Beginning of this year, my guppy, (who i thought was a male, just turned out to be a tiiiiny female that got in with the males at my lfs) gave birth. I managed to save 4 of the kids when i noticed she had popped, then shortly after giving birth, she died, of what I later found out was fish tuberculosis. It also wiped out my entire guppy stock, who were all living in the same 10 gallon. The 4 kids were doing alright, since I have never dealt with fry of any sort, I will say, in retrospect, my care was less than. They got fed powderized flake food, whenever i got around to feeding them. They have been acting normally, have grown a little bit, all of them reached a different, but still puny, final size. The largest one is probably about a quarter-inch long. The tiniest one, almost still fry sized, died after looking peaked for a few days. The other three looked too small for me to even attempt gendering, but now I think they are two females and a male, since the two bigger ones look pregnant. Oh god. I can't even imagine what the fry might be when they are so micro themselves. I am not a livebearer person, I tried it once, and it is just not for me. But I feel somewhat committed to making sure these guys stay ok, since they require things slightly different than most fish. I just don't understand why these guys are sooooo tiny. Was it the inadequit feeding of the mother (didn't know she was even a mom until right before she gave birth, it was a busy tank and she hid a lot, can you blame her, in there with 9 guys?) was it inadequit feeding of them at birth? (didn't know much about fry, i was also rather new to fishkeeping, and had virtually no time what with school) or could it be that the mother had tuberculosis? maybe they are resistant to TB what being born carrying it, but it just horribly deformed them? I mean, they are devoid of color, miniscule, and the male is kinda mis-shapen.
I just can't bring myself to mercy kill them, they live in a really poor setup as of now, because i cant afford a tank for them (the tank the guppies were in was completely sterilized and revamped after the TB strike, and now is a betta divided tank) and I just do not have the money or room to buy them their own tank. They, quite honestly just live in a gallon bowl. They eat tropical flakes just fine, and I clean them regularly. I can't give them to the pet shop, all of my lfs's are just in it for the business, and you can't sell midgets. Other fish would easily eat them, and what if they DO carry TB? Plus, any filter that wasn't a sponge would just suck them right up.
On one hand, I feel like a terrible person just keeping them in a bowl. But, in my mind it is a lot kinder than killing them, and I want to keep them forever isolated from other fish.
Woah, I wrote a book! Didn't intend to. Any advice or input would be GREAT. Thanks in advance, especially if you read all of this.
I just can't bring myself to mercy kill them, they live in a really poor setup as of now, because i cant afford a tank for them (the tank the guppies were in was completely sterilized and revamped after the TB strike, and now is a betta divided tank) and I just do not have the money or room to buy them their own tank. They, quite honestly just live in a gallon bowl. They eat tropical flakes just fine, and I clean them regularly. I can't give them to the pet shop, all of my lfs's are just in it for the business, and you can't sell midgets. Other fish would easily eat them, and what if they DO carry TB? Plus, any filter that wasn't a sponge would just suck them right up.
On one hand, I feel like a terrible person just keeping them in a bowl. But, in my mind it is a lot kinder than killing them, and I want to keep them forever isolated from other fish.
Woah, I wrote a book! Didn't intend to. Any advice or input would be GREAT. Thanks in advance, especially if you read all of this.
