My first guppy babies batch!

Today I come home to school to feed my guppies and do a water change. I noticed that my female's stomach looked smaller then what it normally is. I see a small fry dark beside the glass and I am like "××××!" I was excited but mad at the same time because she did not wait for me to get home =( So I get the breeder net in the tank and put some java moss in it along with a of pea sized snails. The hunt began. Those little fry are VERY fast and very smart. They hid behind the heater were my net can't reach, they would hide in the center of my big clump of java moss, and they were blending in with my natural color gravel. I cought about 10 of them but I only have like 6 free swimming fry at this second the rest of them are still on the bottom wiggling their tails. I am sure there are probably 1-4 more fry in my tank but I just can't have my hand in the tank all day holding a net trying to catch these little fry that some how are way too swift and erratic when they dart. If they live that's great, if they get eaten they will feed my older guppies or if they die they make food for my ghost shrimp. I hate to think like that though.

I really enjoyed the excitement of that. I might think about buying multiple 5 gallon tanks to keep my female and male fry apart and I can do selective breeding which looks like fun.

So yea I took some pictures (With a horrible outdated digital camera) and I will post them when I upload them.

p.s. I am using HiakI (Or w/e the brand is called) First bite for my fry. However
I sort of accidentally put more then enough in the breeder net and since the food is smaller then my net holes it is nearly impossible to get out any excess food. Will they be ok?

 

NIIICE on the fry find! It's always a surprise when we find fry swimming in the tank. I'm sure it the net will be fine, but it will get brownish. That's what happened to my breeding net. Good Luck!

 

TIP: if you dip the end of a toothpick into your tank (shake off excess water), then dip it into your HikarI first-bites, and then redip it back into your breeder you can control the amount of food that goes in.

That's how I used to feed my platys...

Good luck with your little ones!

 

Congrats on the new fry.

 

Wow, congrats man, the same thing happened to me. I came home from school and found some fry as well, but they were swordtail fry. Anyway I freaked and tried to put them all in the breeder net before they got eaten.
My advice: DO NOT USE A BREEDER NET

I used the same exact food as you, HikarI bites, great food but the fry will not eat it all and a small white residue will be floating at the top of the breeder net. This causes ammonia spikes and its very harmful to your fry. My advice, get a tank divider, get some floating plants, breeding grass, or just gravel plants and put the fry in their. Its much better then leaving them in the breeder net. And oh yes, the breeder net does get filthy with brown algae. Unfortunately all my swordtail fry died but it was a good learning experience. I will never ever use a breeding net again unless emergency strikes. When I put my fry in all they did was hide in the small holes and they barely ate all their food. Soon they were nipping each other and chasing each other away. This was really strange behavior and I think it was due to the stress.

Also, a breeder net is a terrible quarantine 'tank' because it causes more stress to your fish, that's how my tank got an ich breakout when I put the male swordtail in for bothering my females. He broke out with ich a couple of days later.

Also be verrrryyy careful when cleaning the gravel and doing water changes. If you hooked your breeder net like me to the side of your tank, then that means the water will be going down, and if you forget about your fry then they will be left without water as the water level goes down and probably die. It almost happened to mine but luckily they had about 2 cm of water level left.

Maybe you will have more luck with guppy fry, feeding them with the toothpick is a good idea and try that out first to see if it works. Also, a way to remove all the uneaten food from the top is to get a cup and suck up the dirty water.

Good luck, I hope I helped, and hopefully your first batch lives unlike mine. =[

 

Wow, congrats man, the same thing happened to me. I came home from school and found some fry as well, but they were swordtail fry. Anyway I freaked and tried to put them all in the breeder net before they got eaten.
My advice: DO NOT USE A BREEDER NET

I used the same exact food as you, HikarI bites, great food but the fry will not eat it all and a small white residue will be floating at the top of the breeder net. This causes ammonia spikes and its very harmful to your fry. My advice, get a tank divider, get some floating plants, breeding grass, or just gravel plants and put the fry in their. Its much better then leaving them in the breeder net. And oh yes, the breeder net does get filthy with brown algae. Unfortunately all my swordtail fry died but it was a good learning experience. I will never ever use a breeding net again unless emergency strikes. When I put my fry in all they did was hide in the small holes and they barely ate all their food. Soon they were nipping each other and chasing each other away. This was really strange behavior and I think it was due to the stress.

