My Guppy Fry Journal

[Ny82]

Has your guppy had her fry yet? if not she must be enormous

omg they are massive! Both of them will drop around about the same time-double fry!

Talking of fry, I was on the phone and just wandering around when I saw something dart under the filter. I had a closer look and there it was - another platy fry! I caught it and put it in the trap with the first one. I am thrilled I found another and knew there were more. Platy fry are very good at hiding, when I found my very first platy fry last year, it was a cm long so was about 2 weeks old before it came out and I saw it.
This one is clear body with a yellow tinge and has 2 very clear, bold black bars on the tail just like mum even though he's only a week or so old! I think he will be yellow.
I am so happy I found another and they are different colours.
I tried getting a decent pic but I only have a cybershot camera so it doesn't focus on the fry and the new one is clear so it's no chance of being picked up on lens lol.
Now I am thinking there might be more. This one was under the filter where the cories cave is, they really are gentle giants! There might be more in there or behind the rocks and plants where I can't see or get too, but for the moment i'm happy with these 2!

 

[Ny82]

Hi everyone, so last night I was staying at my friends, I came home this morning, turned the tank on and realised one of my female guppies was a lot thinner than before but still a wee bit tubby. I was instantly fry spotting then saw a cluster of them at the bottom-IT ALWAYS HAPPENS WHEN I'M AWAY!!!
I scooped them up and I now have 7 baby guppies and 2 baby platies in the breeder box. The platies are about a cm long now, they play with the other babies, chasing them about-well I hope it's playing lol. My 2nd female who is huge is behaving very erratically, when you go near the tank she whizzes from one side to the other then dives behind the plants. Her belly is so big I would say either tonight or tomorrow!

 

[LucyB]

Great!!!

 

[Ny82]

I have 8 now! They are so small and cute! I have to say though, platy fry are better at hiding than guppy fry. These were all out in the open

 

[snazy]

I have 8 now! They are so small and cute! I have to say though, platy fry are better at hiding than guppy fry. These were all out in the open

Yeah, guppy fry almost don't hide. Platy fry are absolute masters at hiding and most of them survive in adults tanks.

 

[Ny82]

Lol platy fry are stelthy!
As I suspected, the 2nd female gave birth during the night. I found fry everywhere this morning-they just sit there in plain view I managed to get about 8 more fry. I really did forget how tiny they were. The breeder box is getting full but I am going to let the platy fry out at some point during the week. The 2 of them are doing really well and getting big so they should be able to hold their own.

 

[LucyB]

Yay! I found 2 platy fry in my tank today! There was 3 but one got squished When I say squished, I mean I literally tapped it lightly with the net by accident and that was it Oops...

I let 3 of my biggest platy fry into the main tank today, they are doing great

 

[Ny82]

Aww that's a shame but I did that yesterday catching the fry with the net as I used the turkey baster to syphon out water and coolant from my car so there's no way i'm using it back in the fish tank even after being washed!
My fry are doing great darting about, they are so fast. Theres a further 4 in the main tank which were particularly small so every time I caught them with the net they would swim out the mesh
I can't catch them they are clustered together right out in the open. They have survived this far so I will leave them be.
That's great news about your platy fry Lucy, I will release mine at the end of the week!

 

[Ny82]

I'm really fascinated watching these 4 guppy fry who are in the main tank. They are hovering right at the front, in the middle of the tank. The platy male keeps swimming millimetres from them but I don't think he can see them as he hasn't shown any interest in them. I am sitting there frantic holding my breath but he just swims away again.
One of the female guppies spotted them and chased them for a few seconds then swam away again-it's a half hearted attempt-if she wanted to eat them, she could easily eat them but they just lost interest after a few seconds. I hope luck is on the frys side and they survive in the main tank. I've never had that happen with guppies but happened with platys as they are the masters of hide n seek lol.

