goldengill

My guppy had about 27 fry 4 months ago. The Mom got some weird post partum illness and didn't pull through. She stopped eating almost right away, developed a hump back, got lethargic and died about 3weeks later.

The fry have been safely kept in a large breeder tank housed in a 20 long. I began to notice after about 6 weeks only a few were getting bigger. Recently, only one is large enough to release into the larger tank. Two others are growing slowly but no one else is. I'm down to about 12 (had some escapees during a careless cleaning and they became the afternoon snack) and they don't really look much larger than they did a month or so after they were born.They've been fed flake "dust", they have their breeder(we call it the playpen) "swished" out every day to keep the water fresh.

The 20 long is stocked with 1 male and 2 female guppies (each about 1"), 5 male Platties (each about 2")and a small algae eater who's variety I've forgotten but he won't get bigger than 2". The water tests have all been good. Anyone have any ideas how to get the fry growing? I do have a 5 gallon hospital tank set up but I hesitate to put them in there because then I won't have a hospital any more and we have 2 other tanks fully stocked. It's been a while since we've needed it but Murphy's Law, someone will get sick as soon as the hospital is turned into the nursery.

Thanks for your help!

Callum The Cat

they take a long time to grow could the algae eater be an oto? if o i would get some more because they are a schooling fish

Peace Out Callum!

Chief_waterchanger

Make sure to put clean, unused water back in after waterchanges. Fish excrete hormones that inhibit their growth to keep them from outgrowing their space in the wild. The hormones are taken out partially with waterchanges. That is why some of the fanatical guppy breeders that show them and work feverishly on specific strains sometimes do upwards of 50% waterchanges a day. I would not suggest going that overboard, but perhaps make sure you are doing plenty of waterchanges on the tank and refilling with unused water, as stated above. That should help. Make sure they are getting both veggie and tropical flake, since you said you are feeding flake food. Livebearers need plenty of veggie matter. A good friend of mine feeds her livebearers veggie flake in the morning and something else in the evening, whether it be tropical flake, or some other protein rich food.

Hope that helps.

goldengill

Thanks guys. I haven't been doing water changes very often, only when the tank needs cleaning (although we do have to add water frequently to keep the level up).I'll try that. It still seems strange that some have grown well but most not.

I don't remember if the other fish is an Oto. I'll go back to the LFS and find out. Thanks for the schooling tip. I like to keep everyone happy!

Chief_waterchanger

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/spec...esname=affinis

That is an oto, just incase you didn't want to waste the gas going to the lfs.

greenguppy

well if you are saying you have 12 fry alone in a 20 gallon and feeding them the crushed food, they may not be getting to the food since the fry are such small fish in such a large space. your 5 gallon tank would be much more appropriate for raising the fry

finmama

Never had guppy fry yet, but here is a tip I use with my molly and platy fry and they grow like weeds. In addition to flakes, I feed them "dust" from bloodworms, shrimp pellets, and algae wafers. I give the container a few shakes with the lid on so a bit of food dust sticks to the inside of the lid. Then I just tap the lid over the breeder box and tiny particles fall in which they gobble up I feed them 3-4 times a day.