New Born Fish

[manners8]

just got myself a new wall aquarium the other day. so had the fish in for about 2 days, and one of them is popping out babies already. wat do i need to do to protect the fish.

as all the shops are closed at present, wat is best for a home made solution have put in a net and split the tank so far into 2 halves. kept the mother n babies in one half

would appreciate a reply asap from anyone, thanks,

reply ere or msn me on mandeepsingh34@hotmail.com

 

[manners8]

also theres no plants in there yet as the fish only went into the tank on saturday.

completely bare, except for the gravel n water.

 

[ghostship]

I'm no expert but I would be wary of keeping the mother and fry together as I've heard the mother sometimes will eat them. Depends on what species of fish they are though.

Just gravel and water? If these are tropical fish you need a filter and heater urgently, and plants are very important as well. I've never set up a tank completely from scratch but it sounds like you didn't do a "fishless cycle", but I'm hardly in a position to criticise. Hopefully someone with a bit more knowledge will be able to add to this...

 

[rodg98133]

It depends what species the fish are but as said above I wouldn't personally keep the mother wth the fry.

 

[Topazlizz]

Sounds as if it's some kind of livebearer if the babies are popping straight out? No eggs or hatching or anything? In that case it depends on if you have mixed species in your tank. If they are only mollies or guppies or whatever, chances are fairly good they'll be fine without dividing the tank up. But if you've done what most people do, which is get a mixture of fish to start with, they'll get eaten by whatever else is in there, though probably not by Mother (no guarantees though, but they're usually ok together if they're livebearers). So keep it divided with net and get a floating hatchery or a small fry tank when the shops open if you want to try to raise them. Chances are not terribly great though unless your tank is thoroughly cycled - fry are sensitive to water quality.
This may be a confusing answer but if you come back to us with details on what kind of fish etc it may help us to give better answers.

 

[manners8]

hi thanks for the replies,


forgot to mention that i have cycled the tank for the last week, and there are the heater and 2 filters in there. but no plants yet.

only brought 2 guppies and 2 mollies, male and female of each. thats wat the guy at the centre suggested.

have since put a temp net in there, as someones suggested that the babies need to hide somewhere.

also wats the rules on feeding the new fish, i feed the others this morning with the flake stuff from the shop. i'm guessing this isn't suitable for new born fish.

 

[emmag21]

Ideally you should have got 2 females for the one male otherwise he will chase her around continously and really make her tired which could make her ill. Id personally seperate the mother from the fry just to make sure she doesnt try to eat them.

Emma
xox

 

[manners8]

well my attempts to separate them via a mesh isn't working too well as they keep finding a way through. Hopefully, as you say they're live bearers, i'll have to wait till tomorrow morning to get the proper feed and nets. As i didn't expect for the fish to have new spawn within 2 days of them coming from the shop. I've got 3 newbies, we'll see how many i have in the morning.

 

[Tommy Gun]

I agree that the mom is probably going to eat the fry....this is common in all livebearers, and yes, an adult might eat a fry that is the same species (mollies eat mollies, guppies eat guppies, etc...) In reality, this is just an extention of the common advice of not keeping fish that are smaller then the mouth of a tank mate. Even herbavores could swallow live fish if given the chance because they cannot be sure when the next food will come along.

i'll have to wait till tomorrow morning to get the proper feed and nets

Eventually you will probably have a hard time trying to keep up with the number of fry in your tank but you can help ensure that a higher number of fry make it into adulthood by using a dense "clump" of plastic plants and/or by using large gravel/pebble-like substrates since this would offer more hiding places.

Keep in mind that you probably don't want to keep all of the fry in your tank (obviously) because they add to the bioload and/or you can become very overstocked very fast. Additionally, when you are using fry foods - whether or not it is liquid or solid - you will need to monitor your water quality more frequently because much of that food is going to go uneaten....especially if you are trying to feed your fish in a breeder's box/net that allows the food to leave that area and enter the main tank.

As i didn't expect for the fish to have new spawn within 2 days of them coming from the shop. I've got 3 newbies

Obviously your fish was pregnant when you bought it....but even if you do not have any males in the tank right now, I believe that mollies (not sure about guppies) have the ability to have 5 to 7 batches of fry from only one encounter with a male and you don't know if this is the first batch or the last batch so don't be surprised to find that same fish pregnant again.

 

[manners8]

cheers for all the advice, have got myself so plastic plants for the fry to hide in now. wasn't able to get one of those breeding tanks( the floating boxes) as my tank is a bit too narrow for them,

same fish won't be pregnant again as it died over night, but the aquatics place have replaced that one for me, n i think that one's also pregnant. lol
so much for keeping to 4 fish for the first month