Help, Fish Giving Birth... Continued - Guppies & Platies

[mrscullen5373]

dont worry all of us have experience the speed of guppy breeding!
All of us were first time breeders once!

Any luck with which fish it is yet?

Nope not yet.

We have literally just sat down to eat our tea and then Amy said, baby! so we jumped up and sure enough we seen another baby in the main tank... We turned the filter off to let the water settle whilst we tried to find this little fish and then sure enough we found another two... Maybe the fish has already given birth but the fry has hidden in the pebbles as when we tried to catch one of them it dug right in deep so we going to keep a close eye on the tank.

How long could we leave the filter off for whilst doing this to make the search easier?

Can't beleive we now have 5 of the little buggers which seemed to have survived which in my book is a miracle as I know how quick they can be eaten. One of the little critters was having a swin around with the other platies and guppies without a care in the world and not one of them went for the poor thing.

yes 5 is alot considering you weren't remotely prepared!

I would say IMO that you shouldnt leave it off for more than a few hours.
Imagine you were doing a big water change or there was a power cut? You wouldnt leave it off for too long.

well done for catching those five, i used to really stuggle catching them when i had guppy fry although the platy fry are the fasted, i swear once one of them apparated to somewhere else while i was catching it lol

 

[eldraW]

Well we have seen another two now but we can't get the little turds... I have a feeling whilst we have been trying to lure it out of the gravel that we may have squished them but unsure yet, they might make an appearance once I have left. We are over the moon that we have the 5 though lol.

The missus is stuck on Guppy watch whilst I go out for a bit. i'll get her to post up if she catches anymore .

Thanks for all the help and advice you have given me so far, much appreciated!

 

[eldraW]

Make that 6 little baby fishies . Took a while to catch this one though.

 

[mrscullen5373]

Make that 6 little baby fishies . Took a while to catch this one though.

haha well done

And if there is anything else you need feel free to post here or pm me

 

[eldraW]

Aw thanks.... Well Anthony is still at football at the moment but im sure he will be back to ask more questions when he gets in lol. Thanks again

 

[eldraW]

We now have 7 lol, just found another one there, we are keeping a close eye out, don't know if there is anymore out there but if a guppy has popped and give birth I think the others could be close to so Amy will be on Guppy watch whilst i'm at work and what not... We have just borrowed the mother-in-laws net hatchery for tonight untill we can get a new one tomorrow.

Thanks again for all your help and advice!

Anthony & Amy

 

[SlimboyFat]

I'll give you 2 days before you are out buying a "Nursery" tank

We've just been giving the 1st batch away to friends and family (kept the best for me, red tail and dorsal fin, dark body that "shimmers" blue). Still got about a dozen guppies and a couple of dozen platties.

The timescale meant they must all have been pregnant when we bought them and at least 3 guppies had fry so the colours have been very varied. The 1st lot where rescued from the tank and spent the night in a icecream tub floating in the tank

 

[eldraW]

I'll give you 2 days before you are out buying a "Nursery" tank

We've just been giving the 1st batch away to friends and family (kept the best for me, red tail and dorsal fin, dark body that "shimmers" blue). Still got about a dozen guppies and a couple of dozen platties.

The timescale meant they must all have been pregnant when we bought them and at least 3 guppies had fry so the colours have been very varied. The 1st lot where rescued from the tank and spent the night in a icecream tub floating in the tank

Lol I know what you mean... How old were they when you decided to give them away and how big were they?

We had ours floating in a small scales tub until we got this hatchery from Amy's Mam. All is well at the moment, all 7 alive and kicking. There could be more and the other Guppies could well pop soon too so like I said earlier we will be keeping watch to see if we see any.

Do you have any other advice for us?

thanks
Anthony & Amy.

 

[zeke the black ghost knife]

start passing the cigars! congrats!

 

[SlimboyFat]

They where about 8 weeks, about half the size of the adult ones.

If you plan on catching more when the others decide to drop I would highly recommend a Nursery tank, You can't really keep them in the trap until they are big enough to go in the main tank, plus the food is different.

Food: I got the Liquifry (there is different stuff for livebearers such as yours and for egg layers so make sure you get the right one). I also got the follow on food.

To start, feed with the liquifry 3 to 4 times a day (tip: put a bit of the tank water in the lid, add the food, shake well then drop in the water. Otherwise it just drops as a lump).
After a couple of days include a small amunt of the follow on food.
After a couple of weeks include some finely crushed normal flake.
Over time we reduced the feeding down until after about 6 weeks we where feeding once a day.

Not sure when you should stop with the liquifry but as we had several batches of guppies then a batch of plattys we stopped it after about 5 weeks.

Hope this helps.

 

[eldraW]

They where about 8 weeks, about half the size of the adult ones.

If you plan on catching more when the others decide to drop I would highly recommend a Nursery tank, You can't really keep them in the trap until they are big enough to go in the main tank, plus the food is different.

Food: I got the Liquifry (there is different stuff for livebearers such as yours and for egg layers so make sure you get the right one). I also got the follow on food.

To start, feed with the liquifry 3 to 4 times a day (tip: put a bit of the tank water in the lid, add the food, shake well then drop in the water. Otherwise it just drops as a lump).
After a couple of days include a small amunt of the follow on food.
After a couple of weeks include some finely crushed normal flake.
Over time we reduced the feeding down until after about 6 weeks we where feeding once a day.

Not sure when you should stop with the liquifry but as we had several batches of guppies then a batch of plattys we stopped it after about 5 weeks.

Hope this helps.

That is a great help, it is much appreciated, we were told off Amy's Mam to just crush our normal flakes up into fine particles for now as we didnt exspect this yet, any other advice you can give would be super!!!

start passing the cigars! congrats!

Thanks for that too .

 

[eldraW]

Sorry to be a pest Slim but what actual Liquifry did you get? I just had a look on eBay and there appears to be different numbers for different things?

Could you please post me a link to both the Liquifry and follow on food you used or could you tell me the exact names/numbers just for ease.

 

[SlimboyFat]

Liquifry 2 (for Livebearers) to start. Link
Liquifry 3 (Baby Plus) is the follow on food. Link


I have only just started with the fish again after about 10 years. I always used the the 1st stuff as this is liquid based so I suppose its like you would feed a baby milk. It's only this time that I started to use the follow on food and not just straight to crushed flake with the suggestion that you will always get some larger pieces of flake when you crush the flake. This will not be eaten by the fry and polute your tank. The follow on is very fine.

 

[SlimboyFat]

Probably too late for this lot but years ago I did hatch Brine Shrimp for the fry (although all the fish loved them). This is definately not a "must have" but it was something different to try.

You can get a "Hatchery" such as This. When I tried it you used a milk bottle sat in a spare tank

 

[SlimboyFat]

Not a good image (as the camera focused on the ship instead of the fish ) but this is the one thats now in my main tank (along with a couple of females to keep him company)