Also, a breeder net is a terrible quarantine 'tank' because it causes more stress to your fish, that's how my tank got an ich breakout when I put the male swordtail in for bothering my females. He broke out with ich a couple of days later.

Also be verrrryyy careful when cleaning the gravel and doing water changes. If you hooked your breeder net like me to the side of your tank, then that means the water will be going down, and if you forget about your fry then they will be left without water as the water level goes down and probably die. It almost happened to mine but luckily they had about 2 cm of water level left.

Maybe you will have more luck with guppy fry, feeding them with the toothpick is a good idea and try that out first to see if it works. Also, a way to remove all the uneaten food from the top is to get a cup and suck up the dirty water.

Good luck, I hope I helped, and hopefully your first batch lives unlike mine. =[

Thanks for the detail. I agree that I should not really be using a breeder net. If I ever see a divider that will fit my 28g bowed tank I will buy it. But as of right now I have no choice but to use a breeder net unless I invest in several 1-5 gallon tanks which is probably even better then a divider. Nice idea about getting uneaten food with a cup I will have to try that.

 

Hi.

I have a pregnant Mollie at the minute and have put her in the nursery net. But, I was wondering if you have any advise on what to do!

Any help would be much apprecated!

Bibby100

 

Congrats on the babies Kiwwi!!!
I have never tried a breeding net....my fry are in a plastic breeding box that has a lid and tiny slots (also a V divider for Mom but I didnt put her in there), way too small for the fry to get out. I like it because I can swish the box around a little and any uneaten food or tiny poop clears out. Also it floats so there is never worrying about the water level.
They are a week old today, and all 10 are doing great, I haven't lost any

 

Hi.

I have a pregnant Mollie at the minute and have put her in the nursery net. But, I was wondering if you have any advise on what to do!

Any help would be much apprecated!

Bibby100

Most of the members here and I do not really like to put pregnant fish in a nursery net. Now this is my first batch but I have plenty of knowledge from research and this forum to tell you that its best to not put her in the breeding net. The net just puts tooo much stress on on your female and can kill her or cause early births. Assuming you have some kind of plant such as java moss or decor the fry should have a nice place to hide. After your female gives birth net the fry and put them into the net were they will stay until they are big enough that they can fend for them selfs in the main tank.:

 

Anything that will cut stress, and give the babies places to hide. Just today I moved about 100 baby mollies from the 10 gallon birth tank to my 55 gallon grow out tank. The 55 does have other fish/shrimp in it, but LOTS of java moss for the month old babies to hide.

The two pregnant mollies went into the 10 gallon today to give birth. I try to do this a few days before it is time as the chasing them in the big tank can be stressful...but not as much stress as it is to put them in a tiny little fry box. I tried that once and the female was so stressed she was sweating! Make a long story short HER first batch of fry didn't make it. Now my big lovely ladies give me 50-100 each time! Good luck with your babies.

 

HI again. Thanks for the information. I never knew that and will bear it in mind for the future.

Don't know what happened but, I was looking at her that other day and she no longer looks pregnant. Do you have any ideas on what could have happened? We think that she might of had them and then eaten them. Is that possible, or would we have seen them?

Tanks again.

Bibby100

 

She might have been stressed, or just eaten to much food. That happened with my molly, but in a couple of days she was skinny again. Also they may have eaten them, they will do that. Hopes this helps!

 

Thanks Cherrry123. That's helped a lot.

