What Heppens To All These Babies?

[ColR1948]

I keep reading on various threads where keepers are saying their so and so's have had fry, so what happens to those that survive, do you give them to the LFS or what?

 

[RossC]

Most people who keep live bearers either sell them online or give them away to LFS. I myself am forever making trips to my LFS to off load a month's batch LOL

 

[coolie]

We eat them of course!

 

[RossC]

We eat them of course!

LOL I at least let mine put a bit of fat on first otherwise there's not much of a meal

 

[Aquascaper]

Our platy fry (any that survive the parents, other platys and dwarf frogs that is) will be allowed to grow a little in the tank they're in before being transferred to the 260 litre African clawed frog tank to take their chances there (slim to be honest). If there gets to be too many we'll give them to the LFS for free or store credit

 

[ColR1948]

I have given fish to the LFS in the past, not babies but fish I inherited that I didn't really want, the post above where you got store credit, I asked if that might be given to me seeing as they will sell the FREE fish for a profit but they said no we just take them off your hands.
I appreciate they have to look after them till someone comes along and buys but even if it was a tub of fish food it would be something.

 

[MBOU]

True but fish shops arent rescue shelters, they are doing you a favour in taking the fish... they dont have to... in fact... lots of stores are now becoming a lot more strict on what fish they take back if any at all...

 

[Aquascaper]

If you're looking into breeding fish to sell its always best to get an agreement in writing from an LFS willing to take the fish before setting up to breed fish.

As MBOU says they are doing you a favour and are not obligated to pay you, some will take the fish for free if they know they can sell them on quick and the money they get will cover their costs to house them in the meantime. Bear in mind they would have to QT your fish as well before putting them in with their stock, all of which costs them money.

Private sales & Freeads are the route most people take with more common fish

 

[fluttermoth]

Yeah; neither of my LFS will take in fish, except in very special circumstances, nor will they take in fry/homebred fish, unless it's something very rare.

I'd have to take a bus about 30 miles to get to a shop that would.

 

[MBOU]

Maybe its the OCD but there is nothing like seeing a shop with tanks full of guppies seperated by male/female and by colours. Having full tanksof same coloured and sized guppies looks smart and easy to maintain.

No one wants tansk full of grey guppies with considerably less colour than the imported ones and mixed males and females and mixed ages from different batches of fry. Just looks messy!

 

[Aquascaper]

That's one of the reasons why we're getting African Clawed Frogs

 

[basboi85]

My lfs seemed quite happy to take my mollie fry off my hands especially when I said the fathers was sail fin ( showed pics) an they are orange with speckled black and a variety of different colours. ( half grey black, half orange black, orange and orange with black specks )
I think it's because they don't stock those colours so it breaks up the norm colour you would find and maybe boost their sales.

 

[MBOU]

Depends on the store I'm sure! Different matter when you are being examined and marked within a company for how uniform and tidy the fish stocking is not so easy when people keep bringing in 1 of this and 3 of that and 12 babies this size and 5 of that size and suddenly the system has random tetras and danios and loaches and bits and bobs all over the place that dont fit in with stocking.

As for buying babies... its pot luck as to whether stores will take livebearers at all, notorious for harbouring health problems and not something you want spreading through systems of previously healthy fish. Fish can be asymptomatic (im sure thats the word!) carrying the disease with no symptoms at all. Same reason as no aquatix store with any common sense takes in/takes back pond fish as once they have left the biosecure systems of the shop... they have technically been exposed to SVC and KHV in which case DEFRA have a 'kill first, test second' method. Devastating when results come back negative after hundreds of fish have been culled...

The simple fact of it is... dont buy fish you cant/dont intend to look after long term and dont breed more fish than you can provide homes for/are willing to cull.

 

[basboi85]

I can look after the fish I have.

I normally get a few fry a go a month and let nature take its course to cull over crowding but this last month I've seemed to haves boom and since I'm a regular at my lfs I told them what colours I was getting and they was very interested possibly as the colours was different to the usual all black all silver Dalmatian ect.

I myself bought the different colours as

1 I loved the different colours

2 I wanted to see what colours the fry would come out as as I like to say yea these are my fish and people to say that was a cool looking Molly as Molly's for some reason are frowned apon like they are rats.

I'm in no way a pro breeder I enjoy my fish and I love what fry they produce.

In my eyes my lfs are doing me a favour by taking my fry off my hands and I'm doing them a favour by giving them ( free fry) that are different colours to help boost their custom of having different variation of a certain breed which I thought we all would want as fish keepers ??

 

[MBOU]

It was nothing personal Basboi just a general comment, so many people go out buying breeding groups of live bearers for small tanks or things like kribensis or convict cichlids without considering that really... no one wants the babies... most people try and save their babies and panic when they end up with loads.