Fancy guppy babies need help

[jill530]

Fancy guppy just had babies. I know nothing about what to do. I have a quarantine tank but it is currenly used for a possible problem with one of my males. Could i use a plastic contaner? something around my house? what about filtration and heat? Also will the babies survive without a seperate tank? Im not asking if they all will. but will any? and second quetion is what to feed? and how often?

 

[RazorbacksFan]

I would buy a breeding net and put it in the main tank to protect the fry. As far as feeding the fry I use Hikari First Bites but you could also grind your usual flake food as small as possible to feed them.

 

[joy13]

Do you have other fish in the tank besides the guppies?

I have a guppy only tank started out with 3 less than 6 months ago and have over 25. They are in a well planted tank with plenty of hiding places. I don't have an outgrow tank just the main guppy tank.

 

[jill530]

Okay. Itd be nice if i didnt have to buy special food so i will try grinding it up. Do you think they will be ok for the night?

 

[jill530]

Only guppies in the tank

 

[RazorbacksFan]

Okay. Itd be nice if i didnt have to buy special food so i will try grinding it up. Do you think they will be ok for the night?

If they have enough plants and hiding places yes they should be.

 

[jill530]

Ok they have enough hiding places. haha they dont seem to be using them though. they stay as a pack and towards the top

 

[jill530]

Another question goes for when to take these guys out of my tank. as you may already know i kind of already exceeded the limit of the tank. What should i do with them? i dont want to have to start another tank. Will my LFS take them maybe?

 

[RazorbacksFan]

Usually LFS's will buy them but they usually want them to be at least a month old before they take them. I would say give them a call and find out you might get some store credit out of them.

 

[jill530]

Ok i will talk to them. I have a 5.5 gallon that i set up for sick fish. Should i move them to that until they reach an age where i could sell/give them to the LFS?

 

[RazorbacksFan]

Yeah that would be fine is it cycled yet?

 

[jill530]

no its not cycled. right now it is empty

 

[kaiofcanada]

Ok i will talk to them. I have a 5.5 gallon that i set up for sick fish. Should i move them to that until they reach an age where i could sell/give them to the LFS?

You can leave them where they are since you have hiding places. The other guppies will certainly try to eat some.

I do recommend putting them in another tank if you have one set up and cycled. You would want to acclimate them to the tank as you would any other fish. You can simply float them in a bag if needed. The reason I suggest this is because guppy fry prefer and do best at higher temperatures than adults and they also need to be fed more often. Keeping them in your tank will invariably mean putting things off balance if you feed the fry as often as you should. If your QT has a heater set it to around 80 before you transfer the fry. Acclimate the fry to this temperature. Alternately, you could acclimate them first and then slowly increase the temperature no more than 1 degree per hour/two. They should be fed crushed flake food or first bites...as other have suggested, 5 times a day, or as often as you can make time for if this is too difficult. They are small, so they don't need much each feeding. Just alot of feeding times.

Also, be sure they get some light as it ensures thay they develop properly. Without light guppy fry can develop spine deformations. Yuck.

And once they are big enough, you should be able to give them to your LFS. Some will even pay you a fee for accepting them as feeders. Check around if you plan to do this. Not everyone pays.

 

[littletankbigworld]

Powdered food is fine. I feed my livebearer fry 5 to 7 times a day. They gobble up all the food because fry have very fast metabolisms. Baby fish thrive in larger areas, but if they are in a small space, you can jump start their growth by doing frequent water changes. My molly babies had a huge growth spurt from the water changes, even though they are in a small tank.