Tips on keeping guppy fry?

Question

I tried breeding my guppies once, and ended up with about 30 fry, which all died within 3 weeks. I kept them in a separate tank than the adults, without filtration, but changed their water regularly. They were fed ground up flakes. What should I have done differently?

Answer 1

guppy fry usually arent very hard to take care of, so it sounds like you have a problem.
water changes should consist of about 10%-15% a day, to keep amonia from climbing high. also, the guppy fry need light, so be sure to provide a light source. they need to be fed a high protein food about 2-4 times a day, also one reason for daily water changes. the temp in the tank needs to be held a a constant, and pretty warm because they are tropical fish. the tank also needs to be AT LEAST a five gal, to allow room to grow.
for more information, check out this site. it will help you ALOT. it helped me.
http://guppyplace.tripod.com/Fry.html

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

http://hometown.aol.com/pepedionne/index.html

look around these sights, because there is a lot of information that you need to know. you will probrably find a number of things that you have done wrong, because guppys dont tend to have a high death rate.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

I have successfully had 3 batches of guppy fry in the last month.. with only 2 females.

First, did you cycle the fry tank before adding them? Cycling first will likely rule out any reason for death by owner. Secondly, fry need filtration!!! Remember they are only smaller versions of their parents and you have a filter in that aquarium for a good reason.

I have not had one guppy fry die, 1 set is 2 months and the others are only 2 weeks old.

I feed them fry food from the local pet store that still seems a bit big for their little mouths so I crush it in a plastic bag before feeding them. You should also feed fry 3-5 times a day when they are first born, this is the time they build their immunities and body structure.

I also introduce flake food after about a week and sometimes they eat it, but they prefer fry food.

Water changes are important, especially with no filtration but if you were not treating the water first with a chlorine remover (try aquasafe) that could have been the culprit.

Here is a video of my community tank and some of the fry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG7r_FKn_I4

I also release the fry into the main tank at about 2 and a half weeks. This may seem early, but as long as they are big enough to not fit in the parents mouths, they will be fine.. as you can see in the video the free swimming fry are about 1 month old.

Answer 3

Heated tank,well cycled,live foods(like micro worms or newly hatched brine shrimp), daily cleaning of uneaten food (siphon), Temp in the mid to high 70's, guppy water conditions, Ph over 7.0,moderately hard water, and maybe just a little aquarium salt.
The live foods don't have to be fed 100% of the time,but maybe once a day,to promote rapid growth.
For filtration use a simple sponge filter with a gentle air lift system,like Jungle Labs or Hydro-Star. The filter should be well cycled just like the tank.
You can use a bare bottom tank,(just paint the outside of the bottom glass). Fish need to see a bottom,and plain glass just looks like more water. In the absense of gravel the sponge filter will provide the necessary bacteria sub-strate, and it should be gently rinsed about once a week in water tank comes from the aquarium it is serving.

Answer 4

Guppy fry are more susceptible to stress than the adult fish. If you move fry, it is suggested that you corral them into a cup, so they never leave the water. I would suggest that you use your well established tank to birth/raise your guppy fry. In other words, move all your adult fish into the separate tank. Otherwise, all maintenance is exactly the same (which means you need filtration), which I believe you had under control, so I am assuming it was stress.

Answer 5

Was there water 75-82 degrees fahrenheit? Also, next time get an aereator. Other then that sounds like you did everything correctly. Oh yeah, don't use gravel as it could squish them

Answer 6

I would just put grass and logs in tank.Let them breed on their on have there babies and leave them along.Feed once a day and keep tank at 72 temp. and ph at 7.2