DIY auto-magical guppy fry separator? Is this likely to work?

[KittenFishMom]

I’m really not very interested in raising and rehoming guppies, but I am starting to see a lot of fry in my community tank. They are hiding in plastic and real plants. I can not figure out how to net them out when they are in the plants.

In Aquarium Co Op video “Beginners, WATCH THIS before you get Guppies!” Cory talks about using an air lift to move guppy fry into a fry holding area. I don’t have the bandwidth to find the point where he talks about this, I think Q&A. What I remembered was he said was something like this:

You set up an air lift pipe with the bottom covered in rocks space so the fry could enter and the adults could not. The fry head to the rocks for cover and the air lift pulls them up and drops the in a fry holder.

I’m thinking about putting white hollow bio filter ceramic cylinders around a sponge filter core, where the sponge would normally be, and have the lift drop them into a net breeder box in the tank with the adults.

I am also thinking on use a mess plant pot instead of a sponge filter core.

I am just guessing that the fry would head for the black hole in the ceramic cylinders better than the light slits between the black plastic of the pots.

Has anyone tried anything like this?

[Fish Folk]

On 2/12/2022 at 4:58 PM, KittenFishMom said:

Has anyone tried anything like this?

No, I’ve never done that. I think you can tell yourself that it’s Ok to catch a couple each day by net and move to a net breeder. In the end, this is not too hard.

I like large, fine-mesh, white nets.

Edited February 12, 2022 by Fish Folk

[Torrey]

On 2/12/2022 at 2:58 PM, KittenFishMom said:

I’m really not very interested in raising and rehoming guppies, but I am starting to see a lot of fry in my community tank. They are hiding in plastic and real plants. I can not figure out how to net them out when they are in the plants.

In Aquarium Co Op video “Beginners, WATCH THIS before you get Guppies!” Cory talks about using an air lift to move guppy fry into a fry holding area. I don’t have the bandwidth to find the point where he talks about this, I think Q&A. What I remembered was he said was something like this:

You set up an air lift pipe with the bottom covered in rocks space so the fry could enter and the adults could not. The fry head to the rocks for cover and the air lift pulls them up and drops the in a fry holder.

I’m thinking about putting white hollow bio filter ceramic cylinders around a sponge filter core, where the sponge would normally be, and have the lift drop them into a net breeder box in the tank with the adults.

I am also thinking on use a mess plant pot instead of a sponge filter core.

I am just guessing that the fry would head for the black hole in the ceramic cylinders better than the light slits between the black plastic of the pots.

Has anyone tried anything like this?

You could use a UGF style uplift tube and put it in lava rock (or any other rock) on one side of your divider, and have the airlift tube spitting the fry over the divider.

Personally, I just grow lots of plants, and keep more plants than fish to keep the nitrates down. 

[OnlyGenusCaps]

I like the idea, personally!  But then again, I like gadgets and DIY stuff.  I'm going to be building a DIY fry separator of a sort today.  I need to get the fry separated from the eggs as they hatch, and I'd like to do it in an automated way.  So, this sort of thing is right up my alley.  If you build one, let us know how it goes!

[modified lung]

It's a cool idea. You should try it.

[gardenman]

It's a good concept, assuming the fry go to the bottom of the tank. I have fry at all three levels of my tanks. If your fry hang out at the top, then a bottom of the tank fry collector won't do much good.

In my fifty, the swordtail fry mostly hang out at the top. When I remove the duckweed I use three bowls. Each bowl gets about an inch of tank water. I scoop and remove duckweed from the fifty and plop it into bowl one, then swirl it around a bit and move it to bowl two. There will be swordtail fry in bowl one. (Mind you, I'm scooping it out with my fingers from the tank and not a net, so many fry escape between my fingers.) The weeded-out plants then get swirled again in bowl two before being moved to bowl three. There will often be another fry or two in bowl two. Then onto bowl three and it stays there until I'm ready to dump it in the trash. Then I carefully remove the duckweed from the bowl, leaving the water in the bottom and I often find a fry or two in bowl three. All of the fry that get collected in the duckweed removal process are the lucky ones as they end up in a breeder box where the hungry swordtails can't gulp them down. 

[KittenFishMom]

@TorreyI ordered a Lee's undergravel fishbowl filter. and a mesh box for collecting the fry. Now to see if I can get something cobbled together that will fit in my tall hex 10 tank.

@OnlyGenusCaps Show us yours when it is built.

@gardenman From what I understand, guppy fry are born with an empty air bladder, and sink until they get their act together enough to swim to the surface and fill their air bladder. So a bottom collection would collect them as they are being born. Once they fill their air bladder, they tend to hide at the top or where ever they find good cover. This might hold try for fry that hatch too. I don't know.

If I get it working, I probably won't use it until next fall. I don't have a place to raise the fry, but I do have time now to work on a DIY project.

I'm thinking that I could make a cylinder net with a circular floating rim that would attach to the bottom of the lift tube with an elastic draw string. Once the fry are in the net. I could lift the net off the top of the tube. Or maybe have a tube that fit over the uplift tube that the net would be attached to. Then I would cap/plug the outer tube as I lift it off the uplift tube. 

Almost as much run as building a dam in a small creek.

[PineSong]

I think a couple of folks here on the forum have done this:

And someone had one with platy fry, I think? I searched and couldn't find it, but maybe someone else will remember it.

[OnlyGenusCaps]

On 2/13/2022 at 10:11 AM, KittenFishMom said:

Show us yours when it is built.

Done:

 

[Torrey]

On 2/13/2022 at 9:11 AM, KittenFishMom said:

From what I understand, guppy fry are born with an empty air bladder, and sink until they get their act together enough to swim to the surface and fill their air bladder. So a bottom collection would collect them as they are being born. Once they fill their air bladder, they tend to hide at the top or where ever they find good cover. This might hold try for fry that hatch too. I don't know

This is essentially how I collect danio fry and eggs. The eggs get sucked down through the UGF in the 5 gallon drink dispenser, and then I open the spigot and collect eggs (and any fry that hatched) the same way I collect amphopods to feed.

Thank you for the brilliant solution! I can set up a container for the blue guppies, as they seem determined to eat their fry!

[Torrey]

On 2/13/2022 at 7:25 PM, OnlyGenusCaps said:

Done:

 

ORD😍