# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna > Livebearers >  Guppy fry care

## cyruslaguna

My guppy just gave birth to 8 fries this morning!

I've read some care tips on guppy.com but just need to clarify a few things:

Feeding frequency - how often should I feed them with grounded flakes (powder form)? How often should water be changed? Currently, mine are in a non-filtered, ammonia level 0 watered "nursery" with some java moss, away from the parents.

What else should be in the "nursery"?

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## Interestor

feed less for first 2 weeks. water change as and when water is dirty. for fries, first month can keep in bare tank and than semi adult transfer to main tank.

CHeers..

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## cyruslaguna

is it good to have java moss for them to hide, as an added "sense of security"?

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## Interestor

sure, why not  :Smile: 



CHeers..

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## cyruslaguna

already put them in the "nursery" tank  :Smile:

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## bundopeace

I wouldnt touch the water unless it looks dirty.. just have air filter running and feed preferrably live foods like microworms or boon, or bbs. 3 x daily

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## cyruslaguna

I read about using bare tanks without filter, will that be good? What else should I feed them to enhance healthy growth apart from powdered flakes?

At what age will they be semiadults?

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## Interestor

if possible, change/feed different type of fish food as in pellests or flakes. feed less but can feed frequently.

never overfed  :Smile: 


planted or bare tank, as long as you can easily do waterchange without mush effort will do.


CHeers..

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## minute_me

I have 3 platys (I think 2 female one male) in my 1 ft planted tank with HOF that keep giving birth. I just feed the fry BBS. very easy to care for and grows up quickly.

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## cyruslaguna

my other female just gave birth to 4 fries; should I put a filter in the nursery tank? Currently it's bare with only java moss.

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## Interestor

filter for fries is not necessary, but for adult will be best for growth.


CHeers..

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## cyruslaguna

what are the recommended floating plants for fries to hide away from adult guppies eating them when they are born?

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## Interestor

sorry, i am not into planted  :Opps: 

so cant recommend you on this.



CHeers..

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## stormhawk

cyrus, you can use frogbits or Salvinia. Either one is great for little guppy fry to hide. Even the water lettuce or water hyacinth works too, since they have fairly bushy roots for the fry to hide in.

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## cyruslaguna

stormhawk: are frogbits also known as duckweeds? Could you assist on this? 

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ad.php?t=62225

only left 3 fries...the rest all died  :Sad:

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## stormhawk

Nope, duckweed is a puny plant. Frogbits have circular to oval-shaped leaves. 

This is the plant:
http://www.thegreenaquarium.com/arti...rogbit_001.jpg

Duckweed are these:
http://www.sfu.ca/~fankbone/biol/duckweed.jpg

I use this one in my tank:
http://www.thegreenaquarium.com/arti...s/salvinia.jpg

Salvinia of some sort, but species I'm not sure.

All 3 are good for fry tanks, but the easiest to handle is frogbit, because the leaves cover a broader area.

Try to keep your questions in 1 topic. Easier to help you that way. I've had zero problems raising guppy fry. They are greedy little piggies. All they need is a "dirty" tank (with some mulm), some plants, regular feeding with newly hatched BBS/crushed flake/Sera Micron/live Daphnia, they grow really fast. Filtration is not a must if you don't overfeed and allow the fry to eat till they're full. I only feed my guppy fry twice a day, and only if they've finished the first meal.

As the other guy said, please take care when feeding. In our climate, those fry food like Sera Micron, will spoil very quickly.

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## cyruslaguna

Stormhawk: ok noted...what other factors do I need to note other than those you've mentioned?

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## stormhawk

When guppies are giving birth, make sure there's enough plant cover and hiding places for the fry to seek refuge. Guppy mothers are known to eat their own fry right after they've given birth. Same applies to other guppies in their tank.

This is the reason why some guppy keepers place a pregnant female in a breeding trap when she is about to give birth, so the guppy fry can escape through the slits in the trap. This is good for bare tanks.

In a fry tank, it helps to have scavengers like ramshorn snails/pond snails to handle the uneaten food. Just remember not to overfeed, and leave the fry alone for most part. Take notice because certain diseases can easily wipe out a whole brood of guppies, like velvet disease.

