Guppy Fry Not Growing..

[AquaticHamster]

Hello again.

It has recently come to my attention that my two and half month old guppy fry haven't seem to have grown much since they were born. Aside from black dots and a little color on their tails, they are only a tiny bit bigger than they were when they were born. I have maybe 9 or 10 currently. Half of them were born 2 and 1/2 months ago, some of them were born a month after that, and 1 or 2 were picked up at Petsmart maybe 3 weeks ago. Im not so much worried about the younger ones, but the older ones im concerned about. They are the same size as the younger ones. And at 2 and a half months too. I know this isn't right. I have a friend who had her fry almost fully grown at 3 months and I've read that they can be adults by 3 months. I feed them Hikari first bites once a day and I clean the tank regularly. They are currently housed in a hooded 1 gallon with an undergravel filter and light. The lights on all day unless the suns shining right on it (its by the window since thats the only open spot and I have to watch the electric bill X]) so I don't think lights the problem. Has anyone had this happen before? What can I do? I have an almost completely cycled ten gallon set up for the babies when they mature with 3 other guppies and a female betta in it. I was hoping to have them moved soon but they are still small enough to be eaten and I don't want that.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Lettybetty]

Hi it could be the size of your tank because some fish grow to the tank size
I have a 2ft tank for my babies they didn't seem to be growing until I moved 10 of them to a 3ft tank with only 8 fish in and they have grown lots so it could be that you need a bigger tank for your babies a nano would be ok they are about 5 gallon or put them in your other tank on there own guppies are quite hardy so you might be able to move them now depending how close it is to being mature by empting a little off the water out of the one they are in and top it up with the new tank water slowly then move them across


I could be wrong on this its just my thoughts and what I would do, someone will be along soon to give you another answer

 

[fluttermoth]

Many fish produce hormones that, once they reach a certain concentration in the water, prevent the fish from growing properly.

In a tank that small, that's going to happen very quickly, The only things you can do are; move the fry to a bigger tank, or do a lot more water changes in the small one; nearly 100% every day (leave just enough water for the fry to swim upright), and make sure the new water is temperature matched and dechlorinated, of course.

 

[AquaticHamster]

Many fish produce hormones that, once they reach a certain concentration in the water, prevent the fish from growing properly.

In a tank that small, that's going to happen very quickly, The only things you can do are; move the fry to a bigger tank, or do a lot more water changes in the small one; nearly 100% every day (leave just enough water for the fry to swim upright), and make sure the new water is temperature matched and dechlorinated, of course.

Well I do clean it every 2 weeks when the algae gets bad, and I put dechlorinator in. It gets cleaned totally (ie. taking out plants and fish) and the water is dumped and replaced. The tank is way too small to stick a gravel cleaner in and its just easier to replace all the water. The problem with moving them to a bigger tank though is that they are still small enough to be eaten. And I have no other place to put the guppies and betta. Im not sure what to do at this point.

 

[fluttermoth]

Once every two weeks is just not often enough for fry. If your gravel cleaner is too big to use, then just use the tube off it, or even a jug. If I have fry, they get daily water changes; it's the only way to stop them getting stunted

If you up your water changes, they might still start to grow. Have you thought about keeping them in plastic storage box? It would give them more room.

 

[Cazgar]

A 1 gallon tank isn't big enough to allow them to grow properly, they need more space.
They also should've been fed 2/3 times a day when newborn.
You also need to be doing water changes at least 3/4 times a week

 

[Akasha72]

fry need to be fed more than once a day. Mine get 2-3 meals a day and they get a 50% water change every 3 days too

 

[AquaticHamster]

Once every two weeks is just not often enough for fry. If your gravel cleaner is too big to use, then just use the tube off it, or even a jug. If I have fry, they get daily water changes; it's the only way to stop them getting stunted

If you up your water changes, they might still start to grow. Have you thought about keeping them in plastic storage box? It would give them more room.

Well Im going to be honest and tell you I have no time to change it every day. A storage box you say? I could do that.. But my little tank has a hood with a light and they kind of need light.. Do people usually do this?

 

[Cazgar]

A 9 litre tank should've taken but a few minutes to do a water change every other day.
A storage box with filter & heater would give them much more room, if they get enough natural light they'll be ok.
You will still need to find the time to do water changes though.
Tbh & I don't want to sound harsh, but if you haven't the time to do water changes, maybe raising fry isn't for you

 

[AquaticHamster]

A 9 litre tank should've taken but a few minutes to do a water change every other day.
A storage box with filter & heater would give them much more room, if they get enough natural light they'll be ok.
You will still need to find the time to do water changes though.
Tbh & I don't want to sound harsh, but if you haven't the time to do water changes, maybe raising fry isn't for you

Well I do, but changing it every day isnt very convenient. No problem though, just fixed up a nice maybe 4 or 5 gallon storage box with heater, water from the cycled tanks, air pump (going to get a new filter tomorrow) and a ten gallon hood with light. They seem to be doing great. How often should I clean this storage box though? Once a week?

 

[fluttermoth]

You still need to be changing the water as often as you can. Especially as, unless you can use some mature media, the filter in the storage box won't be cycled

Personally, I's still be doing daily water chnages, whatever size the tank, but you might get away with two or three times a week. The fry just won't grow as well with less water changes.

 

[Akasha72]

I'm agreeing with fluttermoth all the way. I have several platy fry and a couple of guppy fry in my 25 litre tank. As I've already said I do a 50% water change every 2-3 days. I literally takes about 20 minutes to syphon some out and use a jug to put some back - it's like 2 buckets of water.

If you havn't got 20 minutes to spare every 2-3 days then I also agree that raising fry isn't right for you.

 

[crazyforcordoras]

I fed my guppy fry 8 times a day. They poop every 20 minutes and are then hungry again. Every hour I would go up, take out the mashed egg yolk, and feed them. They grew like WEEDS.

 

[AquaticHamster]

I fed my guppy fry 8 times a day. They poop every 20 minutes and are then hungry again. Every hour I would go up, take out the mashed egg yolk, and feed them. They grew like WEEDS.

Well Im going to strongly disagree with you on feeding them 8 times a day. O_O That sounds like far too much.

You still need to be changing the water as often as you can. Especially as, unless you can use some mature media, the filter in the storage box won't be cycled

Personally, I's still be doing daily water chnages, whatever size the tank, but you might get away with two or three times a week. The fry just won't grow as well with less water changes.

Would mature media be like cycled water? Or a filter cartridge thats been used for a few weeks already? Because I did mostly fill the box with cycled water from the other two tanks. And im going to get a new filter later. If this isn't what you mean, could I take one of the cyled through filters from the 10 gals and use that?

 

[fluttermoth]

Yes, I mean stuff from inside the filter, not water. Just some stuff out of your main tank's filter, put in to the new one, would be fine.

I agree that eight times a day is too much!