Question Regarding Culturing Food For Fry (guppy specifically)

[Grumpy Gills]

Hello everyone! To start off I want to introduce myself. My name is Harley. I'm new-ish to the hobby, and recently welcomed a pair of guppies into one of my setups. As I'm sure you all know those two guppies are about two weeks away from being around 30 guppies. I've got an issue though... I don't know what to feed them! The pair has been getting by eating ramshorns, picking at the wood, and a daily serving of bloodworms. I want to set up a small convenient way to culture some food for the guppy fry. What should the main diet of the fry be? How can I culture it? I'm open to other suggestions as well. One more question, is there a section on this forum specifically for culturing food for tropical fish?

 

[sharkweek178]

I use this brine shrimp hatchery. The design is ingenious. It makes hatching baby brine shrimp a piece of cake.

Amazon.com

Vinegar eels are also easy to culture. A little tricky to harvest. But they make good food for fry.

Bloodworms are a good occasional treat for the adults. But they should get a more balanced diet on a regular basis. Quality flakes or pellets.

 

[Mr Limpet]

Grindal worms are very easy to culture and most fish go absolutely insane for them.

 

[Colin_T]

Baby guppies can eat crumbled up flake food and any small food that fits in their mouth. If you have frozen marine mix, bloodworms, brineshrimp or prawn, you can use a air of scissors and cut the frozen food into tiny pieces and offer a few bits to the babies. Let them eat it and then offer more. Feed the babies until they are fat and look like their mum when she was pregnant.

You can also add newly hatched brineshrimp and microworms to the diet.

Feed dry food first, then finely chopped frozen foods, then live foods. Newly hatched brineshrimp should be fed last and will float around the tank for a few hours so the fish fry can eat them over the next few hours.

Have an air operated sponge filter in the rearing tank so you don't suck up the babies or their food.

The following link has information on culturing live foods. You don't need to worry about infusoria or green water for baby guppies. they can go straight onto dry food, microworms and newly hatched brineshrimp.

Back to Basics when Breeding Fish

STARTING OUT Make sure you have a pair, (1 male + 1 female). There is nothing worse than spending your hard-earned dollars buying a couple of fish to try and breed and ending up with a pair of fish of the same sex. Let's face it, to reproduce fish you need a male and a female. Two males won't do...

www.fishforums.net

 

[fish48]

. One more question, is there a section on this forum specifically for culturing food for tropical fish?

there is only a section for all types of prepared fish foods . sadly, there's no live food section

 

[Essjay]

The only food section we have is for reviews of commercial food.

Posts about food in general, whether asking about commercial food or growing your own live food, can be posted in Tropical Discussion or maybe even Freshwater Equipment as I suppose food can be considered as equipment.


There is a thread on culturing live food you may find interesting.

Live food for dummies

I am ready for my next phase of fishkeeping. Cultivating live foods. I think I'm going to start with vinegar eels and mosquito larvae. I have micro fish so small foods are better. When it gets a little warmer, I'm going to put a 5 gallon bucket out to get mosquito larvae. I've been...

www.fishforums.net

 

[Grumpy Gills]

I use this brine shrimp hatchery. The design is ingenious. It makes hatching baby brine shrimp a piece of cake.

Amazon.com

Vinegar eels are also easy to culture. A little tricky to harvest. But they make good food for fry.

Bloodworms are a good occasional treat for the adults. But they should get a more balanced diet on a regular basis. Quality flakes or pellets.

Thank you! I would like to find a set it and forget it type of culture if possible. Not a no-maintenance set-up, but something that can reproduce on its own at the least.

These two decided to clear out the entire population of ramshorns in the tank, so I might set up a tank just for ramshorns for the adults. I plan on feeding the adults a diet of Bloodworms, Snails, and the occasional green. I'll see if I can find any good recipes for flake.

 

[Grumpy Gills]

Grindal worms are very easy to culture and most fish go absolutely insane for them.

I regret googling that lol
Thank you! Are they small enough for the fry?

 

[Grumpy Gills]

Baby guppies can eat crumbled up flake food and any small food that fits in their mouth. If you have frozen marine mix, bloodworms, brineshrimp or prawn, you can use a air of scissors and cut the frozen food into tiny pieces and offer a few bits to the babies. Let them eat it and then offer more. Feed the babies until they are fat and look like their mum when she was pregnant.

You can also add newly hatched brineshrimp and microworms to the diet.

Feed dry food first, then finely chopped frozen foods, then live foods. Newly hatched brineshrimp should be fed last and will float around the tank for a few hours so the fish fry can eat them over the next few hours.

Have an air operated sponge filter in the rearing tank so you don't suck up the babies or their food.

The following link has information on culturing live foods. You don't need to worry about infusoria or green water for baby guppies. they can go straight onto dry food, microworms and newly hatched brineshrimp.

Back to Basics when Breeding Fish

STARTING OUT Make sure you have a pair, (1 male + 1 female). There is nothing worse than spending your hard-earned dollars buying a couple of fish to try and breed and ending up with a pair of fish of the same sex. Let's face it, to reproduce fish you need a male and a female. Two males won't do...

www.fishforums.net

Amazing thank you so much!

 

[Grumpy Gills]

The only food section we have is for reviews of commercial food.

Posts about food in general, whether asking about commercial food or growing your own live food, can be posted in Tropical Discussion or maybe even Freshwater Equipment as I suppose food can be considered as equipment.


There is a thread on culturing live food you may find interesting.

Live food for dummies

I am ready for my next phase of fishkeeping. Cultivating live foods. I think I'm going to start with vinegar eels and mosquito larvae. I have micro fish so small foods are better. When it gets a little warmer, I'm going to put a 5 gallon bucket out to get mosquito larvae. I've been...

www.fishforums.net

This is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you!

 

[emeraldking]

Guppy fry can have all the food mentioned above. But if you're asking are all these foods essential to those guppy fry, then the answer will be no. People tend to think too difficult when it comes to guppy raising fry. Crushed flakefood would already be good enough. Especially, the mix flakes.