Guppy Babies - What Next?

[LSU]

Hi,

I'm fairly new to this and was hoping for some advice.

Prior to me having a tropical tank when I was young(somtime ago) I was given a new tropical tank set up for last christmas 2006. Since then we initially lost a few fish but about 4/5 weeks ago one of our guppies gave birth to 11 babies(that is what we could see and rescue!). We were over the moon and they have all since survived and are currently growning within a net bredding trap quite happily. For info we currently have 2 male guppies and 2 female guppies.

Well, yesterday evening and into this morning it appears another of our gupies has given birth, which was unexpected given her size etc. So far seen and rescued 5. The problem we have is the tank will not support anymore fish once grown up and me being me cannot bring myself to 'dispose' of them.

We get great joy from seeing our fish have babies but we also know we have a limit of how many we can keep due due tank size. We already intend to buy a new larger tank shortly but we would like to continue seeing new fish being born.

The question is, would a local fish seller be interested in taking some of our new borns in the future? perhaps on a regular basis? or for business reasons would they only deal directly with credible suppliers?

Me and my partner love our hobby but are still new to it. We are not looking for any financial gain from this. We simply enjoy our hobby and are too soft to do, you know what!!!

Just wondering what the take was on this really. Have any of you had similar situations? Would greatly appreciate any advice. Thanks.

 

[iairj84]

That's entirely up to the store whether or not they'll take fish, but some do and you're lucky if you can get a little store credit for the trade in. At least in that situation you know the fish have a chance at finding a loving home without being bait for another fish.
I know in the US their are groups called "Freecycle" where everyone gives up extras or things they dont need any more and I have been able to get a few all orange long tailed guppies through there. It's worth a shot, and surely seeing a small childs face light up is much more rewarding than giving them to store that could end up using them as feeders.

 

[fishboy619]

some stores will take them, they can be advertised on here in the buy,sell and swap section.
or, if you have the heart, leave the fry in the tank, dont remove them, or sell the males.
we have "freecycle" here in the UK too.

 

[kribensis12]

What size is your tank?? Only home owned petstores will take fish, becasue chains say that they have their own supplier and that my fish will make them sick( when there fish are the onees that are sick and mine arent).