Guppy eater

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zenkatydid

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jul 30, 2005
Messages
775
Location
Sydney
I have a 17gal tank that is home to a breeding colony of guppies and 4 julii cories. I am now faced by what to do with the excess gups. I was going to take them to the pet shop up the road (and have confirmed that they will take them) but am now wondering at the possibility of adding a small fish that will eat fry. The problem is, I don't want ALL the fry eaten, just thinned out. I wouldn't be adverse to the occasional adult disappearing, either - just an overall population check. Do you think this is possible, and what kind of species would work here?

EDIT: Sorry, wrong forum - can someone move it for me?
 
Moved to general discussion.

I would take the fry to the lfs. Any fish that would eat fry would end up eating all the fry. If the lfs will take them why not? Maybe they would give you store credit for them.
 
I agree, it would save you from buying another fish, unless thats what you want, but let them grow out some and trade them in, they may be just what someone is looking for lol
 
Gouramis can be territorial, but they will eat the fry. A Molly might be a good choice too.

Like Zagz said, there is not a way of ensuring only some of the fry will be eaten, but if you have male and female guppies with a few hiding places, some are bound to survive.
 
I have had guppies, mollies, and platys in community tanks before. Mollies and platies will eat the babies. My sister had a fake coral rock in her tank, that looked something like this:
http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ctl3684/cp18309/si1973040/cl0/redseadecoartseriatoporaorange
and some of the babies lived in it. You can also loosely pile some larger rocks so the babies can get in between them. I recently rescued 3 baby platy fry from between my gravel. If you provide small crevaces for the babies to hide in where the bigger fish can't get into, some will probably survive (in my tank, maybe 2-3 survive out of each... uh what would you call it even? batch?). I usually put them in some kind of trap when I see them though. Right now I have a tupperware container floating in the top part of my tank with the 3 babies I rescued in it (so the tmperature stays stable). It's a gamble, but if you get a molly or platy or two, they'll eat all the babies they can get their hands on, and possibly some will survive. Good luck.
 
oh, i have HEAPS of fry surviving, that's the problem, heh. i love them, and i did the whole breeder group thing because this is just what i wanted... i just wasn't expecting them to be so successful. in less than a month i have more than 20 fry surviving and free swimming. it's ok, i will grow them out and take them to the shop, i was just wondering at adding another fun/natural/different element. thanks guys :)
 
zenkatydid - I was looking for a fish to do some population control on all my African Cichlid Frys that was over running my tank. But we moved a year ago so I had to catch all the fish inlcuding the fry, and put the fry in an 18gal rubbermaid container with an air pump, I had around 300-400 fry the ranged from .25 inch to about 1.5 inch. I wouldn't recommend finding another fish to eat your fry if you plan to put it in the same tank as the fish may eat all your fry, other tanks mates, or become very aggressive or territorial. After placing them back int he the tank they didn't breed for about 4-5 months, now a year later they are breeding like rabbits on crack, but now I have extra tanks to remove them and raise them. My suggestion would be to get a used 5 or 10 gal tank, a sponge filter, a and a heater if necessary and use it as a fry grow out tank and then sell them back for store credit to a fish store. You can use the fry as already mentiond to buy food, decor, other fish etc.
 
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