Fry Growth Rates

[Angry_Platy]

I have swordy, guppy and platy fry of varying ages....I know that the platy fry (loner) is 2 weeks old and the swordy fry close to 4 weeks old. The guppies are slightly older.

The guppy fry are HUGE for approx 6 weeks old. They were a lot bigger at 4 weeks than the swordy fry are and at 2 weeks the platy fry is smaller than the guppies were when they were born The guppy fry have very vivid colours, the swordies have enough colour to tell me they are neons but the platy fry is very pale with slight black tinges at the edges of the tail. It still looks like a "rice grain with eyes"

I feed all fry the same amount of the same type of food at the same frequency....that said, the guppies have moved onto larger food since they can eat it now. They will be put with the adults in the next 2 weeks or so. The other fry are WAAAYYY off!!

Has anyone else noticed this?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Yep guppy fry are one of the fastest growing fry out there, platys come in at second and if swordtail fry are anything like molly fry, they could take up to a year before they are full grown.
Although i have noticed even with my guppy fry some tend to grow alot faster than others even if they are the same age, usually the males grow faster than the females- in one batch i had a couple of months ago 2 of the female fry in the batch in particular grew very rapidly- seriously though one is only 3-4months old and she is already expecting her own batch of fry now already .

 

[Polardbear]

What are you feeding your fry? I've found with my swordie fry that when I feed baby brine shrimp they grow considerably faster.

 

[cheekeyarab]

Yep guppy fry are one of the fastest growing fry out there, platys come in at second and if swordtail fry are anything like molly fry, they could take up to a year before they are full grown.

Good to know, was wondering why my platys were growing so slowly in comparison with the guppies. Thanx!

 

[snowyangel]

Swordtail fry seem to take ages to grow! I've had guppy fry born the same day as the swords and the guppies are young adults now while the friggin swordy has reached an inch! Wooo hoo an inch.

 

[Angry_Platy]

What are you feeding your fry? I've found with my swordie fry that when I feed baby brine shrimp they grow considerably faster.

I wish I could get baby brine shrimp around here.....there is none in any of the LFS's

They are being fed Sera Micron powdered food for fry which is designed for egg laying fry but the babies are too small to eat anything else I can buy. I can't grind up regular flakes enough for them to eat

 

[snowyangel]

Try frozen daphnia. This is so small that i can only really give it to my fry.

 

[Elisabeth83]

What are you feeding your fry?  I've found with my swordie fry that when I feed baby brine shrimp they grow considerably faster.

I agree Since feeding my swordies from birth live baby brine shrimp they are HUGE!! They are almost 2 months old and almost all are an inch long ..some more than and inch and some less. A few already have little swords

I feed my fry lots of baby brine shrimp from birth along with chopped up bloodworms, frozen brine shrimp and flake. I feed them at least 6 times a day.

At the moment I have 28 swordy fry in a 30 gallon, 14 platy fry in a 14 gallon and at least 16 molly fry in another 14 gallon.

My molly fry are growing very fast. I have regular mollies as well as balloon mollies and 3 of my balloon molly fry are already adults living in the big tank (one of the big tanks LOL ) They are around 3-3 1/2 months old.

I would say the reason why I've been so successful with the batches of fry I have now is due to feeding them live baby brine shrimp. Also doing daily water changes on all the fry tanks. At least 50-75% everyday.

edit : It's also due to all info and help that Polardbear has given me along the way THANKS! )

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Im feeding my fry crushed frozen tubifex, thawed out frozen daphinia, hikari first bites and TetraMinfry and the fry also seem to enjoy nicking the resident panda corys catfish pelets too

 

[T1gger]

I feed my fry hard boiled egg yolk. I take the yolk and mix with water and then freeze and just defrost it in a little tank water to make a liquid which I give to my fry and some to my main tank for any missed babies and sprinula granules, and occasional bit of vegetable disk. I don't buy the expensive algae wafers. My bristlenoses get fresh fruit and veggies like lettuce, celery, cabbage, carrot and Zuchini and I only buy the cheap veggie wafers. To be honest I over feed the catfish as the other fish seem to steal they're food. My swordtail female seems to eat all the Zuchini. I give a blood worm frozen block about once a week and cut a tiny bit up for the fry. I'm sure they would like something different for a change just as we do

 

[Skal]

Give those suckers some baby brine shrimp that will boost their growth rate to really fast.