Newbie Q: Female Guppy Preying on Fry

[KJ-Fishfan]

Just as a note for comparison and experience from folks who know....

I released my 5 week old fry from a breeder net on Sunday and was delighted to see them stretching their wee fins for the first big swim...3/6 were promptly picked off by big bad momma, they were too large to eat so she just killed them and in fact left one of the wee guys with no tail swimming head down and I had to intervene (my larger female paid no notice). Now I have read repeatedly that it's survival or the fittest etc and can accept heavy losses although my wee heart broke after all that nurturing of my first few.

So I'm now left with three who are thankfully masters of disguise and I can tell between them in their size and tails, but at the spot where I most frequently see them, big bad momma is now staking out....I've fed the adults tubifex, green veg, upped the amount of flakes they are getting and she is still actively seeking out the juveniles in a place she never used to go.

Is this normal or is she a bad momma fish?

 

[Mouth-Brooder-Fanatic]

normal

i gave up with raising guppy fry cos they have to be very clever to survive to adulthood and thats alot of care for weeks for a few to live. the fry are now my cichlid fish food.

shes only being the norm 'dog eat dog' so she keeps herself alive, mostly instict. partly cos fry are yummy.
how big are the fry now?

 

[KJ-Fishfan]

They are still so small...just over 1cm but I was assuming if they couldn't be eaten they wouldn't be killed, newbie error. I figure if I raise even 1 to adulthood out of this brood then I have a wee free home-bred guppy. I just never thought that guppies would be predatory like that...I swear it's like watching a little shark!

 

[LyndaB]

When my guppies had fry, I left them in the community tank. The fry had a terrific sense of self-preservation. They immediately hid in the java moss. They were able to sustain themselves on whatever food drifted in there and also the micro organisms within the plants themselves. They came out a few months later when they knew they were too large to be eaten.

 

[jetajockey]

It's normal for the adults to eat the fry, they have no sense of parental care whatsoever. Keep the fry separated till they are a bit bigger, one way to tell if they are large enough to add back is to put a 'test' one in there. It's slightly cruel, but really the safest way.