Looking For Guppy Fry Advice

[Lauren Couch]

this is the first time raising guppy fry I have some that are 9 days old and some that are 3 days old. I would like more information on growth rates when they get their colors etc.. does anyone know of a guppy fry journal or growth/color chart. currently they are receiving 50% water changes every 2 days 12 hours of light a variety a food 5 times a day shrimp,blood worms, algae wafers, & tropical flakes there heater keeps the water between 78-80F I just want to make sure my fry are developing at the correct pace. also what is this I'm learning about guppies having bent spines? would I be able to see that visually and information on culling would be nice. any links, info, tips, or advice is greatly appreciated ! =] thanks in advance.

 

[mg13]

Can't provide pics or links at the moment, but guppy fry are fairly easy to take care of. I just fed them the community tank flakes crushed up incredibly small, but you're doing good.
Growth rate... I can't say I remember. However, bet spines in my tank resulted from inter breeding between siblings. I think if you don't let sibling breed your not as high if a risk.

 

[Lauren Couch]

Can't provide pics or links at the moment, but guppy fry are fairly easy to take care of. I just fed them the community tank flakes crushed up incredibly small, but you're doing good.
Growth rate... I can't say I remember. However, bet spines in my tank resulted from inter breeding between siblings. I think if you don't let sibling breed your not as high if a risk.

ah ok I'm relieved I don't notice any with bent spines yet and I'm glad they are growing at the correct pace and I'm doing everything right for my little fry =]

 

[lizcateyes]

From what I've seen of my fish, you can start sexing the fry at about 3 weeks old at the soonest, it's generally when colors start showing more vividly on the males, too. The food you are feeding them seems good. Fry are small and frequent feeding is generally advisable, I feed my fry baby brine shrimp mixed with micro pellets, just because they are so tiny but if yours are eating and growing, they should be ok. I have seen a bent spine fish only once, it was very obvious and looked like it had a "z" body instead of a normal fry body which looks kind of like a tadpole.

As far as culling, I don't like doing it, since it means you are "weeding out" (in other words, euthanizing) fish. If you are running a structured breeding program, though, and you have hundreds of fry on your hands and not enough tanks for them, then it may be necessary - because overcrowded tanks can result in drastic fish loss and disease. Culling generally requires picking out the fry that you are not going to want to be part of your breeding goals, be it based on size or color, so that the healthier and stronger ones have more room to grow and thrive. There are various threads I have seen on how to euthanize the less desirable fish, some people keep fish or other pets that will happily eat the fry of smaller fish, some will separate them out and either put them on ice or use clove oil, or by decapitation.

When I have culled, I have used the cold ice method: The fish is put into a small container along with some aquarium water at the normal temperature. This container is then placed into a much larger container filled with crushed ice. This will rapidly chill the water in the smaller container, eventually rendering the fish unconscious. When death is verified after 10 minutes of no gill movement, the fish can be removed.

 

[Lauren Couch]

From what I've seen of my fish, you can start sexing the fry at about 3 weeks old at the soonest, it's generally when colors start showing more vividly on the males, too. The food you are feeding them seems good. Fry are small and frequent feeding is generally advisable, I feed my fry baby brine shrimp mixed with micro pellets, just because they are so tiny but if yours are eating and growing, they should be ok. I have seen a bent spine fish only once, it was very obvious and looked like it had a "z" body instead of a normal fry body which looks kind of like a tadpole.

As far as culling, I don't like doing it, since it means you are "weeding out" (in other words, euthanizing) fish. If you are running a structured breeding program, though, and you have hundreds of fry on your hands and not enough tanks for them, then it may be necessary - because overcrowded tanks can result in drastic fish loss and disease. Culling generally requires picking out the fry that you are not going to want to be part of your breeding goals, be it based on size or color, so that the healthier and stronger ones have more room to grow and thrive. There are various threads I have seen on how to euthanize the less desirable fish, some people keep fish or other pets that will happily eat the fry of smaller fish, some will separate them out and either put them on ice or use clove oil, or by decapitation.

When I have culled, I have used the cold ice method: The fish is put into a small container along with some aquarium water at the normal temperature. This container is then placed into a much larger container filled with crushed ice. This will rapidly chill the water in the smaller container, eventually rendering the fish unconscious. When death is verified after 10 minutes of no gill movement, the fish can be removed.

thank you for the information

 

[mg13]

I do the cold method of euthinization at well, however, I don't do it for culling. My LFS takes donations of fish, so you can see if you can do that. They sell them or use them as feeders, which personally I prefer to having to euthanize.

 

[lizcateyes]

I do the cold method of euthinization at well, however, I don't do it for culling. My LFS takes donations of fish, so you can see if you can do that. They sell them or use them as feeders, which personally I prefer to having to euthanize.

I have preferred the cold method of euthanasia for fish since I started in the hobby. Thankfully have not had too many fish that I have had to go through the process with, it is just a side effect of keeping creatures that can reproduce in mass quantities at times. I would donate to LFS, but do not like knowing they would just be used as food for other fish. Instead I can and have used them in gardening, not for plants intended for human consumption but it does seem to make some plants happy.

 

[Mary765]

Hello!

Sounds to me like you are doing everything right

Expect them to have their full colour (and most of their size) at about 2-3 months old but the first signs of colour will appear between the ages of a week and a month (depending on what colour the fry will be, different colours appear at different times. Something like black can be visible sometimes at birth whereas pink/purple could take two months before it starts showing. But use that time frame as a rough guide!)

Lovely diet you have them on by the way! Very few people take diet seriously but it plays a huge role in fry health!

Do they have access to plants? (Are you keeping them in a breeding net?!) Plants often have tiny tiny bits of algae and micro-fauna that we cannot see but are a great natural source of vital nutrition for them

Bent spines only occur if there is a virus or lack of light. You have your temperature and light schedule perfect so I doubt you have to worry about that!

As for culling, I really don't seem it necessary unless the fish is suffering or otherwise deadly sick. I'm sure all your babies will be beautiful enough to keep and sell!

Any other questions feel free to ask