Only 2 Fry

Yesterday I discovered 2 guppy fry in my tank. I quickly scooped them out and now in their own separate tank and my son has named them Pickford and Lingard
We have 4 females in the tank both that looked most pregant still look huge and can still see babies in one of them so does this rule out that the rest were eaten? Is it possible to have just 2 fry? Could it just be a long labour for the poor mother? Ive looked in and around plants and the filter/airstone with no others around

 

Yesterday I discovered 2 guppy fry in my tank. I quickly scooped them out and now in their own separate tank and my son has named them Pickford and Lingard
We have 4 females in the tank both that looked most pregant still look huge and can still see babies in one of them so does this rule out that the rest were eaten? Is it possible to have just 2 fry? Could it just be a long labour for the poor mother? Ive looked in and around plants and the filter/airstone with no others around

Of course , there are chances that your new born fries got eaten by adults.

if the bellies still looks big there are chances the mother will delivere more fries. if the mother in a community tank, move them to a tank that for its own. that can save you more fries.

 

If they're young females and it's their first drop they usually only have a couple, the number shoots up their next drop.

 

The one I believe it to be we only got on Friday could be her first lot was around 4ish yesterday and no others since. She keeps going to the back of the tank behind the plants but nothings happening. I suppose 2 is better than 200

 

Give her time and be sure to check in every possible crevis. Some fry will hide in the gravel and you will simply overlook them.
If she keeps going to the back of the tank she may still be delivered. Hiding or separating behavior is a good sign that she is still going.

Good Luck with the fry!!!

 

How do I get at them in gravel? I hoover the gravel, won't that kill them if they get sucked up? Ive tried looking around plants filter and airstone but nothing. Keep going and checking but don't want to disturb them too much. The female Ive had the longest is overdue too!

 

If they are hiding in the gravel you can do one of 2 things

1 - wait until they come up for food

2 - gravel vacuum and put a net under the output end of the hose and catch them. It will be a wild ride but I have had many survive this in the past.

I would just wait them out and not gravel vac for a week or two. You can let this go while still doing water changes.

 

I never thought how would the ones in hiding eat? The two I have were happily swimming on the surface so I quickly got them with a jug. Wouldn't the gravel be full of waste after a few weeks? even a day or so. It would be nice to have the whole footy team not just a striker and the goaly (coz that's what my Son would name them afer) lol

 

They will get any leftovers that fall past the other fish (there is always a little something).

As to being full of waste - it won't be as bad as you would think. Once you are back on schedule to vac you will get it clean in 1 or 2 sessions. To be 100% honest - I only ever gravel vac my wife's tank 1x per month and now that mine is set up I will only do it 1x every 1-2 months until my population grows. then I will deep vacuum more often.

 

We have a 210 litre tank with two commets in I vac that each week but they are pooing machines!

 

I understand that. In the end, the choice is yours. Please forgive me if I came across as telling you how to run your tank.

another option is to gravel vac as normal and then check the bucket before dumping and scoop any fry out of the bucket.

 

No you didn't. Sorry if I sounded antsy I wasn't meaning to at all. Only had fry once before and they died I was guilt ridden for days and want to give the ones born now the best chance if I can. Just looked and looks like other mum to ve maybe showing signs too

 

Oh you did not sound that way at all!!! I was starting to feel a bit guilty about suggesting you change the routine that has worked for you.

LOL

It would seem that we both have good intentions!!!

I am sure other folks would also like to chime in with their ideas on how to help out. (and I am at work so I cannot be on to much or I will get in a bit of trouble LOL)...

 

If you have floating plants in your tank that is the first place the newborn fry will try to hide in. They are much easier to catch while they are hiding up there.

When I first got my Mollies the female gave birth to 3 fry within a few days of getting her. After about another week she gave birth to many more. I managed to catch about 15 of them and they are now in a grow out tank. I couldn't catch 2 of them and those 2 are now thriving in my big tank. They are only about half the size of most of the ones I moved but seem to be healthy. It seems not all molly fry grow at the same speed as others. I have them from 1/2 inch up to 1 inch long and all from the same bunch of them.

The ones I couldn't catch spent most of their time grazing on my sponge filters. I am assuming there was microscopic food growing on them and it was nutritious enough for them.

BTW: When I decided to get live-bearers I wasn't going to try to save fry from being fish food but couldn't help myself I didn't want to have to go through trying to catch any more fry and I knew my tank couldn't support the number of fish I would end up with so I moved the female to the grow out tank. Now when she has babies they are already where I need them to be.

 

I wondered if the new fish dropped a few due to stress of being moved. I don't have floating plants maybe she'll have more later. I know I don't like the thought of any getting eaten.

 

I had a guppy who took 3 days to finish dropping fry. Could still be more coming. Lol

 

I wondered if the new fish dropped a few due to stress of being moved. I don't have floating plants maybe she'll have more later. I know I don't like the thought of any getting eaten.

I feel sure that is why she dropped just 3. I am sure getting netted, bagged up, transported and then put in a totally new environment was pretty stressful.

I accepted the fact that some of the fry would get eaten but also knew that the strongest would survive. Mollies are capable of giving birth to dozens of fry every month and without an outlet for all those fish I knew I couldn't keep them all. That is the main reason I removed the female from my main tank. I left the males in there. Even though I know she can still produce babies for a while eventually it will stop. I do understand some folks want to save them all but sometimes it is best to let fish do what fish do in the wild.

 

I never thought how would the ones in hiding eat? The two I have were happily swimming on the surface so I quickly got them with a jug. Wouldn't the gravel be full of waste after a few weeks? even a day or so. It would be nice to have the whole footy team not just a striker and the goaly (coz that's what my Son would name them afer) lol

1) Mama could still be giving birth -- guppies can be at it for 24-48 hours. If you really want to give the fry the best chance, putting the mama in a breeder box (or something else with slots large enough to let the fry fall through, but not the mama out) in a separate tank from the other guppies.
2) The babies are (as you noticed) REALLY small and good at hiding. There could be a lot more already in your tank already
3) Don't worry too much about feeding them--guppy fry are birthed without an external egg sac, but they have just finished absorbing the one which kept them going inside their mom. This means that usually they don't even want to eat for a day or so, and then after they pick at aquarium decor and plants for algae and other tiny remnants of food. So they'll be fine for the first week or so all on their own. But mine love HikarI First Bites for when they do start eating--it sinks well to get to the ones who hang out near the bottom. If you keep your babies in a bare-bottom tank you can clean up easily after them. If you have gravel...well, I ended up getting some ghost shrimp to clean up after them because it's hard to estimate how much to feed. I also learned to feed using a baby spoon--even a 'pinch' is more than I think. Alternatively you can just crush some flake food up--they'll be happy with it if it's basically powder. And again, a little goes a long way.

OK, I said 24-48 hours... but here is the brood my girl dropped over about 4-5 days. This is an Endler Livebearer, aka endler guppy, so it's a little different than a fancy guppy, but it is a close relative. One thing that separates them is that endler usually DON'T eat their young. So if I sound overwhelmed... I am

 

Do you have a cover over your filter intake?

Lil ums can get sucked into the filter easily.

If you got some floating plants, the babies will hide in it and more will survive.

And like Mattgirl said, they’ll be at the surface, easy to scoop up.