Baby guppy broken back?

I bought ten-ish guppies from a Pet Advantage recently as feeders for my frog, but I noticed one looked like he had been snapped in half. He swims fine, but he's the smallest guppy of the group. I would just like to know why this happened and if I did this. I did drop the bag on accident, but the other fish are fine. I do have him in a smaller filter less tank so he doesn't have to put up with a current, but would this give him and his buddies ammonia poisoning? Three other tank mates.

 

So first off that is a fry. Broken backs are also known as deformation which is caused normally from inbreeding of guppies. Been breeding guppies for 3 years and yeah you normally get some deformation. The best way is too euthanize since fish with deformation have a hard time and for some painful time swimming.

What size tank and how many guppies? Are they all fry?

 

Well the ones he has in his tank are about twice his size, one has started to get gorgeous colors. The tank is a cube, for betas. About half a gallon. I will try to get a fifteen gallon tank for them. How much would a good filter plus a bigger tank cost?

his tank has four fish in it, including him.

 

So there is a $1 per gallon sale at Petco till Nov. 5! I suggest you pick up a 20 gallon! Yeah 1/2 gallon is really small for guppies especially since they are big on bio-load. A small tank will also cause stunted growth in fry! If possible get a 20 gallon as quickly as possible or you can just get a 10 gallon if you want. Ideally with guppies you want 1 gallon per fry! The more space a guppy fry has the faster it grows as long with other factors

 

Okay, awesome! The the nearest Petco is out in Burlington, so when I get paid I will go and buy a nice tank.

Also, how could I euththanise a fry? Should I mix lidocaine and water and just od him? I really want to keep him, he's so cute and little, it breaks my heart to have to kill him.

 

There are different methods to euthanize a fish such as ice bath and clove oil being most humane way. Ice bath you just get really cold water normally add ice to it. Then add the fry. It will kill the fry in about 5 seconds. Clove oil is more of a drug that basically put it too sleep.

 

The lady at Petco where I bought the tank and stuff said to run the filter without and fish or live plants for a week, but I'd like to know if I could put the guppies into it right now, it's been running for about 15 hours.

 

A filter takes about 2 weeks to cycle using additives such as Tetra Safe Start! With out additives and no fish it will take 2 months. With fish it might take 1-2 months.

 

IME, livebearer fry with deformed spines will eventually straighten out. I really recommend NOT euthanizing it, there are many chances of it growing out to be perfectly normal. as did mine...

 

I think my mother already ordered the fish, they arrive next week. We wound up getting a sixteen gallon kit for ninety dollars, with filter top and conditioner for the water. It's Aqueon something or other. We have not euthanized the fry yet, if he starts to slow down or hangs out at the bottom too much I might have to.

 

Another thing to do is make sure your fry have plenty of light! I made sure my fry had at least 12 hours of light per day and that helps their spines grow and straighten(this method personally worked for me)!

 

Welome to fishlore!

Please don't kill the guppy! I have had a deformed guppy that was very pretty! Unfortunately, she died from being fed very old fish food.

I have another deformed guppy, and she is doing fine!

You probably have male and female guppies, so I would get a divider so they don't breed. Guppies breed like crazy! I had to get a separate tank for my female guppies!

EDIT: Do you have a filter and heater in the 16 gallon tank? I think it would be best to add the guppy fry to the 16 gallon tank and do a water change every day.