4 others and today i count 8 all together...i shall be better prepared next time!!

 

[OldMan47]

Here are a couple of clumps of java moss.
First a large one in a 10 gallon

Then a small clump in a guppy tank

The guppy tank just got a couple of females yesterday so I have only a small clump in that tank.

 

[deadlypoison]

aaaah thank you!!!

care of the moss: do i have to keep it in check? i.e. do i need to take some of it out when there's to much or does it naturally die off?

 

[OldMan47]

If your moss gets too dense it will sort of have the bottom part die from lack of light. To trim it you reach in with your hand and pull out the part you no longer want. For me that means that another one of my tanks is about to get a starting clump to work with. The one in the 10 gallon will probably get that treatment fairly soon. I still have tanks that could use some.

 

[mattbond]

if you can get vallis gigantia it grows very quickly over the surface and gives the babies a maze of protection that works brilliantly!

 

[FBTgirl2]

hello!

Well after much fun getting the tank set up over the past few months and actually not having any dead fish (Which tbh i was expecting) i have baby guppies!!

there's about 5 of them, and i have never had baby fish before so any and all help would be fantastic. they're about 8mm long right now and luckily the adults are leaving them well alone (they're all in the same tank), i only feed my fish once a day on tropical fish flake and i've read that fry have an insatiable (spelling?) appetite...so should i feed them twice a day?

also i've been doing a partial water change once a week, should i hold off on that?

basically all advice would be great! im just rather proud that i have babies!!

as a side note...how do you tell male and female danios apart

Well...You should probably find them a second tank because if there are only 5...The parents probably ate most of the other ones. Crush some more flake up for them...I crush the flake up for my babies. I also give them a bit of Egg Yolk about 2 times a week.

 

[deadlypoison]

Well...You should probably find them a second tank because if there are only 5...The parents probably ate most of the other ones. Crush some more flake up for them...I crush the flake up for my babies. I also give them a bit of Egg Yolk about 2 times a week.

cant get them another tank there's no space for them, but since then we've found atleast 3 others, so there's a minimum of 8, and my females are pregnant again, so wif i end up with to many i can see my local fish shop getting some new stock!!

 

[nuttyJD]

Hi Deadly Poison,

Congrats on the guppie fry

My son has guppies in his community tank so whenever the females gave birth the fry were quickly eaten . I finally spotted some fry hiding in some plants that the adult guppies had uprooted and I hadn't managed to re-plant, I made a mad dash to buy a floating nursery thing (10 mile round trip!!) got home and quickly netted the fry into the little tank (we had 18). 10 days later I noticed that some of the fry had escaped fron the nursery tank so I popped them back in.....only to find the 10 Ihad just put in were smaller than the 18 still in there!!!!!

Every since getting the floating tank every batch of fry born in the main tank has swam to the nursery hidden and watied to be scooped into the nursery, it to a point where I had to stop putting babies in as we now have about 50 juvi/babies!! I've released the older (nearly 7 weeks) into the main tank and I've noticed that we have small babies swiming around the bottom of the tank being ignored by the other fish (even Finbar the Siamese Fighter and I know the not keeping Siamese and Guppies together rule)

Sorry this seems the long way round to what I was going to say!! When you go to your LFS see if you can get a floating nursery for your fry, it's not an ideal solution but if you haven't got room for a fry tank at least your little guys and girls will be a bit safer

 

[deadlypoison]

thank you nutty as yet i have not managed to get father to take me to the fish shop, he keeps putting it off so at this moment they are having to fend for themselves in a dying plant. great fun *sarcastic thumbs up*

as soon as me and mum can persuade him i shall invest in more plants and a floating nursery

they're getting big now, have started to see spots of colour on them but they are not big enough to see if they are male or female yet.

 

[nuttyJD]

Hi,

Have you thought about using Ebay? Somethings workout a little bit more expensive than your LFS but it's open 24/7 and you wouldn't have to rely on your Dad to get you there

Hope you get your stuff soon ;o)

 

[OldMan47]

NuttyJD, you bring out another good point. When you have a tank with fry of varying ages, the new fry are not noticed as quickly by the adults and you start having some survivors even without adequate cover. This concept is true for most of the common livebearers.

 

[nuttyJD]

One of the other members of this forum is selling these plants.........there great for fry to hide in.....

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=268337

I've just bought some from her, just waiting for them to arrive

 

[deadlypoison]

my dad has just relented at the threat of mum walking me there - we're going on saturday and he's paying! WOO!!