 

[Ny82]

So I was away all weekend again. I came back and the 4 guppy fry in the main tank have survived and are quite happily playing away.
Since finding and catching the fry last weekend, the days which followed were very weird. Firstly the female guppy who had the first lot of fry was still very big,I was very concerned about her, the other one was skinny after dropping which I expected but the next few days I kept finding what looked like newborn guppies falling onto the sand with the big bellies. I don't know if she maybe dropped them over a period of a few days - is that even possible?
Other news-the 2 platy fry are doing great in the main tank. They are right little grubbers-eating anything lol.

 

[Ny82]

Ok somebody really needs to give me an explanation for what's going on before I go crazy. Remember I have 2 female guppies and a home bred male guppy.

We all know I have 2 sets of guppy fry born a day apart. The first female guppy who dropped on the saturday night was still huge and I kept finding fry during the next few days. The 2nd female who dropped on the sunday night was skinny and fine.
The fry are a week old now and doing well. Both mums are half black and the babies were all born grey and their tails are starting to darken.

My 2 platy fry are a month old. One yellow and one bright orange. Their mum died whilst giving birth. She was a gold twin bar.
I have another 2 platies. A female and a male who is bullied into the corner most of the time from the female They are both bright red.
The thing is today I found 3 bright yellow/orange babies-where did these come from??? They have to be platy babies as I have never had guppy fry born coloured unless the mother was blonde. My female platy was never ever fat. No gravid spot nothing. Could they be hers? I am so confused someone please give me an explanation!!!

 

[Ny82]

Just found another, I am swaying towards platy fry. The way they were hiding so well is a big giveaway. They still have the little fat bellies so they are no more than a day old and about 4 or 5 millimetres smaller than the guppy fry who are a week old. They are my mystery fry!

 

[snazy]

Ok somebody really needs to give me an explanation for what's going on before I go crazy. Remember I have 2 female guppies and a home bred male guppy.

We all know I have 2 sets of guppy fry born a day apart. The first female guppy who dropped on the saturday night was still huge and I kept finding fry during the next few days. The 2nd female who dropped on the sunday night was skinny and fine.
The fry are a week old now and doing well. Both mums are half black and the babies were all born grey and their tails are starting to darken.

My 2 platy fry are a month old. One yellow and one bright orange. Their mum died whilst giving birth. She was a gold twin bar.
I have another 2 platies. A female and a male who is bullied into the corner most of the time from the female They are both bright red.
The thing is today I found 3 bright yellow/orange babies-where did these come from??? They have to be platy babies as I have never had guppy fry born coloured unless the mother was blonde. My female platy was never ever fat. No gravid spot nothing. Could they be hers? I am so confused someone please give me an explanation!!!

Platies won't always get huge when pregnant, especially a young one. Yellow little fry as you say are normally platy fry, unless you have a blonde guppy but the fry are noticeably different to guppy, the guppys have more pointed faces I think.
Also, don't forget that fry that survive in the main tank are slower growers than the one saved separately because they don't eat as often as the ones in a dedicated fry tank and will have a size difference with their own siblings leading to the confusion that another adult has given birth. They will eventually grow as big as the rest of their brothers and sisters

 

[Ny82]

Platies won't always get huge when pregnant, especially a young one. Yellow little fry as you say are normally platy fry, unless you have a blonde guppy but the fry are noticeably different to guppy, the guppys have more pointed faces I think.
Also, don't forget that fry that survive in the main tank are slower growers than the one saved separately because they don't eat as often as the ones in a dedicated fry tank and will have a size difference with their own siblings leading to the confusion that another adult has given birth. They will eventually grow as big as the rest of their brothers and sisters

Thanks for the reply! I really do think they are my platies. They don't have the googly eyes like the guppy fry and they are a lot rounder and more compact. I find guppy fry to be more "googly"
I remember some odd behaviour from her, not seeing her for days but because she wasn't big I thought she was maybe being hassled by the male but she must have been having babies. Plus it's the other way around, she wont leave him alone and he's usually hiding in the plants. Both guppy females are half black and their fry are all grey so it's defo not there's lol. That only leaves 2 fish and ones male! Mystery solved!

 

[snazy]

I actually have little platy fry in with the adults. The late developing male had it's say I saw some with black tails already so they are doing fine hiding I couldn't even venture a guess which female gave birth