hi,

a couple of my guppies have given birth in a breeding net so there are now several fry at the bottom of the net. there are about 6 or so other girls due in the next week or two also.

i was aiming to keep the fry in my spare tank but i have a few fish that aren't doing too well in the community tank so they are in there and they would readily eat the fry...

please could someone give me advice on what to feed the fry? are they ok to be left in the net?

if i release them in the community tank its likely the gouramis, killifish or danios might eat them so they must stay in the net for safety.

there are 13 or so at the moment but the other females will increase the numbers in due course.

also one of my females has been lying on her side for a day or two, she is the one who gave birth though, its not looking too good, she's hardly moving now, is she likely to recover?

Thanks.

I feed my small guppies with Sera Mikropan stage 2 flakes. They are really just very finely ground flake food. You can allways grind up some normal flake food small enough so they can eat it.

If you dont have a spare tank then the net is probably the best option for a while. Dont put another big female in there untill the fry grow a bit though, she may eat the ones you have. The bigger fish will treat the fry as a tasty snack. I would leave the fry you have in the net untill they are big enough to handle life in the main tank, then put another female in and repeat.

Doesn't sound good for the sick female though At least you got some replacements coming along

Cheers

Ian

Fry will eat finely crushed flake.

thank you.

how much should i feed and how often? they are eating the ground up flake food.

will they eat microworms? i have some of them too...

cheers.

microworms are a bit small for guppy fry really but they will eat them.

Little bits and often is the key to feeding fry. As often as you can but not enough each time to leave any uneaten

my guppy fry are in the tank with the mothers. a large number of them are surviving even without a huge amount of plants, a black ghost knife and 6 rosy barbs in the tank too :roll: :lol:

if you have java moss on the bottom of your tank, then there will be no need for the net. And soon you will be asking us how to turn them OFF!!! :lol:

i have some java moss in the bottom of the tank but only in one area, there are many plants so that wouldn't be a problem.

the problem might be my trio of killifish, a pair of dwarf gouramis, a pair of pearl gouramis, 6 zebra danios, about 10 adult guppies (including the males), 3 rainbow fish and 4 cochus blue... i don't think the catfish would be a threat.

it is a fairly big tank but iif i was to release them surely they'd get preyed upon?

or should i try and source more java moss?

cheers.

I'm sure that the killies would be very happy if you were to release them in with them.

i bet they would Alan!

the australe golds seem to be going a bit better in the other tank, i get to see that lovely looking male for once! he's even been paying a bit of interest in his ladies!

Could you invest in another trap for the other femakes that are due? You can also buy double traps that can house more than one labouring female.

Our guppies are all due and today one of the females started to give birth so i scooped her up in to the trap and she went on to have 14 babies, i thought she had finished so i let her out as she was stressing in the trap and she went on to have 4 more (that i have seen in the main tank) i have scooped up two and put in the trap but the other two are swimming around quite happily so i will see how they go!! There are only a few other guppies that dont seem too interested in them so they should be ok.

i have a double trap but the babies keep swimming between the two sections.

i'm not sure when all the females are due, some look bigger than others, not really enough room for 5/6 females eh. maybe i'll be scooping babies out too, its a mission though...