My guppy had baby's. what do I do?

Question

I got my kids a fish tank for Christmas. It is a 10 gal, with a male and a female, guppy. Also a single living neon fish. Well last night my kids came running in and said there is baby fish, sure enough six baby guppies. So what else should I do? I made an emergency run to petsmart to buy a nursery.(small net thing, that seperates fish) I put the babys in it, and now what.....? So they need special food? how many babies were there? how often does this happen? I was expecting babys, but not two days after i put them in there!!!! There is six living... will they all live? where can i read more...?

I know they have to be seperated. Mabey try reading my question again?

not upset. very very happy. just want as many to live as possible. I think they are cute. just caught off guard. it all happend so fast.

Answer 1

Since everybody already gave you a lot of really good info, I just want to give you this tip. Guppies tend to grow really slow, and the bigger your baby guppy tank is, the faster they'll grow. If you confine them in an itty bitty tank, they will take forever for them to grow. Also, feed them often(not too often!) Just use regular fish flakes and crush them into small pieces.

Answer 2

I have a tank of my own with two guppies(one female and one male). I just got a new 1gal tank for breeding purposes. This is a very cheap and easy to set up system for beginers to breeding livebearers. Point is, your guppy WILL eat her fry (offspring) if they don't have any hiding places. Also any other fish in the tank will also find the frys a tasty snack if they aren't separated from the tank quickly. If you want the young guppies to survive, you need to get a small tank, or you can buy a floating tank from most local fish stores, then you put the fry into the tank and watch them grow :) I have had one survive on its own without any separation from the tank mates but all of his brothers and sisters were eaten (about 20 of them). Good luck with your guppies :)

Answer 3

Change 25% of the water in the 2 gallon every day or at least 3 times a week so they have clean water to grow fast. I would get your new babies at least a 20 gallon tank. Or, two ten gallon tanks and put half of them in each. For small community fish like yours, you need one gallon of water per inch of fish. Guppies get to be about an inch long as adults. Get the tank(s) right away because they will outgrow the little tank in a ver short time. You won't be able to tell their sexes for at least 2 months though. The males' little bottom back fins will get pointy. Here is a good article about it with a photo of young maturing fish;

http://www.fishpondinfo.com/guppy.htm

Don't put gravel in the new tank at first because the little ones can get stuck in it and food will rot down there too. Feed the babies several times a day and vacuum the bottm to remove wastes. Wait to add gravel until the little guys and gals are big enough not to get between the rocks anymore.

Answer 4

Guppies can have up to about 15 babies. Chances are the mother had them in the middle of the night and the two ate their own young during the night. The only reason why there are some left is because they got full and the babies hid well enough. If you have the flake food, they can eat it. It just has to be crushed up real well. You may want to get them some of the little pellet food.

Answer 5

Well my guppy had babies and ive been feeding them crushed fish food flakes and crushed bloodworms . Ive had them for almost a month now and theyr'e fine! There were probably about 20-50 baby fry but the mom or the other fish ate them as snacks! Sorry! they have fry pretty much every three-5 weeks. They should all live thogh dont worry! You dont have that many fry I had to combine my swordtail fry(40) with my guppy fry (20) and I have to clean the seperate tank every other day! Why dont you try this link...

http://www.aquariumhobbyist.com/guppies/fry.html

Answer 6

I tried those net things but the babies always died. They were not happy in there.

We've had tons of swordtail, guppy and platy babies. Instead of using a net nursery, we would put a bunch more plants into the tank. Thick plants, usually grouped in a corner would give the babies a place to hide plus they'd also have access to all the food that fell in the area and lots of room to move around.

Keep it as natural as possible. The babies know the danger of the parent fish (parents will eat them if possible). Just keep it simple, give them someplace to hide and most should survive. They won't ALL survive of course...that's just nature's way of doing things but I think you'll have more success without that net.

Answer 7

Guppies and other live bearers (Mollies, Platys, Swords) breed every twenty-eight days, and usually have more each time. If you want to keep the babies then use the nursery and either buy fry food or grind your normal flakes into a fine powder and feed them a few times a day. If you don't want them just let them be and nature will take its course. You will still end up with survivors. These are usually the stronger smarter ones anyway. Any further info feel free to contact me or type your search into aj.com usually very informative.

Answer 8

Put plants in the tank the babies will hang there. Crumble the food really good and they will eat that.Expect more babies in about 30 days. type guppies in a search engine and you'll find sites for them.

Answer 9

Guppies can have up to 150 babies once every 28 days. You shoud feed them "fry bytes", it's a type of powder food for young fish.

Answer 10

The babies MUST be separated from the mother or she will eat all of them. There probably were 30 or more, and she's eaten the rest.

there is a special, very fine food for the babies. Keep them warm and fed, and they will grow rapidly.

Babies can be born from the same mother every few weeks. It's even possible for her to have more in the next few days. If you see the black triangle on her lower, rear abdomen, she still has some inside.