Why Don't My Guppies Eat The Fry

[paw-paw]

My adults never eat the fry and it is not because thy wouldn't see them or couldn't catch them...They swim together, eat together and I am talking about little fry that are supposed to be afraid of the adults...
But I do only have adults that I raised myself and maybe it is because they are never that hungry? This is just weird...
Are there different strains of guppies and some don't eat their fry?Anyone?

THX

 

[nosoup4you]

If they are very well fed they often won't eat the fry.

 

[helterskelter]

Well i rear all my guppies together.
They will eat a few new borns but yes well feed fish will not have the need to eat to many.

 

[fifefish]

the female guppy produces a hormone that makes it not hungry..but this only lasts 12 hours.. i dont know about the males

 

[helterskelter]

they do have reduced aperatite due to this hormone but is dose not stop them eating as i've seen them eat many fry just as their born.
The only livebearer which this hormone stop's all feeding is the pike livebearer. I've had loads of babies from these pike and they will not eat a single fry for the first 24 hours.

 

[nosoup4you]

Really, the majority of the livebearers that I've had would try to eat the fry as soon as they popped out.

 

[malakye]

I think your lucky paw paw or unlucky if you wanted them eaten lol.

 

[5teady_2012]

The older the livebearer, the less they tend to eat thier young, its usually the first loads of drops when they eat them.

also if a fish is use to living with younger fish, they tend to not bother them as much.

Its been also debated that a fish goes by its surroundings, if they think thier enviroment is over populated, they will eat the young more to keep thier numbers down (i guess this is due to food issues and survival of the fittest)..

 

[pippoodle]

If i seem to have a few too many fry i give the tank a food break for a few days then the numbers of babies do start to drop

 

[OldMan47]

I find that my common livebearers tend to eat some of the fry but, unless the tank is becoming crowded, quite a few survive. As was said, they swim side by side with the adults that we think of as a threat. In my goodeids, I have not seen the same tendency to eat fry but their fry are much larger at birth. Some as big as 2 cm.

 

[Mikaila31]

LOL. Do you want them to get eaten?

Nothing in my 20gal tank eats endler fry! Nothing! But I guess thats what I get for stocking nano-fish. Adult fish that can't even manage to eat a newborn endler. My baby endlers swim around completely in the open. The worst thing they got to watch out for are the cherry shrimp, which are bigger than most of the fish in the tank.