She gave birth-finally!

[Red15]

Remember this guppy? Yes, I posted a thread about her weird behaviour weeks ago, and yes, she hadn't given birth then as I'd thought.
In the last few weeks, she turned huge, about double of what she was in the picture above that I'd posted. Yesterday, I felt as though I needed to sepearte her, so I did.
Today, she started to pop!
I am so happy right now! Cause she's my second female fish to give birth.
One thing that concerned me though. While she was giving birth she became too restless. She even jumped out of the plastic bowl I'd moved her to (Since I don't have another tank and the bowl is big and wide and deep, I had to use that.)
But aside from that, now all I want is to raise the babies as perfectly as I can.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Congrats on the fry...prepare for many more

 

[Red15]

Congrats on the fry...prepare for many more

OMG, you're right. I have 2 batches of dumbo ear platinum red tail kiddos-24 of the first one-and each survived last 1.5 months, 19 of the second batch, now into their 3rd week. Then 5 molly fries of the same age.
And now I have 17 more to consider. and if I'm right, my dumbo ear female is due in eight days!
I'm soooo grateful! (Won't lie, a little terrified too!)

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Congrats on the fry! It's so excited when you first start breeding

Poor girl though - keep a close eye on her after her jumping out - even a short distance fall out of water can result in injury to the slime coat and scales, leaving her exposed to potential secondary bacterial and fungal infections, especially just after giving birth which is very hard on a female of any species. Any sign of fin clamping, fuzzy white stuff, or any other changes or symptoms, then please take photos and post in the emergencies section for further advice!

In the meantime, returning her to the main tank, and making sure the water is clean and low in nitrates by doing daily water changes for a while will give her the best shot of recovery and avoiding secondary infections.

For the future, it's ideally better if you don't move the female before birth - especially if you don't have another tank for her or the fry. Stress is the last thing you want for a female about to give birth, and catching and moving causes stress. You can minimise losses of fry, and make the female much for comfortable - by adding some dense live plants. A big dense patch of floating plant like elodea or guppy grass provides great hiding places for her to give birth, and for most of the fry to avoid being eaten by adults!

If you're really worried, and want to save every fry, the net covered breeder boxes are better than moving her to a separate container. Like this one;

These stick to the inside of your main tank, so the female and fry are safe from the other fish, but remain in the same water conditions as the main tank. You can then pop the female straight back into the main tank once she's finished giving birth, and raise the fry in the net breeder box until they're large enough to avoid being eaten by adults. Usually by week 2-3, they're big enough to be safe and can be let out of the breeder box and returned to the main tank

 

[Red15]

Congrats on the fry! It's so excited when you first start breeding

Poor girl though - keep a close eye on her after her jumping out - even a short distance fall out of water can result in injury to the slime coat and scales, leaving her exposed to potential secondary bacterial and fungal infections, especially just after giving birth which is very hard on a female of any species. Any sign of fin clamping, fuzzy white stuff, or any other changes or symptoms, then please take photos and post in the emergencies section for further advice!

In the meantime, returning her to the main tank, and making sure the water is clean and low in nitrates by doing daily water changes for a while will give her the best shot of recovery and avoiding secondary infections.

For the future, it's ideally better if you don't move the female before birth - especially if you don't have another tank for her or the fry. Stress is the last thing you want for a female about to give birth, and catching and moving causes stress. You can minimise losses of fry, and make the female much for comfortable - by adding some dense live plants. A big dense patch of floating plant like elodea or guppy grass provides great hiding places for her to give birth, and for most of the fry to avoid being eaten by adults!

If you're really worried, and want to save every fry, the net covered breeder boxes are better than moving her to a separate container. Like this one;
View attachment 154059

These stick to the inside of your main tank, so the female and fry are safe from the other fish, but remain in the same water conditions as the main tank. You can then pop the female straight back into the main tank once she's finished giving birth, and raise the fry in the net breeder box until they're large enough to avoid being eaten by adults. Usually by week 2-3, they're big enough to be safe and can be let out of the breeder box and returned to the main tank

Thank you for the suggestions! I'll keep them in mind next time!

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Thank you for the suggestions! I'll keep them in mind next time!

No worries! Hard learned lessons from raising my own hundreds of livebearer fry, lol. I have hopefully my last batch of livebearers now, almost old enough to find new homes for. Although the egg layers continue to surprise me with new spawn to raise...

Sounds as though you're going to be inundated with fry soon! With that many females of different species giving birth, you might end up with a second tank soon... and maybe a third! It's so easy to rapidly become overstocked when livebearers are doing their thing!

