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I have guppy babies!


Just Renee
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I know, I know.  As long as you have male and female guppies together, you can't NOT have babies but this is the first time I've ever allowed a pet to make babies and they're so cute!  And being eaten by all the adults and the betta in the tank.  I can't feed them because I'm doing a round of meds for some issues the guppies are having, and my plants aren't filled out enough yet to give the little guys more places to hide so I don't have high hopes of any of them surviving right now.  That's a bummer.  But as long as I get everyone back to good health, I'm excited for more babies!  I have a trio of red dragon guppies, a trio of red rose guppies (or something similar... dark blue on the tail with dark orange red solid tails) along with 2 endlers wild type (from petco, not real wild types) so I'm hoping for some super pretty mixes.

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Just an idea. Perhaps you could put in the teeniest speck of food as fine as flour, once or twice a day, so the fry can eat it but the adults can't. (I don't what med you're doing.) And as for hiding places, random plastic stuff totally works - whether aquarium plants or small things from the kitchen (but rub it with white vinegar first to get soap residue off, and rinse rinse rinse.)

Or wait for the next batch to survive more easily. Either way, this is cool. 🙂

 

Edited by CalmedByFish
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I think I'm just going to let mother nature have this batch of babies.  The whole point of this tank was to hopefully achieve some kind of balance, with just enough fry being eaten so I wouldn't be over-run with babies.  I do have a LFS that I can take babies to though, so even if it does get out of hand, I have a back up plan.  They're so cute and I really want them to liiiiive but I think I just saw the last two fry get eaten a minute ago.  Ah well.

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Cross fingers, CalmedByFish!  They are tricky little things though, I just saw 3 of them hiding under rocks and between plant leaves, so who knows?  

Edited to add, I keep seeing the fry being stupid and derping around the substrate and I keep yelling, RUN, FOREST, RUN! because they attract attention from my hungry little heathens immediately.  Those little Forests are pretty fast though!  Super cute.  Hope at least one makes it.

Edited by Just Renee
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I have a used 55 gallon tank (got a great deal on FB--could never afford on my own!) with 5 corys, 2 borneo suckers (mini hillstream loaches), 1 super grouchy betta and initially 4 guppies.  It's only been about 6 weeks and I am up to my armpits in fry!

I love big tanks and I cannot lie!  Hee hee!

Cory from Aquarium Coop gave me the idea in one of his videos on how to stock a 55 gallon.  Making it a big ol guppy tank is a blast!  Never thought I would want to breed fish but guppies are pretty easy and I love the activity in the tank.  Every day there is growth and change as I watch each "generation" grow and color out.

I have a pretty good amount of plants--lots of water wisteria on top and some fairly healthy java moss on the bottom.

I used to remove the fry but have found if I feed heavily on "birth-days" with a mix of fry sized micro pellets and frozen food, especially frozen and/or fresh baby brine shrimp, everyone leaves the guppy fry alone.  I'm sure this depends on the temperaments of the individual fish but I have found that I am now OVERRUN with babies and having a ball!  I bet you'll get to keep more fry in the future.

I am hoping to sell my fry.  There are some really nice aquarium stores from 1 to 2 hours from my home and I travel a lot for work.  I never in a million years thought I would want to breed but I just never get tired of seeing new babies being born and growing into beautiful guppies.

 

Good luck with your tank!  Hope you have a lot of fun.

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That sounds awesome, GuppyMom!  I started the tank with the betta with the idea that he would hopefully be good at keeping the population from absolutely exploding.  So I hope he did at least get a few fry this time around, that's literally part of his job. (his other job is to look bad ass, which he does well, so yay for that)  I have a LFS that will take guppies from me, although upon my first inquiry it wouldn't even be for store credit but even if that's the case, I think it's a great plan for excess babies.  I am super excited to see how all these genes mix up and how my mutt guppy/endler mixes turn out!

Edited to add: Oh and I STILL have a few fry in the tank, so either the guppies AND the betta suck at eating guppy fry or these little guys are quick witted!

Edited by Just Renee
guppy babies
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I have so. Many. Babies. Now that they’re a bit bigger, all of the guppies seem to be much less interested in eating them. So I guess that’s why they aren’t really hiding anymore and wow, several babies have survived so far. I can only count 5 at a time but I don’t know if I keep counting the same 5 after that. I was able to get a clear picture of one of them!  So cute!! F5AA354D-A761-4C05-88EA-E74F7EA419E1.jpeg.2b83f8660c5996c24d0c4d90e65dc605.jpeg

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So these are going to be red dragon guppies, because mom was pregnant before I got her.  I think the other females (1 more red dragon and 2 red rose whatever they're called guppies) all came pregnant because they all have dark spots on their abdomen and I think that means they're up the duff?  One of the red rose moms is not looking great though, she's the one that had a tuft of fungus on her abdomen several days ago that is gone now, but she keeps her dorsal fin pinned against her body and doesn't interact much with the rest of the tank so I don't know if she'll even survive, much less have her babies.  

I am psyched about these little babies though, they are super cute and make the tank even more fun to watch.  I'm clearly going to be up to my armpits in guppies later this summer though, so I'm glad I figured out a back up plan before I even purchased them.

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