Figures, my new mean looking Betta is a sissy =(

[grimlock3000]

None of the female Guppies in my 10g tank seen interested in eating their own fry. There are about 20 fry in the tank now, and almost no places for them to hide. Day old fry swim around the tank perfectly content to do their own thing and never worry about getting eaten. In an effort to put en end to this, I did some investigating on what a good fish would be to clean up the fry population. I decided on a Betta or Molly. I ended up going with the Betta to add some color.

I went to the lfs on Firday and picked out a free swimming Betta in a tank with Angelfish. The Betta was very active, and it looked like he was trying to fight with his reflection in the glass. He was poking at the Angelfish too, for no reason. Most of the other Bettas in the store were in small bowls, or in community tanks and not moving much. I figured this Betta would love a tasty fry snack if given the chance...

I acclimated the Betta over 90 minutes on Friday night and let him loose in the tank. Right away, he starts following some fry around, but it looks like he is not actually trying to eat them. I figured he was not hungry right then so I left the tanks lights off for the night.

All today, the Betta was doing nothing except swimming aorund on the glass and it appears that none of my fry were eaten. My wife thinks the Betta must have really bad vision, because he just slides around on the glass all day. I am hoping he starts eating the fry tomorrow

If this Betta fails, I am going to put all the fry and female Guppies in the larger tank, and move the male Guppies in the smaller tank. If I go without feeding the tank for a couple of days, the Barbs and Rams should be willing to eat the smaller and new fry. Then I need to wait for the larger fry to grow up and speperate them by sex. Then I will just need to wait for the females to stop dropping their batches of fry. I want to end up with non pregnant female Guppies eventually...

 

[snapcrackler]

Why do you want your fry to get eaten??

 

[grimlock3000]

If nothing eats them I am going to end up with two overstocked tanks. My options for giving the fry away are really limited as well. I can wait until they grow up some more, then give them to a lfs as Cichlid food, but that will not solve the problems of always having pregnant females since if I let the fry grow up, they will keep fertilizing the females.

 

[snapcrackler]

Ah so.

Maybe you could sell some of 'em and make a few bucks.

I sell/trade my breeder guppies all the time.

 

[PlatyLady]

I should have thought of the betta! That's what my lfs said to do when I first got my platies. Totally forgot. Anyway, my betta attacked the parents all the time, and he was constantly flaring up at the guppies, so much so that he never even noticed the fry. So much for that!

One of my platies is my population depressor now. She's a hoover!

 

[Katie_McKoy]

We have the opposite of problems. I wish my guppies would breed like yours are. I am actually trying to make as many of them as possible to feed to my husband's oscars. What temp do you have your tanks at? Maybe you are doing something right, and I am doing something wrong.

 

[grimlock3000]

I am not sure what temp my tank has been at recently. It was at 79F for a lloonngg time, then I checked and it was 84.5F so I threw the heater away and bought a better one. Warmer temps do decrease the time it takes for the fry to come out, anything between 79 and 81F should be good. Have a lot of females too, that always helps with the fry production

Once you get some fry, feed the tank small quantities three or 4 times a day. My father does this with a fry tank and his fish are growing at double the rate of the ones in my tank.

If you want the fry to have the best chance when they pop out, give them a place to hide. At one point in time, I had a huge ball of Java Moss that was almost 6 inches in all dimensions. Fry could hide in there and they would not come out. When I removed most of the ball, that is when I discovered that I had way more fry than I wanted. I have been having a fry problem since then, some do manage to get eaten, but they are being born much faster than they go away.

About the Betta, it had an infection when I got it, and that is why it always slides on the glass and can not see well enough to catch the fry, I am trying to make it better now