Meet The Family!

[fishmad135]

I'd like to introduce you to my first guppy family, I also have a few questions at the bottom

 
So a month ago i bought a female guppy
 

 
And a week later, she gave me one fry. It seems to be a lady fry looking at the fin now she is a bit older, but i can't be sure yet! 

 

 
Then one month later, a got a whole bunch more fry! This picture shows both the first single fry born and then the 30 new day old new ones! 

 

 

 
How many more times could this female guppy have fry, living with no other males? I read it's about 6??
I LOVE the babies!!
Say the parents were both yellow, would the fry be limited to being just yellow?? 
 
Cheers, Imogen 

 
P.s This is my set up for hatching baby Brine shrimp for feeding the guppy fry, what do you think? 
 

 

[Ny82]

Aww congrats! They are adorable! In my experience, babies tend to look like their parents yes! But saying that, the batches I have at the moment are from females who were already pregnant. Both females were yellow. One baby has red eyes so is carrying the albino gene which is passed down from the parent. 

 

[fishmad135]

Thanks Ny! Just been looking at the journals and wow, your guppies are amazing!
What food should I feed my fry on, I have brine shrimp however I'm guessing they can't eat brine shrimp every day!
Also, how long do you think it will be before the colours are distinguishable?
Thanks!! 

  

 

[Mamashack]

hi Fishmad and Congratz!
You can also feed your fry commercial preps such as Liquifry no.2 for live-bearers and/or finely crushed tropical flake.

 

[Ny82]

Thanks Ny! Just been looking at the journals and wow, your guppies are amazing!
What food should I feed my fry on, I have brine shrimp however I'm guessing they can't eat brine shrimp every day!
Also, how long do you think it will be before the colours are distinguishable?
Thanks!! 

  

Thankyou!
Like mamashak said crushed flake is fine. I use tetramin baby which is just finely ground flakes. They love brine shrimp don't they? It's so funny watching the fry stand up to the adults for shrimp!
I find that guppies take ages to colour up. Mines are almost 6 weeks now?I think so lol and they still have no colour. Some of them have gold bodies some white but still no fin/tail colours!
 
In response to your other question which I didn't see (sorry!) yes the female can drop fry up to 6 months after mating, with no male present.

 

[fishmad135]

Thanks guys, i'll give everything you've mentioned a go and see what they prefer. This is all very exciting.
I just put some brine shrimp in before bed and got a snap of a fry with a mouthful 
 

 
The eldest guppy looks like she will be yellow like her mother, maybe I'll have to get a pretty and colourful male.. (Love excuses for buying fishes)
 
 

 

[fishmad135]

It's moving day! Baby fry are leaving their box and going into a tank of their own 

 

 
I have this filter, its been in my mature tank for 3 weeks now and I'm adding filter media in from my old filter too. How do i make it guppy fry friendly? I heard people wrap tights or filter media round intake? What do you suggest??
 

 

[Mamashack]

I have this one in my betta tank. I think because it has sponge media, the fry will be alright. Have heard that tights and such can affect the flow through the filter and therefore affect the efficiency of the ammonia-conversion.
Can I suggest that you challenge the filter before transferring the fry? Put the filter in the new tank, and add ammonia to 2 ppm (using the calculator http/www.fishforums.net/aquarium-calculator.htm) and check that the ammonia and nitrItes are at 0 12-24hrs later. Then you'll be sure that there are sufficient bacteria to cope. If not clearing to 0ppm in 24hrs it would be kinder to the fry to complete as fishless cycle as they are more sensitive to even small amounts of both toxins.

 

[fishmad135]

I'm such an impatient person, but I know your suggestion is too important to neglect, darn! Just going to get my water test kit from the garage now! I always put those little test tubes down in the silliest of places! 
I had never even noticed the calculator on here before. Silly me 

 

 Thanks Mamashack!
Just counted the guppy fry and I have at least 35+ 
And the Mother is pregnant again! 
Here's a picture of a week old fry tackling a blood worm, nom!

 

[Mamashack]

I think you can probably expect a brood of new fry every 4-5 weeks as I think most of the live-bearers can store sperm packets and produce fry for up to 6 times without a male being present.
What are your plans for the fry? Will you sell them on or give them away OR buy a new tank every month? lol
With my fry I leave them in the main tank so only the fittest and fastest survive. One of the fish-keepers at PetsAtHome persuaded me not to get a new tank unless I had loads of room and dosh to do it every time fry arrived on the scene! I have between 1-6 fry from each of the 5 broods my platy mama has had since December. And she's pregnant again too!

 

[fishmad135]

Oh gosh! 6 times! Wow! 
I go to university in a few months so my parents are going to love this 

 
I'm giving most the males to fish keeper i know who has a 200 gallon aquarium in his house (one that goes through a wall into another room) and he wants it stocking with just male guppy and cory. So I'm giving some to him, keeping a few for myself and a local fish store has agreed to take all the females in exchange for money (woop wooop).
 
haha wow, thats a lot of guppys, do the majority of them not survive if left to their own devices then? My fry just stay at the top of the tank and can be left there a whole days without getting eaten. I don't think my fish are man enough to eat there fry.. 

 
Ohhhh i almost forgot, this is there new abode… just waiting the day to check the ammonia levels as suggested by you! 

i decided to put a different filter in but its a sponge filter like the other however its been in a mature tank for longer!
 

 

[Mamashack]

Fingers crossed for the results - hopefully there will be more bacteria in there if it has been in a mature tank for longer. Just keep an eye on the other tank's water parameters as the bacteria for that tank will have spread themselves between the 2 filters. May not affect them but best to be aware that it could and check.

 

[fishmad135]

Thanks MamaShack, I did water tests a few hours before taking the filter out my main tank yesterday morning when i was doing a small water change and then i did one again this morning and everything is fine, nothing has changed.

  The ammonia I added to the fry tank has gone down to 0 after adding Ammonia to 2ppm, Nitrites and Nitrates are good too 

 

Here they are in their new home!

I've got some great vids of them hunting for the baby brine shrimp, they're so cute!

 

 

[Mamashack]

Am glad the water parameters are good and you've managed to get your fry in their new home. The tank is looking good!
Just keep an eye on the water parameters daily for a week and if stable you can probably do weekly water tests and water changes. Even if the water parameters look good after a week it's a good idea to refresh 15-25% of the water to replenish mineral and electrolytes present in tap water (which of course should be conditioned to remover chlorine and chloramine, but you already know that!)
What are you feeding the fry with?

 

[fishmad135]

I'm feeding them either frozen Cyclops which is a type of zooplankton or Crushed up TetraMin flakes in the morning and live Baby Brine shrimp before bed. Is this okay?
I think I'm going to do water tests every morning for the next few weeks just to keep an eye on things. I asked my grandparents for water testing kits for my birthday and between them i ended up with 6 sets of tetra water test kits….... i can test water for a good few years now!