Hi! I'm New And Could Use Some Advice :)

Akasha72 · Oct 24, 2011

Hello everyone. I'm fairly new to fish keeping, although my Dad kept them when I was a teenager so I'm not a complete novice. I have a 2ft tank with 2 clown loaches, 4 male guppies, 4 female guppies, 1 male platy, 3 female platies, 3 neon tetra and a dwarf algea eater.

All my female guppies were pregnant when I got them, 2 of which looked very close to giving birth. I put both of them in the breeding trap yesterday afternoon. Within minutes I had babies! Although it was the slightly slimmer of the two which gave birth. One baby escaped the trap (saw it this morning hiding in the plants) 3 got eaten shortly after birth leaving just one in the trap. I've still got the very fat guppy in the trap but she appears a little stressed. She's refused to eat this morning (which is unusual as they're normally very greedy) my question is - Do I leave her in the trap and hope she gives birth soon or do I let her go back with her tank mates and let nature take it's course?

Here's hoping someone can help

Akasha72

fluttermoth · Oct 24, 2011

to the forum, Akasha

Breeding traps really aren't a very good idea; they are stressful for the mother fish, and are too small for they fry to grow properly.

If you put plenty of fine leaved live plants, like Java moss, elodea or cabomba, in your tank enough fry will survive; don't forget that female livebearers will have 30 or 40 fry every month!

I feel I ought to warn you that your stocking isn't very good...neons should be kept in shoals of at least 6, but preferably more, and clown loaches also should be in shoals and can grow to a foot long, so they're going to be too big for your tank.

colleen0309 · Oct 24, 2011

good morning and welcome to the forum! :good:

To add to what fluttermoth says, the guppies should be in a ratio of 1M for every 2 or 3 F.

TropicalLad21 · Oct 24, 2011

Welcome here Ak.

Akasha72 · Oct 24, 2011

Hi and thanks for the replies. Re- the stocking. I plan to get some more neons in time, the female guppies wern't planned but were got to keep the males occupied as they were stressing the female platies. The clown loaches were going to be flushed down someone's loo so I rescued them. My neighbour has a 4ft tank and he's already agreed to take them if/when they get too big. Ideally I'd like to just keep neons and platies so as the guppies die off they won't be replaced.

Anyway, the trap has come out as I've come home from work to find another female guppy had got in there somehow (I'm guessing she thought she was a lemming instead of a fish and decided to jump!) and the only surviving baby has disappeared - presumably eaten

My plan now is to go to the pet store/aquatic centre tomorrow and get lots more plants as suggested.

Thanks all

Akasha72 · Oct 25, 2011

Just a quick note to say I managed to get lots of elodea plant and some fine leaved stuff that I can't remember the name of (My Dad was with me and he says it regenerates itself and sends up new shoots so it sounded like a good plan). I've also given my filter sponges their first rinse as the water was looking a little cloudy last night and it kept 'sputtering' - it looked horribly smeggy and it's only a couple of weeks old. The booklet says to clean it every 3 to 6 weeks!

But the reason I'm posting is ...

In the process of doing all this I glanced into the tank and there was a tiny guppy baby! I thought they'd all been eaten. It made me Smile

wan1967 · Oct 25, 2011

You should rinse your filter sponges in tank water when you do a water change.Rinsing them in tap water will harm the bacteria.Welcome to the forum.

ripil · Oct 25, 2011

welcome mate. do me a favour and bop the the person who was going to flush the fish down the bog on the nose for me twice. yeah the breeding trap always seems like a good idea to protect the fry but really it just causes the fish stress (done it myself). i'd get loads more tetras and i'd rehome the clown loaches sooner rather than later. i have the similar size tank and really couldn't see 5 or 6 of them in it living happily. might be an idea to see if your local fish shop (lfs) would swap you for them or give you some credit. i'd take them and two of the male guppies and see what else you could get.

Akasha72 · Oct 25, 2011

Hi, thanks for the replies. I did rinse the sponges in tank water not tap water - I knew that rinsing them under the tap would kill the bacteria.

@ripils_fishes. There's only a pair of clown loaches and they're both quite young I'll be keeping an eye on them and once I feel they're looking cramped they'll go to my neighbours 4ft tank. I'm also going to ask him if he wants a pair of male guppies. They're chasing my female platies again. I regret buying them in a way - they're pretty to look at but they've caused some stress. I'm fairly new to this and I'm guessing I'll make plenty more mistakes before I'm done lol
I'm really enjoying the platies though, they're very relaxing as they're so layed back. I'd really like a catfish but as I've not done much research on them I'm hanging back for now. That might be something for the future when I'm a little more confident and experienced.

Glad I joined here. I don't feel too daft asking what I think might be a silly question!

Thanks - Akasha72