Toooo Many Babies...

[AshleySpatula]

my boyfriend took my to his job where they have one of those ugly cartoony television fish tanks and it is so completely full of guppies of all sizes (lots of little tiny babies)

he wants to know if there is some kind of fish he can put in there that will eat just the little babies but leave the bigger guppies alone?

i told him if we can get rid of all the guppies we could get some other cool fish that are small but dont breed like rabbits, but he said the kids are attatched to the
bigger ones and have names for them n stuff

any suggestions?

 

[backtotropical]

A couple of dwarf gouramis would do the trick.

Also, something like a pictus catfish would be good.

 

[AshleySpatula]

pictus catfish? dont those get really big? this is a small tank... a little under 10 US gallons. so it would have to be small and stay small.

maybe try the gouramis tho...

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Best option would be to seperate the males and the females.

 

[backtotropical]

Sorry, didn't realise. Your tank is even too small for the gouramis then!

Pictus would be ok. They only grow to around 4". They are known to eat small fish when fully grown but i think the full grown guppies would be a bit too big for them.

edit: or seperate the males and females like Barney says............

 

[AshleySpatula]

unfortunatly seperation isnt really an option... and there are SO MANY!! i dont think there is one square inch of that tank that isnt teeming with babies...

its the only tank they have, he doesnt have one at home and i cant put anymore in the one i have at home.

so i guess we will try the pictus, and try to rehome some of the other babies that have gotten too big for it to eat, i had already taken some home to my tank and my fish seem to chase them a lot even though they are around the same size... and i dont want em to take over my tank too...

 

[backtotropical]

You are looking for Pimelodus Pictus. Good luck.

Also, make sure the ones you have in your tank are all the same sex, otherwise you might end up with the same problem.

 

[AshleySpatula]

Also, make sure the ones you have in your tank are all the same sex, otherwise you might end up with the same problem.

thanks yeah there are two that are about the size of my glow light danios and one thats still tiny, there were more, about seven tiny ones but they all disappeared in a matter of days, dont know if the just got sucked into the filters but i checked there, would my female betta have eaten them? she is kinda a pig but right now she is the largest fish in the tank...

i dont know how to tell the sexes, both have like white/yellowish bodies and just the tail is red, i think they are ugly...

 

[tucan]

maybe he can borrow some killifish, they'll eat anything that can fit through their mouth

 

[kribensis12]

It cant be as bad as my cons!!!!! I have over 250+ babies, adn there seem to be more everyday!!!!!!! None have died as the parents are to good at taking care of them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But mine already have home reservations! My aunt who knew nothing about fish was given a 55g a couple years ago, with a silver dollars, some bala's adn some gupies. 2 turned into 4 which turned into 8, ect............. When i visited her she had around 600 guppies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There were babies every where!!!!!!!! Please post pics of the tank, all those guppies sound interesting!

 

[Squidman]

Most small omnivore or carnivore fish will do the trick.

 

[Straydum]

honestly i feel its kinda sad to do such a thing. breeding and then getting fishes to eat up the fry. if you planned to do this from the start then why breed in the first place. if all this is accidental, then i rather you give the fry to locals or your fish store in exchange for maybe store credit.

i'm not trying to impose any form on negativity on you but you'd have to understand that these fishes, fry you may call them, are still something living and should be given a chance to do so. rather then being used as a discussion subject on how to get rid of them.

 

[AshleySpatula]

no one intended to breed the fish and the people that set up the tank didnt know that was going to happen. after i started getting into fish and doing all my research and learning, yeah i know not to make mistakes like that but MOST people dont. they think 'oh buy tank, buy fish, everything is okee dokee'

most places here in town wont take fry, especially guppies. and there are what looks like 60-80 fry in less than 10g of water. i am not an inhumane person for asking this question, i am sure one reason a lot of fish have so many babies is that well a lot will get eaten out in the wild.

i mean look at the ratio of sea turtles that hatch from eggs to ones that actually grow into adulthood. now if guppies were on some kind of endangered species list yeah i would try to keep every little guy alive but really like i said before those things multiply like rabbits and i dont think it's gonna hurt anyone by having a fish that will eat some of the smaller ones.

i eat meat, i dont have a problem with it. so i dont see a problem with a predatory fish eating live fish. it's the food chain. nature.

 

[chibi]

Find someone with an angelfish. Those things swallow fry like they're candy!

I'm surprised no one will take them. Your LFS won't take them? Usually, they sell them off as feeders...

 

[AshleySpatula]

from what i know, no but i will ask again. first time we asked if they would buy em or take em for store credit, i'll just see if they will take them for free cuz they really got to go!