How to feed baby guppies in a large community tank?

[Corey]

Hello,
My girlfriend and I's guppie had babies ~5-6 weeks ago. We placed them in a breeder until today, when we released some into a 20gallon wide, with various tankmates, and some into my 20gallon high, with three Zebra Danio tankmates. I didn't think of it until tonight - what is a good way to feed them? They are way smaller than the Danios, and therefore get bullied by them - everytime I put food into the tank, the Danios eat it all instantly.
And also, they seem to be spending all their time at the very top, fighting the current. I would think they would swim lower and hide from the Danios and get away from the current. Did we release them too early?
Any comments are appreciated,
Thanks!

[Zagz]

If they are struggling I would remove them. No reason to stress them. As far as feeding goes it will be difficult to feed them with the larger fish getting all the food. I would put them back into the breeder or into the 20 wide.

[sudz]

I was going to start a new post, but alas! you answered my question: somewhat...
I have had the same thing. I have 29 fry in my mesh hang in breeder nursery thing of a jigger. How long should/can they stay in there? some are almost one cm long (about 6/8ths of an inch) others are aboug 6mm long (1/4 an inch?)

I have 2 female and 2 male guppies, 2 cory's (tijii) and one small clown loach. There's 29 of them and i know my 15 gallon cannot support that when they get big... Sooo, i'm thinking in a month or so, i can see if the lfs will buy em off me for store credit. I just feel bad having them crowded in the nursery, but heck, if its keeping them alive, then i'm all for it, lol. They're just over 2 weeks old. I've been feeding them finely crushed flake, with the odd sliver of shrimp pellets that disintegrate into mush. THey seem to love it, but not eat it fast enough, so its a twice a week treat for them.

THanks in advance, sorry if i stole your post corey! Welcome to AA, lol

[Zagz]

Sudz is there plenty of places for them to hide? Your tank isn't terribly aggressive so if the fry have places to hide they should be fine. I've been leaving my fry in with their parents without any nets or anything but several hiding places and they have survived fine.

[fish_4_all]

Something you might try that has worked very well for me is to put a small mesh bag, I used the old net from the same breeder you are talking about, and put the crushed flake in the net. The larger fish won't work that hard to get at the food but the smaller ones will find it and suck it through the mesh.

Something else that works really well, a small piece of very well established java moss or similar. The fry will live there happily and eat anything that falls into it and grows on it.

Floating plants might do the trick also as the fry can hide in it and the food has to go through them before the larger fish can eat it all up.

[kyektulu]

I really do urge that you take them out of the tank untill they are bigger.
Put them into another tank and feed them up with liquifry and some flakes, the more you feed them the bigger they will get quicker, but dont feed them too much or they will have a shorter life span.
I have had cases of bulling by bigger fish to, if you dont get the little fish out of there quickly they will become very distressed and could refuse to eat and die

[sudz]

Well, would take them out after hearing that, however, i can only see one or two at any given time. I have alot of watersprite, and the floating variety has given out SO MANY roots that i can't even see them. When i shake the plant, about 10 guppies come running out, and then hide in my bushes of java fern. I think they'll be fine from the mother guppies, and they seem to LOVE shrimp pellets, they fall apart into tiny little flakes, so i drop one ontop of the java fern and i can see them eating it in safety. They don't seem stressed at all. I've only seen a mother go after one fry, and it was easily able to get away, it was MUCH faster (suprisingly!) Both mothers are again, highly pregnant, so i think that slows them down. I'm also feeding 3 times a day. THey've been out for 2 days now.

they are all almost one cm long (just about half an inch) from mouth to tip of fins.