What do you do when you have too many babies?

[Kotick]

Both of my female guppies gave birth on the same day and I put the babies in the breeder net. Started out with about 35 babies and have now tapered down to 15. Seven are large enough to leave the breeder net but the rest are still in the net because they seem to be growing rather slowly. They all look like their mother too (yellow fins and tail with black spots).

My problem is that I only have a 20 gallon tank. Now I have a ton of fish. Is there anything I can do such as take them to a pet store or what have you rather than having to get another tank? Tanks get expensive. Has anyone else dealt with this?

I know I'm new to taking care of fish and breeding sounded like a good idea at the time but now I have to pay for my possible mistake.

[neilanh]

Many petstores will give you some amount of store credit for fish you've bred, it can never hurt to ask them. Also, check to see if there are any local fish clubs in your area, you may find members there that are interested.

Now that you know what you know, livebearers reproduce like crazy, and it never stops. If you want to stick with them, and not have to keep dealing with babies popping up every few weeks, consider getting rid of the males or females if you really want to keep guppies.

My first livebearers were endlers. I started with 5 females and 4 males. In about 2 months I had over 100 fish. So, you should decide if you want that, or maybe there's other fish that are more suitable to you.

[mfdrookie516]

You could also put an ad on craigslist. Depending on whether you are against it or not, alot of people will get them to feed oscars and some other big fish.

[BigJim]

+1 on Craigslist. I tried taking my metallic blue guppies to a couple LFSs last weekend and none of them wanted them. Posted an ad on Craigslist for $2 a fish or $5 for a trio and I have several people wanting them.

By the way, Kotick, I have my guppies in a 20L with panda corys and RCS. I probably have about 60 guppies in there and I don't have water quality issues. It's heavily planted with an AC30 filter.

[sarahh]

i was dealing with littlies too..in the 120 gallon, they didn't last long there. about 30 adult fish saw to that.

On a lighter note, i was going to say get a 55 gallon and drown them, but that might not work out so well

CL is good, also you could shop around schools and see if they need fish for their tanks (some classes have a tank going)

[meegosh]

You could try posting in our classifieds section as well. I donated 12+ guppies to a guy on here a while back.

[Viper]

The reason that the others are not growing faster is because of the small living conditions that they are currently in. 35 babies in one breeder net (if its like the ones I have) is way too much and it comes down to survival of the fittest in those cases. The stronger, more dominant ones will get most of the food and grow the fastest while the more passive, submissive ones will have to struggle to survive. I would suggest getting another breeder net and splitting the babies up amongst the nets.

The first time I ever had fry, I put 24 in one net and only 3 survived because of the aforementioned survival of the fittest (and also because of my inexperience with fry). The next batch of fry I found 8 babies and split them up 4 in one net and 4 in the other and all 8 survived.

[ampa one]

welcome to AA just let them stay in tank some will make it some will be a snack for other's . i have lps that i can do trade's with

[Kotick]

Thanks Viper. I was wondering if that had something to do with it Cause when I moved my carnival goldfish in, he grew like crazy (I mentioned why there's a gold fish in the tank in my new member welcome thread. Basically funds are limited and I felt bad for him and he's doing well and so are the other fish). But I also thought that maybe some of the fry just weren't healthy, so I wasn't sure.

I do have larger fish so if I don't put the fry in the breeder net, they become food. We've already had 2 occasions where there were fry but they were all gone in a few days.

This was just my first time with a breeder net. Is it common for the fry to look like their mother? All the large ones are female and I'm not sure if the males still in the breeder net will make it. But even they don't have color on them yet, I can just tell when I see the anal fin. These were also females who were already pregnant when I bought them. I know they can keep having babies even without a male around cause they've already been fertilized but does that mean they just produce fry that look like them?

[Viper]

Actually that same thing happened to me. My fiance and sister bought me 2 female mollies and 1 (or both) were pregnant and i had fry a couple days later. The fry produced should look either like the mother, father or mixture of the two. I had males that survived from the same type of circumstances that you are experiencing right now so its probably just a living/growing space issue. Try another breeder net, maybe even 2 more (I know your tank space is limited!)

[PaulieFish]

I know this might sound mean, but yeah.. My guppy just had babies (30ish?) and i kept most of them, but i had to cull some of them. I must say my girlfriends bettas were very happy with the meal.

Craigslist is a great idea also, but if you have any predator fish I am sure they would enjoy the meal.

Please forgive me for my cruelty, just a way of nature.

[jestes]

You could quit putting them in a breeders net. Guppy adults do eat their own fry, so they will help take care of their own population problem. Some head and tailight tetras would help too.

[Turbo V6 Camaro]

bettas will keep them under control

[fish_fancy]

Hi everyone! I'm new to the hobby (my tank is only 2 months old), and just a week ago, rather reluctantly found myself in the same situation as Kotick. I bought a pair of red swortails to add to my community tank--and lo and behold the female gave birth even before I could take her out of the plastic bag! I was able to save four (or so I thought) fry from predation by transferring them to a spare fish bowl, but just recently I've noticed there are four more fry in the main tank. So in a few weeks I'm looking at TEN swordtails!

Now, I'm facing the same predicament. I only have a 20 gallon tank that's already fully stocked. I've had plans to upgrade to a 50-gallon tank, but that's supposed to be several months away. I feel bad when I think of giving away or selling my young swordtails; they're like kids to me now.

Don't really know what to do, but I've got to make a decision fast. Any suggestions?

By the way, how long does it take for swordtails to reach adulthood?

Thanks.

[Sama]

How long it takes for Swordtails to grow depends a lot on the temp of the tank and if they are in a small holding container or a larger tank. I have had baby swordtails for almost 2 months. The largest is still about 3/4 inch. Higher temps help babys grow faster and having room to swim helps also. I had about 4 babies I missed and just left them out of the baby net and they are about 1/4 inch bigger then the netted babies.