Fry Advice

[Kimberley]

Accumulated 2 guppy fry (either 2/3 days old) from my pet shop by accident yesterday, so I put them in a breeding trap. Things have been good, even though it's early days. This morning, my orange platy decided she was going to give birth to little ones for the first time. I was amazed, she didn't look that far gone. She ended up having a few in the tank while i was setting up the breeding trap, which have been eaten but I managed to get her into the trap and she had 12 babies! Unfortunately one died almost immediately, and 2 were born joined together, one was alive, the other wasnt, but they both died. So I have 2 guppy fry and 9 platy fry. How shall I care for them and why did the others die? Water is perfect, in a well established tank

 

[Armoredspider]

When the platy fry start to gain shape they are ready for food. You can crunch up flakes for them and they can live in a breeders net until they are an inch long and then they can move to the big tank.

 

[Kimberley]

Thanks for the help

 

[BBradbury]

Your Livebearer Fry

Accumulated 2 guppy fry (either 2/3 days old) from my pet shop by accident yesterday, so I put them in a breeding trap. Things have been good, even though it's early days. This morning, my orange platy decided she was going to give birth to little ones for the first time. I was amazed, she didn't look that far gone. She ended up having a few in the tank while i was setting up the breeding trap, which have been eaten but I managed to get her into the trap and she had 12 babies! Unfortunately one died almost immediately, and 2 were born joined together, one was alive, the other wasnt, but they both died. So I have 2 guppy fry and 9 platy fry. How shall I care for them and why did the others die? Water is perfect, in a well established tank

Hello Kim...

A separate place for the fry isn't absolutely necessary. If you feed all your fish a little more and a little more often, the adult fish will show little interest in the little ones. The key to high fry survival is more food, fed more often. Just a humble opinion, though.

Moving adult fish and fry can be very stressing for both, I keep all my fish together in heavily planted tanks, so there's a lot of places to hide and I don't accidentally injure a fish trying to move it or them.

The best thing for the fry is a lot of food and feed every few hours. I take dry food and put some in a small sandwich bag and use a rolling pin to crush the food into a fine powder and feed often. Also, fish in general are more comfortable in tanks with a lot of plants. I like to float Anacharis in all my tanks. It grows fast and makes for good cover for females and fry.

B