Sam Livingston

She must have started dropping within last hour, I see about 5-7 so far, hard to keep track there so small and fast. For how long about will she be in labor, when should remove her from their section?

COBettaCouple

there's not really any set answer on that.. they each have their own ideas on how fast and when to drop the fry. she can drop fry at times over about 5 days, but most should be dropped now. when our platy dropped fry, we would remove them to their tank - moving the mother could be overly stressful for her after dropping fry.

Sam Livingston

Yea I'm waiting until I know for sure before moving her. If she drops fry on other side of tank they will be eaten for sure. The other fish have not left the tank divider, they are licking their lips for the babies. I must say I'm disappointed in the tank divider, I have saved two babies so far that have sneaked to the other side through the small netting. Good thing though was that the 2 were hard as **** to catch, so looks like their survival instinct is sharp even as newborns. Hard to tell still but looks to be maybe 15-25 now; I got to see her give birth to 3 of them. It was kind of cool, they started coming out slow, then when were about half way through she shot them out like cannons.

Sam Livingston

Wow what a tiring night. After I saw a couple fry go through tank divider I got scared and went to Wal-Mart (thank god for 24 hour stores, went at 2:30 am). I bought a 5 gallon hexagon tank for the fry. So then came the long, hard work; catching the fry to move them to new tank. I kept track of fry I caught out of tank... 68!!! That's only counting the live ones and the ones I could catch or find (very quick and smart for being only 2-3 hours old). I figured altogether she must have given birth to over 80 fry, quite impressive. The mother seems to be doing great, shes seem very happy to be with the other fish, no one would guess she just gave birth 6 hours ago. The most I've heard of them dropping is 50, so I'm quite surprised still. Their so cute. Should I expect a lot to perish in the upcoming week? Their so small and so many that common sense tells me most won't last long.

Sam Livingston

When should I start feeding the fry? I through a little bit of baby fish formula in their once they got in new tank, but have not really seem them eat it yet, do they usually eat right away, or are the pellets maybe too big? Their .5 mm sized pellets

COBettaCouple

i took some flakes.. if you can get: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...56&N=2004+6130 and mix it with regular flakes and maybe hikari brine shrimp cubes. we put the food in a sandwich bag and use a rolling pin to crush it all into powder. then we shake it up and pour it into a little rubbermaid container. they'll start eating within a couple days to a week.

Sam Livingston

Good idea with the crushing, it's hard to crush in hands. Along with flakes, I have New Life Spectrum small fish formula, Freeze dried brine shrimp and red mosquito larvae. Are these all good food to introduce to the fry?

COBettaCouple

i think so, it sounds a lot like the mix we made up and crushed. do you happen to have any vitachem or liquid vitamins?

Sam Livingston

No I don't have either, should I get some?

COBettaCouple

i would get some, if possible.. and/or garlic guard. the vitamins can help reduce the risk of some conditions like scoliosis (vitaman C fights that).

Cody

congrats...i didnt notice mine eating untell they were about week old ..i even put blood worms in for some of the bigger ones... a few of mine are only a couple weeks old and there getting color

Stradius011

My guppy fry are over a year old now. Its amazing to watch them grow. Anyways, congrats!

Sam Livingston

Fry are two weeks old and doing amazing! I have only found 2 dead of the 69 (though I'm sure theres few more that can't find). I went out of town for a week and when came back were triple the size! They are gaining a lot of color, all orange so far running from head to almost tail. Some of them have single tiny black dot on them at end of body (no bigger then a period " . " ) I'll post pictures when find my camera adapter to hook up to computer :P Unfortunately their fore fathers and mothers have not had same luck; ich has almost completely wiped out the adult tank including the mother; so heres hoping for the next generation.

COBettaCouple

that's a great survival rate on the fry. we're sorry to hear about the ich outbreak with the adults.