If you feel unsecure without having filtration, you can use a sponge filter with gentle aeration.

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## cyruslaguna

one fry was born a couple of days back and was eaten up by one of the mothers  :Sad: 
any recommendation of plants that I can float to allow fries to hide?
The breeding box is too big for my 1.1ft tank...any idea if there are smaller ones available? or should I use an external one?

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## stormhawk

What you need are bushy plants. ALOT of Java Fern and Java Moss helps in this aspect. The floaters must have bushy roots beneath them to really help out.

It is normal for guppy mothers to eat a few babies. Sometimes mine give birth to 10 fry, but only 2 or 3 will survive. This is okay if you just need new fry to replenish the guppy population in your tank.

By the way, if you are going to get an external breeding trap, be careful when moving the pregnant guppy. If you stress her when she is heavily pregnant, she might just give birth prematurely to stillborn fry. I usually net the female slowly, and while still in the water, transfer to a container before I move to an isolation tank.

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## Shi Xuan

What stormhawk said is quite true. All that is needed are some bushy and hardy plants for the fry. 

As for external breeding traps, I don't rely on them because the small and confined space stresses a pregnant female a lot and this is not really necessary. A plastic container packed with mosses is adequate for the female to drop all her fry. :Smile:

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## cyruslaguna

I've fixed a breeding box in the female tank for those who are almost due. Should I add some java into the breeding tank for fries to hide before they move under the grill?

Also, how long should they e staying under the grill before moving to nursery tank?

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## bundopeace

What we do is putting heaps of moss in a small 1 ft tank and spread all the moss out, as though its like a huge forest. The problem with frys is once they come out, they sink.
this prevents the mum from turning around and eating the fries straight away. So after a few mins, after sinking, the fry wakes up and swim to the top, then u have to net it out. into the breeding trap. 
I dont put the mum to give birth in breeding trap. I find it very traumatic and stressful. They often miscarry and abort. the trap is not big enough too.

Hope it helps.

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## bundopeace

by the way, you judge the time timing of impending parturition by their size (of belly) and the way its breathing. also timing too . (25-30 days ) from last parturition.

When u suspect she is going to give birth, take all other fish out of tank.

Most pregnant females look big side on. What we do is we look from the top and see the width. Usually heavily pregnant guppies are wider

this is our experience.

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## bundopeace

I leave the fries in the breeding trap for 3 - 5 days depending on how many there are. but usually transfer them into another tank with 1/2 original tank water and 1/2 tap water (treated with prime) and run a seasoned hangon filter or sponge filter. 

i experience nil mortality except for those that are born dead or deformed.

Hope that helps

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## stormhawk

Wow bundo, you didn't have to spread your reply over 3 posts.  :Laughing: 

And yes, the breeding trap is just an option. Most of the traps in the market are pretty small, except for the one from UP brand. See below for image: 

http://www.up-aqua.com/00-dm-page/00up_dm-bt-big.jpg

I have one just for emergency cases to isolate some fish within my main tank. The container is fairly huge, but like what Shi Xuan says, you can just get a plastic container/plastic tank of a decent size, packed with loads of mosses.

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## cyruslaguna

have placed moss into breeding trap; will they swim out after entering safety compartment? Should they be fed only after moving into main tank or removing adults from the top compartment?

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## stormhawk

If you have the trap in the tank, leave the fry in there and take out the mother. She will be much more skinny after she's given birth. Raise the fry in the breeding trap, but keep it clean. Remove any uneaten food with a small dropper. Should be fairly easy to do this. 

Feed the fry and raise them till they're a little bigger, and then you can release them into the main tank. At around 0.7-0.8 cm, they are usually not viewed as food by the adults.

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## cyruslaguna

my guppies just gave birth to 20 fries; the 3 remaining from earlier batch are about 1 month old.

Learnt that microworms are better compared to tubifex worms to enhance their diet. How will you reckon that?

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## stormhawk

Microworms are easily cultured. They bring less risk of contamination compared to tubifex worms. However, you should not use microworms as a primary diet past the first few days. They lack the necessary nutrition to ensure constant growth of the fry. Good to use in a mixed feeding with BBS.

