New Guppy Fry

[jimbooo]

Hi Everyone,

i've just had one of my female guppies give birth to about 50 fry. they are in a 50G cube (2x2x2) with the following other fish

2 albino bristlenose catfish
1 common bristlenose
3 female guppies (moved the 2 males out)

the tank is heavily planted (see pic below, sorry no fry pics yet)

PH 7
KH 12
CO2: 35ppm
O2 - dont know exactly but saturated (plants are pearling)
Ammonia- 0
NitrIte - 0
NitrAte - 10
Phosphate - 0.5

Temp: was 20 for general times, just raised to 27 for fry. (is this the right thing to do, the theory is they will grow faster. is that correct?)

i have co2 running into the tank with an airstone on from 10pm to midnight with moonlights

for fry cover there is floating riccia at the surface and a java moss carpet on the substrate.

i really want this tank set up so the guppies can breed and breed without major problems. they've obviously got plenty of space but in your opinion is the water chemistry correct for long term breeding?

any advice or comments would be greatly appreciated

 

[Annastasia]

Looks like Guppy breeding heaven to me! Your levels are all about in the perfect range for them, however Guppies are pretty good at adapting to most anything as long as it's not too ridiculous (i.e. going from 8pH to 4pH or something). I'd turn the temperature down a little bit, to around 26. I've never found it makes them grow that much faster, mostly makes the females give birth faster. But it can't hurt. The thing that will really make them grow well, is good foods. Since you have lots of gorgeous, healthy plants, the fry will be more then happy to eat the little yummy buggies off them and that's really good for them. Probably in that tank, you'll have trouble getting food to them, so I'd just feed your fish as normal. How often do you usually feed?


But overall, you have the perfect setting for them. Gorgeous tank too!

 

[jimbooo]

thanks, i thought the levels were about right but wanted to check.

i feed the adult fish tetraprima, tetramin pro (4 varieties), algae wafers, bloodworm, cyclops, chopped mussel and the odd courgette every now and then.

never frozen and flake together.

i'm going to feed the fry 4 times a day (where possible) on liquifry. 10 drops seems to be enough to fill the tank with tiny specs of the stuff.

10% water change every night for the first 2 weeks to clear up the excess food/waste etc..

does this sound right?

 

[Annastasia]

You can skip the Liquifry if you want, and just go to fry food. I don't even know if they'd care about the Liquifry since they have the plants. Mine always choose the infusoria and other buggies over fry food. 4 times a day sounds good though, whatever you are feeding. As does the water change schedule. You'll have some nice strong little fry pretty soon! Sounds like you'll be a great dad.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Congratulations! You will soon see them fighting over bits of goodies chewed and dropped by the other tank inmates. IME guppy fry are very capable little things when it comes to getting a good meal.