What a great find!

[daydreamer4186]

I remembered this place near me called The Fish Tank. I went and they have wonderful fish...all very healthy looking, great, large tanks. So I was wandering around just browsing (no intent on buy fish right then) while my friend bought a frog. I noticed the guppies (male tank and female tank) and, being a personal fan, was delighted at the selection. I still decided not to get one though. I noticed a large tank that said it had a female betta so I bent down to look. To my complete surprise, besides the betta, there were hundreds of guppy fry!!! As if that wasn't cool enough, they had put all of the pregnant guppies in there. I was excited but still not convinced that I needed anymore fish. That's when I saw her. I've seen pictures of female guppies that look like they are absolutely going to explode any minute because they're so big but I've never seen one. One female came out from behind some plants and she was just like that. She was HUGE! That was it...I bought her (for the same price as the other "not pregnant" females) and took her home. Now to wait a few days and I'll have more fry!!!

 

[studmaster]

That's a great find, sounds like you will be getting a lot of fry out of that one.
I found a nice store recently that had healthy looking fish, but unfortunately they were about 250% higher per fish. They had Dalmation Mollies for $8.88 while the store I just bought one at last night was only $3.03. I guess that's the difference between a independantly owned FS and a box store FS.

Were the pregant guppies in the tank as a "food factory" for the betta?

 

[daydreamer4186]

No I don't think they were betta "food factories." I think they just wanted to keep the fry in a separate tank because all of the females in the other tank aren't pregnant. I was so excited to see all of the fry! I know they do use some for food cuz they had some in a separate little box and the lady told us that (poor little guys). This place is an individually owned store too but it isn't more expensive...in fact sometimes it's cheaper.

 

[daydreamer4186]

I forgot to tell everyone! My guppy...the huge one...had her fry!!! Several nights ago I checked on her and there they were! I've counted 40...there may be more who knows! Here is my little mistake though. I recently got a small tank with and undergravel filter (to be my temp. fry tank). My older fry are in there and loving it (they had a bare bottom, no filter tank before...poor guys). I gave the new fry a day or two to relax and then put them in the tank after hearing that that filter was completely safe. Well being very young, the rested on the bottom and some started to get sucked farther into the gravel!!! I quickly turned off the filter just in time to rescue all of the fry and put them back in the other tank (no filter). Now they are very active and doing well...and I'll wait until they get a bit bigger before trying the other tank again!

 

[Zagz]

Congratulations on the fry! Glad to hear everyone is doing well.