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## cyruslaguna

so far only given them a tubifex treat once but the rest of the worms get wasted as they can't be finished (already bough smallest portion of 1 tablespoon at 30cents from Yun Feng); currently feeding them powdered flakes.

Are brine shrimps a good source of nutrition for the fries?

The 3 fries are about 2cm long; are they safe to be put in main tank? Still pretty concerned that adults will eat them up as they're still considerably small.

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## stormhawk

Only BBS for the fry when they are young. I find that adult brine shrimp are usually too big for usual guppies, even at adult size.

Sometime ago, there was this brand of flake food, that I found to be awesome for small to big fishes. It was in a small container that had black lettering and images on a yellow canister. I really don't recall the name, but it was cheap too. 70 cents for the smallest container, and it was enough to feed a whole tank for a month.  :Laughing: 

Be very careful when using tubifex worms. If you are lucky, you get a source that gets them from a decent supplier. Many times the worms die very fast when placed in different water parameters. They come with a massive risk though. A lot of people experience internal and external infections, in fish fed with tubifex worms. I feel that while the risk is there, an occasional treat of tubifex worms can be beneficial for some fish species. I know my Corydoras love tubifex worms, but because I don't have a good supply of tubifex worms nearby, I do not use them any more.

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## cyruslaguna

how do you differentiate BBS from regular ones? What about those "holiday food" that looks like a round piece of chalky material that claims to contain BBS and other nutritious stuff? They sell like $2.50 for 5 small pieces or 4 big pieces at similar price.

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## stormhawk

Never use those holiday food stuff. Many fish don't really eat them. I don't believe in their claims either.

BBS are tiny orange-pinkish flecks in the water. If you look closer, they are jerking about in the water. There are no regular or special BBS. Only that some brine shrimp species, produce smaller or bigger nauplii aka BBS, from hatched eggs.

This is what they look like, when freshly hatched:
http://www.petfish.net/articles/pics/cup_o_bbs.jpg

Several LFS will sell them freshly hatched. I know C328 does, but the BBS is usually sold out early.

You can use de-capsulated brine shrimp eggs instead, if hatching is troublesome. They are good for some fishes.

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## cyruslaguna

wow that's tiny!

I just read abit about brine shrimp breeding here:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4523191_breed-brine-shrimp.html

should they be in a bare tank without snails? I have a small tank with filter but all that's inside are java moss and baby red ramshorn snails.

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## stormhawk

That is sufficient as a fry raising tank. Bare bottom allows u to see uneaten or fungused food particles. Easier for you to keep it clean.

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## cyruslaguna

at what age / length can they be transferred to main tank? They are about 1.5cm long and coming 2 months old. Should I still keep them in the abovementioned tank, which is about 7.5cm x 4.5cm x 5cm?

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## stormhawk

At 1.5 cm they are large enough to avoid predation by the adults so you can opt to move them to the adult tank, or keep them where they are. Note that if you don't want them to breed, remove any males you spot amongst the fry. Those guys can start breeding very early.

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## cyruslaguna

should I keep them in a breeder box first if I decide to put into main tank?

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## stormhawk

That is entirely up to you. I place the fry with the bigger guppies when they are at a certain size, usually around 1.5-2cm size. They do okay with the parents around anyway. As long as you feed enough, the fry will eat anything you give to the parents.

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## cyruslaguna

the pH / bioload may be different in main tank; do we need to consider that before moving them over?

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## stormhawk

Catch the fry, place them in a plastic tub or tank. Then use the drip method to acclimatise them to the tank water where the adults are. Once they seem to be swimming fine and not showing any sign of stress, you can slowly introduce them into the breeding trap, or just release them straight into the tank. Feed the adults before you introduce the fry to the tank, so that they don't try to nip the fry as they are being released.

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## skaer

wait up to a month for the fries to grow up before releasing them into the tank

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## cyruslaguna

those 20 over are all gone...

should I use those air filter with sponge that are used in LFS which will help control water quality, instead of doing 10% water change daily?

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