Would love to see pics of the red eared dumbos, if you're happy to share!

 

[Red15]

No worries! Hard learned lessons from raising my own hundreds of livebearer fry, lol. I have hopefully my last batch of livebearers now, almost old enough to find new homes for. Although the egg layers continue to surprise me with new spawn to raise...

Sounds as though you're going to be inundated with fry soon! With that many females of different species giving birth, you might end up with a second tank soon... and maybe a third! It's so easy to rapidly become overstocked when livebearers are doing their thing!

Would love to see pics of the red eared dumbos, if you're happy to share!

Hey, I was wondering if changing water kills fries. I guess I read that somewhere. Does it really? Cause I had never changed water of fries before they turned 2 weeks since I had filter.
But now I've run out of filter too.
Can I move the fries with the 2 week olds or would they become live meal?
Or should I keep changing water?

 

[emeraldking]

Congrats! Curious of how they will develop...

 

[StripySnailGirl04]

Congratulations! What are you planning to do with the fry one they've grown?

 

[Red15]

Congratulations! What are you planning to do with the fry one they've grown?

Thank you!
I'm thinking of keeping some of them in the main tank. Most probably, I'd be giving away the rest.
(Who knows, the way I'm getting addicted to this hobby, I might even end up with another tank!)

 

[StripySnailGirl04]

Thank you!
I'm thinking of keeping some of them in the main tank. Most probably, I'd be giving away the rest.
(Who knows, the way I'm getting addicted to this hobby, I might even end up with another tank!)

Make sure to post pictures of the different types of fry one they've grown! Who knows, you might write a book about livebearers and become a famous author.

 

[Red15]

Make sure to post pictures of the different types of fry one they've grown! Who knows, you might write a book about livebearers and become a famous author.

Yeah, who knows? (Actually, I do write!)
But really, it's a pleasure to be able to share my part of the hobby with all of you. I wish I joined this forum earlier. There's so much I didn't know and so much I'm learning!

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Hey, I was wondering if changing water kills fries. I guess I read that somewhere. Does it really? Cause I had never changed water of fries before they turned 2 weeks since I had filter.
But now I've run out of filter too.
Can I move the fries with the 2 week olds or would they become live meal?
Or should I keep changing water?

No, changing the water doesn't kill fry - quite the opposite, fresh clean water is good for fish, especially if you don't have a filter, it'll be even more essential.

With the water changes though, it's important to change a decent amount of the volume around 50%, to use a water conditioner, and to temperature match the new water to the tank temperature before adding it to their tank. Changing their water without using a water conditioner could kill them because of the chlorine, or if the temperature of the new water was much colder or hotter than the temperature of the water they're in, that shocks fish and can kill them. So no, water changes are good for fry and help them grow better/faster/healthier, as long as you do them correctly

How do you mean, your filter ran out? Were you using one with replaceable cartridges? Because you don't need new cartridges if so. Just rinse the old ones in old tank water and keep using them. How large are the containers the fry are in? Any pics?
How much water to change and how often depends on how many fish are in how much water. The more fish and the less water they live in, the more water needs to be changed, and more often.

Yes, the new fry should be fine with the two week olds, those are still too small to eat a fry

 

[Red15]

No, changing the water doesn't kill fry - quite the opposite, fresh clean water is good for fish, especially if you don't have a filter, it'll be even more essential.

With the water changes though, it's important to change a decent amount of the volume around 50%, to use a water conditioner, and to temperature match the new water to the tank temperature before adding it to their tank. Changing their water without using a water conditioner could kill them because of the chlorine, or if the temperature of the new water was much colder or hotter than the temperature of the water they're in, that shocks fish and can kill them. So no, water changes are good for fry and help them grow better/faster/healthier, as long as you do them correctly

How do you mean, your filter ran out? Were you using one with replaceable cartridges? Because you don't need new cartridges if so. Just rinse the old ones in old tank water and keep using them. How large are the containers the fry are in? Any pics?
How much water to change and how often depends on how many fish are in how much water. The more fish and the less water they live in, the more water needs to be changed, and more often.

Yes, the new fry should be fine with the two week olds, those are still too small to eat a fry

Nope, I meant that I have been using sponge filters for the previous fries, and now if I want to grow these fries separately, I'd have to buy another one. I think I'd put them with their cousins.
And the other fries are in 3 gallons each, not exactly sure but somewhere close, I suppose. Too small?

 

[Red15]

And, what if I use RO water for now instead of treating the water with chemical? Will that be okay? Or should I be concerned that all the fries would turn out female? Since I heard that RO water is soft and...soft water is reluctant to give us gonopodiums?