wow, but again is this normal

[ruffmeister]

well last sat at 6am (very annoyed) got woken up to find my guppy was giving birth, caught about 5 just to save for myself, and left the rest to fend for themselves. now a nearly a week on there is about 20 fry just swimming around the tank, thinking they own the place. IS THIS NORMAL? i thought the bigger fish would eat them, bu oh no they swim past saying "hi little fish" lol

so now i have had to set up another tank to look after the fry because there are just too many (not complaining) until my lfs will take them off of me

but they are just so cute, but there is thousands of the buggers

 

[aquarius]

wow that's great. when i had guppies, i never bothered taking the fry out of the tank since i had so many guppies and never knew which ones were pregnant anyway. so every week i would find little ones just swimming around in the tank and the bigger fish didn't even bother them much

 

[ruffmeister]

yeah but there is loads of em, but how can you be mad with their little selves

 

[guppymonkey]

My guppy always gives birth at night so when I turn the lights on in the morning I see some of the little guys swimming around my heater. The last time she gave birth I only managed to net 4 of them and the rest were just too fast. Now a couple weeks later I still have one of them in the community tank and he is bigger and more colorful than the ones I managed to separate! Its still wicked tiny though, you should see it next to the dwarf gourami!

 

[ruffmeister]

i have noticed this too, the ones in the breeder are smaller than the ones in the tank, yet the ones in the breeder get guarenteed food, oh well but you have to love them

 

[ramesses]

My guppies are the same as yours,they tend not to eat their young.They might have babies one evening and in the next two or three days you might see the babies swimming along side the bigger ones.
I had guppies in the past and they always ate their young.I guess it's because these adults are well fed with a greta variety of foods,they even have plenty of plants to pick on until I come back from work.
About the babies growing faster in th eparents tank a bit faster...Thats true too.Maybe because this is a matured tank and it has better conditions?Remember,most breeder tanks are set up after the babies are born or arent kept running after the fry is old enough to go back to the main tank.Also,in a breeder tank they wont find the same amount of food,eventhough we try to provide them with the proper nurishment.A stablished tank has all sorts of algae that will provide them will their essencial needs.
I personally,let the babies grow in the main tank.I only keep livebarers there,so I wont have any problem with any other species and the fry.
Good luck with your babies!

 

[Laureth]

Honestly, I vote for plants having more influence on fry survival than anything....In my 75 gallon tank, I have some green swords that were breeding their lil hearts away....I didn't *expect* any of the fry to survive, considering there are 2 rather agressive gourami, 2 shark (an iri and a red-tail) and quite a few other assorted community fish that would eat something that small be it brine shrimp, algae wafer (3 plecos in there too) or fry. Well, four of these fry have to be *very* quick and smart, but also have a lot of hiding places as the tank is heavily planted and has huge clumps of floating water sprite (I'm giving it to friends by now, and its *all* from one 3 dollar plant). There's more growth now, and a few more pregnant mommies, so I'll update this on the next batch.

I think I'm way too good at this swordtail breeding thing, since I'm up to well over a hundred fry. If I had more tanks, I'd have more fry. Even when I don't *try* to protect them, I get survivors.......wonder what it takes to have a fish farm, lol.

Hm...if anyone's in the MA/south NH/ RI area and wants some baby swordtaills....
Mostly neon and pineapple swords, though the greens, blacks and marigold lyretails are trying to catch up, lol......Never really liked swordtails till I saw the neons though.....they are really gorgeous....though the greens are my favorites.

~Laureth

 

[ruffmeister]

yeah i totally thank you for all your comments, the ting is these fry arent staying in the plants, i bought some more that were more densly planted so they could, but they seem to swim in the middle of the tank i think they like the attention lol
oh well they are all doing fine and by the look of things its fry from more than 1 fish too as there are some orange some speckled greay and some grey guppies, im hoping that some are balookn molly babies tho

 

[Laureth]

i think they like the attention lol

<grins> I'm beginning to agree with you. The half dozen fry in my big tank (aka as Predator City, lol) seem to have no clue whatsoever that they are *little* fish. They are swimming around just like they own the place too....and the fry in the mid-size tank (29 gal) are equally insane. They dart under the bigger fish practically tickling them.....and when the big ones decide maybe the little ones might be fun to eat.....zip.....the little fishies are *gone*. That's when the plants are useful, lol.

But you're right, my sword fry all seem to find that they are invincible ones they are a few days old....must be that fry food I'm feeding them, lol.....

But as you said...they're just so cute......all little buggy eyes

Though, I think I've reached the point where I need to either a) get a 4th tank or B) find homes for them, or a store who will take them for credit/consignment/.

So far, the one I've asked about it even casually said they only buy from a distributor......anyone have any tips in that area? I figured a smaller store would be better, but they can't do it. I heard that Pet-co actually buys some fish, but not sure if that's true.

And here I was thinking I'd like some guppies.....but if they breed easier than swords.....maybe not, lol.

~Laureth

 

[ruffmeister]

i think they like the attention lol

. They dart under the bigger fish practically tickling them.....

thats so tru they are everywhere the molly gave birth over the weekend so now there is more, got to find some lfs o take some, but ill keep them in the bredding / hospital tank for a while

 

[ruffmeister]

all are well and are going to the lfs for ££££££ next week but of course ill keep some for myself