Disappearing Babies...

[phishphood]

I had 30 guppy fry. and they were all swimming around happily and eating, the only thing wrong was that a couple of them were bent upwards in the middle (as mentioned in previous posts) I went away for a week leaving them in my mum's care. I still had 30 guppy fry, all appeared healthy still A week later, I had 15 guppy fry left A couple of days after that, I was down to 5 I still have 5, they all appear healthy and I haven't done anything that could have killed the others. The weird thing is, they have disappeared without trace. There are no bodies (or parts of) and there were none in the filter. Where have they gone? What did I do wrong? There are 3 cories in there babysitting, but they never hassle the fry. Its weird that they all went within the space of a week and now everything's fine again.
Did my babies suddenly grow wings and fly away, or is there something a little more sinister going on here
Any suggestions welcome, I don't want to have the same experience with my next batch.

 

[Mamaschild]

I wonder if, while you were away, something got sprayed near the tank....windex, lysol, anything like that. It's possible the 5 remaining were strong enough to withstand it, while the others expired a few at a time

How old/big are the fry? What kind of Cories? Have they always been together? It's possible the Cories are responsible. I know they will eat their own eggs, but I'm not sure about fry. At least that would explain the total disappearance??

I'm guessing, just trying to throw ideas out there for ya.

 

[FishHeads]

Ok here is another situation about babies that I had a question about.

I have a Silver female Mollie that was heavily pregnate yesterday and was showing signs of birthing within the night. Well I had her in a breeder's net inside her original aquarium. Well this morning I woke up to feed her and she was no longer pregnate....but there were no fry in the net or anywhere! What happened??

 

[phishphood]

Mamaschild - There is a hood on the tank, so nothing could have been sprayed in there. Some of the fry were 2 weeks old, some 3 weeks old. Of the remaining 5, there is one that must be about 4-5 weeks old, 2 that are 3 weeks old and 2 that are 2 weeks old. The cories are 1 peppered, 1 panda, 1 julii. The peperred and panda have been in the tank since a week after the 1st one was born, I added the julii a week ago to make up the 3, but she is really small so I don't think it could have been her that is the culprit and the fry had started disappearing before I added her. People on here told me that cories would be fine with the fry and that they are often used as "babysitters" to help keep the bottom of the tank clean.

FishHeads - it sounds like your Molly has had her babies and then feasted on them. Livebearers aren't generally good parents, they have the babies then if the fry aren't quick enough to get out of the way, or if there is no where for them to hide, then even their mother will eat them. Sorry. If I ever have a mum to be in the breeding net, then I put a small plastic plant with lots of leaves in there with her which seems to give the fry more of a chance. I always find mine hiding in there, and then I separate the mother and babies as soon as she's finished giving birth.
It's also possible that she got too stressed in the breeding net and aborted the pregnancy.
Better luck next time.

 

[cassandra]

well the other fry could have ate them or they got stuck in the rocks or plants etc... and the cory have ate them it's sad i know sorry to hear that