SunnShadow

How soon can you tell what kind of fish a fry is, if you have a community tank with Guppies, Platies and Swordtails, and all the females are pregnant at the same time??
"Morsel" is almost big enough to release into the tank (I'm probably being overly cautious), and I'm just wondering how to tell what, exactly, he is. I KNOW he is a "he", he's gotten some nice colors to him: orange and yello on his tail, bluish and orange/red on his body...... But other than that, it's a coin-toss.

S.

Jason

Guppies are pretty easy to tell as they have a smallish body which narrows considerably to a large tail with different colours. I platy and a swortail fry are more difficult to distinguish but swordtails usually have a longer more streamlined body which platies are usually short and fat. Male swortails take a while to get their 'sword'

SunnShadow

Thank you, J-man. I think he is a Guppy...... but maybe it's just a game of "wait and see"........
I tried to release him into the big tank today, but the other fish chased and harrassed him (even though he is too big to eat), so I put him back in the playpen with his smaler brothers. Maybe I'll try again next week.

S.

SunnShadow

"Morsel".... renamed Boris has been released into the tank with the big fish. He's done fine for the past three days, even started "courting" all the females. He still tends to hang around the side where the "playpen" is, probably because of the younger fry still in there. But at least the other fish don't bother him.

S.

(oh......... Boris is short for Aurora Borealis....... his colors remind me of the Northern Lights dancing across the sky..........)

lokky.funky

Hi Sunn Shadow,

How old is your guppy? If he's not fully developed (say 3 to 5 months), don't put him with the female guppies. If he indulges in sex, it would affect his growth.

Regards,
Lokky