Livebearer Fry - Separate or not?

[DPirateRoberts]

My friend and I are having this ongoing debate about baby fish in our tanks.

I have four female guppies and 2 male guppies in my 55 gal tank. (I also have 5 neon teras, 4 cory cats and 1 pleco.) My friend has a 30 gallon tank with about 5 fancy guppies and ton of fry (too many to count).

Now, when my guppies look like they're ready to give birth, I separate the mother into the breeding tank. My breeding tank is 20 gal with lots of cover for the babies. Right now, in that tank I have 12 babies. I'm waiting until they grow bigger than my other guppies' mouths to put in the big tank.

My friend says they can go in now (they were just born a week ago). He says that I don't even need to separate them. He says the babies that get eaten are ones that need to be taken out of the loop any way. The stronger, faster and smarter ones will survive.

I disagree. I rather take the step of separating them. But I also see his point about wanting only hardy guppies.

Also, his fish, although big enough to eat the babies don't eat the babies. Is that unusual? How does one prevent that?

Confused. What are your thoughts?

[Apocalypse_Gold]

I have plenty of fry survive in my community tank, mainly because it is heavily planted. Stem plants like hornwort and cabomba or some dense wisteria works great. I leave some of my hornwort floating.

I have also noticed that the fish don't chase the babies as much as they used to. They have gotten used to having them in the tank and they are well fed. I lose more to my filter. I need to get some sort of cover for it.

Since you do not have any larger fish in your main tank, I think you can leave the fry, especially if you have plants.

[joannde]

I leave my fry also - there are always a few (5-ish) that survive. Soon I'll be overrun with platies !!! I'm going to move all the females to another tank once I get it set up.

[toddnbecka]

If they're well-fed, guppies won't eat many of their fry. Many years ago, my next-door neighbor had a 10 gallon tank full of common guppies. There must have been dozens, maybe even hundreds, from newborn to adults in that tank. It still boggles my mind that so many fish lived in such a small tank. I would have thought the new fry would all be eaten, but obviously, they weren't.

[fish_4_all]

Never had a problem with guppies eating their babies. I have raised both plain and fancy in my 10 gallon tanks and they overran the tanks in less than 2 months. I don't know for sure about yours but I am fairly certain that my corys ate their fry when they hatch and I know they eat their own eggs.

Swords on the other hand. I have a lot of plants and i have had 2 large female swords drop and every baby was gone within 2 days and they are well fed. Platties were not as bad, ussually had 3-10 survive a birthing but I haven't kept them in a while so it is old information.

[coldmachineUK]

Floating plants in your main tank will help protect any fry your livebearers have. Try some of that and you will be overrun with fry in no time!

In my experience tho, I prefer to leave my fish to have their fry in the main tank rather than taking them out when about to give birth: moving them during this time can cause them stress and might cause problems (I've heard of aborted fry before). You are better separating the fry out into a fry net or separate tank, rather than the pregnant female adult.

[DPirateRoberts]

Thanks for the advice. I have a lot of plants in my tank. They are artificial (I'm not good with live plants) and they supply lots of cover for the babies.

After I posted this, one of my females gave birth. There are five babies swimming in the tank and no one seems to want to eat them. (Maybe they don't taste good. Ha ha.)

I'm thinking of putting the babies in my other tank in the big tank soon.

[Alshain]

Artificial plants provide the same cover as real ones so it shouldnt matter.

[DPirateRoberts]

Originally Posted by Alshain

Artificial plants provide the same cover as real ones so it shouldnt matter.

I'm glad. I just look at a plant and it dies. I don't have a green thumb at all. I once killed a cactus.

[coldmachineUK]

lol! You must just be unlucky in picking really finickity varieties then!
Try something like an amazon sword (Echinodorus sp?) or java fern. I also use giant elodia, (egeria densa) which just never stops growing! I have to prune it at least once a week :S
And trust me, I'm no gardener :P