What do you know about Neon Tetras and white spot? I have got 11/12 Neons Tetras and they're, nearly, all infected, with what I think looks and is white spot. We're treating it, but it doesn't seem to be doing anything. 2 of them have got what looks like fin rot but, will that be because of all of the rubbing?

Bibby100

 

Are those spots small like salt crystals? If so, that sounds like Ich and the way to treat Ich is to raise the water slowly to 82-84F and keep it there for 2 weeks. Change 25% of the water every other day and clean the gravel after a week.

 

Hi, again,

I don't know. They all died, well all of the Neons that had it. 2 guppies died as well. One of them tried to get behind the filter and the other I just came home to dead with out its fins and tail etc etc! Don't know why have you got any ideas? It might just have been one of those things!

Thanks again.

Bibby100

 

It really sounds like either ich or velvet.

 

Fanx will try and treat it for both!

Bibby100

How do I cure them?
=

 

The way to treat Ich is to raise the water slowly to 82-84F and keep it there for 2 weeks. Change 25% of the water every other day and clean the gravel after a week.

API makes a med called "General Cure" for treating velvet. I think that treatment also involves less to no lighting time, but I'm not sure on that one.

 

I lost all but one mollie to what I think was velvet ( thought it was fin rot at first but treatment did not help)now I a m starting over and everything is fine .My new mollies are breeding and my platties are doing great.My one mollie gave birth to 9-10 frys hard to count,I never removed them from my 55 gallon tankI have a lot of plants for them to hide in and now they are out and a bout swimming with the others. my other tank has 2 angle fish in it and they are under quaritine for now.then I may switch the frys to the 30 and the angles to the 55

 

One of the fish (a mollie ) has got what look like cotton wool. Have you got any idea what it may be? Any help would be much apprecated.

Bibby100

 

That sounds like fungus. Rid-Fungus or Melafix (if you have no air-labyrinth fish) would help, but I'd recommend Rid-Fungus.

 

Thanks for the information,but, I got in yeasterday and she'd died . Thanks agian and anyway at least I'll know for next time!

Bibby100

 

we're sorry you lost her. we lost a platy this week too.

 

Thank you and I'm sorry to. What do platys look like exactly?

 

nice looking platy I have a male and female mickey mouse platy and and wagtail like yours and one that's more red than orange.

 

Woo! There pretty! Thank you!

Bibby100`

 

Thanks. Platys are fun little fish. Little pooping stomachs with fins. ;D

 

Suddenly, 6 little babies! I'm so excited! My special Friday the 13th babies

 

Awesome!

 

Cute! aren't babies the best!?

 

Congrats

 

Congratulations on your baby's

 

Awesome! Do you know what the parents look like?

 

Cool, congrats
Are you planning on keeping them?

 

The mom was prehit. She's actually my plainest female, just a bit of yellow with black dots on her tail. The father, who knows? She was in an all-female tank at the store- but obviously she encountered a boy somewhere! I'll be waiting to see what the genders are, but I'll definitely keep some of them. I wish I could set up another tank strictly for males I've bred, but so far when I tentatively mentioned that larger tanks were more stable environments, my mom glared at me and aaid she didn't care how stable anything is, she's had it with my "money wasting" and "crowding her home". I'm a bit confused as to how a tortoise and 3 tanks ranging from 5-20 gallons in one room and 2 rabbit cages in the basement are crowding the house, but I'll have dad work on her.

 

Oh my. I think I might just get my second crew of babies tonight! Dicey looks pretty ready!

 

Congrats now you got more xmas presents to get lol

 

That's kind of the way it works. 1 gives birth and all the others decide it's time. It's how you go from a handful to 50.

 

well I can only look til my tank finishes its cycle then hopefully this coming summer I will have pleco babies I have 4 fish waiting for my tank to cycle

 

I hope you've got a big tank lol I once saw a 3-foot long pleco 0.0