Newbie Guppy Momma

[Zarlinia]

Hello all fishie fanatics out there. I don't have a heck of a lot of experience with aquariums besides just easy beginner fish. As of yesterday I have 6 new baby guppies in my tank and if anyone has any advice I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

[huma-huma]

When you say baby guppies, do you mean fry? Were they actually born in your tank? If so, I'd def recommend seperating the babies from everything else, they tend to become food

 

[jetajockey]

welcome to the site. I'm sure someone will be along soon to give you some links on cycling and whatnot, just wanted to say hello and glad to meet you.

 

[rich311k]

Welcome to AA! Congrats on the babies!

 

[huma-huma]

I'm sorry, should have asked some other questions.
Did you just setup this tank?
How long has it been setup?
What kind of fish are currently in it?
-------
The more specifics you can give, we can help more

 

[Zarlinia]

Yep I meant fry. I managed to save 6 of them but I'm pretty sure that there were probably others that became snacks. I went out today and got a net breeder box and Hikari first bites fry food for them and they seem to be doing fine in there for now.

The tank I have them in is a 10 gallon that just recently had goldfish in but I gave them away because I couldn't afford a bigger setup for them. I now have 2 male and 1 female guppies, a pleco, and a dalmatian lyretail molly along with the new little fry. It's been setup for about a month. The female guppy and the molly are my newest additions that I've only had for about 2 weeks. (apparently I get 7 guppies for the price of one) In the tank is 2 filters (one for 5-15gal and one 10-20gal I had both for the dirty dirty goldfishies) and a heater. Other than that all I have in there is 2 plastic plants and a japanese gateway decoration.

 

[melosu58]

Welcome aboard. We are glad you found us here at AA.

 

[huma-huma]

Sounds like a solid setup, I'd suggest a few things. With guppies, your prime ratio is 3 females to 1 male. Or 2 fm-1 m. Once you get 1 fm-1m or several males and a single female, it'll cause some problems. The males like to chase and nip at the females, which is why you wanna try keeping a few females to every male. And second, may want to contemplate re-homing or taking the pleco back, they can grow up to 24" long def wayyy too big for a 10g . Other than that you are doing greta good job on the breeder net and first bites choice

 

[Zarlinia]

I had plans to get more female guppies they just kinda got railroaded by the fact that it seems none of my local pet stores have them in stock at the moment and now the new babies arrival. So far everybody seems to get getting along just fine though. The boys to their thing swimming around and my little girl seems to love the front corner of the tank.

Wow I knew plecos got big but I didn't realize they got quite that large. My closest pet store has one thats about 9/10 inches. My little guy so far is only about 2 in. I actually have a friend with a new 40 gallon tank that has a reserved spot for him if I'm unable to get a bigger tank before he outgrows the one I have. Can anybody give me an idea about how long I have until he's too big for my 10gal?

 

[adadkins1]

I would give you 6 months, but that is just a guess.

 

[huma-huma]

Yeah he's gonna grow pretty quickly, plecos are slow to start out but then shoot up in size. I've never seen a pleco reach 24" but do lnow my lfs has 2 that are every bit of 15"....they look like stealthy sharks. Even the 40g may be too small for him....but you do have time before he gets too big and I understand your pains in terms of female guppies....I went 1.5 weeks with 1 female as well due to the same problem

 

[Zarlinia]

just a little update: Today marks one week old for my little guppies and so far all six are still surviving. A few are already starting to get their color. I think at least one is going to be mostly black like it's momma. XD