FishProfiles.com Message Forums

last night around 11:00pm i was on the phone with my neibor and i looked in and saw a tiny body with eyes and said in probly a shrill voice (thats what she said) "baby!!!" well 10 mins later i had caught the little floating eyes put it in a bucket that was waiting for a pregnant female guppy, well after i hung up with her i went on a hunt for more, i uncovered 3 more hiding and at the same time trouble, who is my smallest male swordy went hunting too, but i think i got more, i put 3 prego females in a diff bucket to see if it was one of them, well no babys, so i must have forgotten some one, so i am going to do another search for more, i wish my live babys did not look the same, peachy orange at birth, any ideas? i have a heavly prego guppy, i platty that looks pregnant and 2 female swords.

I'm not sure what your babies are - I've never had swords, and although I've had pregnant guppies have never seen any of their fry, but I have had and still have platy fry.... Some were born with a little color, some were not --- but all developed full color as they grew --- quite amazing to watch! (I have heard that guppies have very little color immediately after birth - but without having any personal experience, I can't say that is a certainty)
Only finding the few probably means that you will have sporadic sightings in the days to come - so be prepared! Fry are well adapt at hiding - digging deep into gravel, etc. I assume this is a survival skill. We were lucky enough to have one full birth - having placed three pregnant females in a 10 gal tank all by themselves... What resulted was approximately 40-50 platy fry - which I'm proud to say are still thriving - at approximately 2 months of age have grown to about 3/4" to 1" in size,have gained color daily, and have been moved to a 20 gal... But even now, in our 55 gal community tank - we find the stray fry -- 1/2" to 3/4" -- usually when doing our weekly water vac/change.... Since I have a mix of platys, mollies and guppies -- all of which seem to be constantly pregnant - you would think we would end up with a variety of fry --- but from what I can see, the only survivors to date have been platy....
If indeed one of your 3 females which were immediately moved to the bucket was giving birth, the move might have stalled the delivery due to stress --- which again will mean greater possibilities of finding more fry in the days to come as delivery would probably resume once the female settled down....
If you've never had fry before - you might want to try "First Bites" for feeding purposes initially.... or crush flake food into an "almost powder" consistency....
The second bit of advice that I can provide is to HAVE PATIENCE... I was so anxious for my platy to grow! Wanted to see what the fry would end up looking like - what personalities would develop - etc. But as with all babies, growth does take time... The fry's coloring changes constantly - a little black grows into more black, a shimmering blue becomes more vivid, etc. So sit back, relax and enjoy the babies!
CONGRATULATIONS AND MUCH HAPPINESS IN THE BIRTH OF YOUR BABIES!

To thine own self be true...

well i guess i caught 5!!! they are eating and i think they are platty, i think platty protect their fry, i saw a black speccled orange platty chasing other fish from 1 area, so i think who else is in there if i dont see them then well hopeully their mother protects them, i will update.

mother livebearers dont protect their babies. They will at the very worst eat them, and at the very best ignore them. I seperate out my baby fish after they are born. What I do is keep an eye on the fish , once the mother fish are close to birth I just keep checkin the tank surface (lift the lid and look) to see if there are any fry at the surface. When there are, I use a little tupperware container and just scoop the babies quickly. I then put them in a seperate container, (i use to use 2 smaller containers with lids that snapped open, and had penguins on the outside , and a small 1 g fish bowl) I just put an air stone in each container, and condition the water, and keep the babies in there. No heat either.
Feed them 4-6 times a day, and clean their "tank" out using a small air tube. Watch for babies that might get sucked up. I do a 2 stage system. Siphon into a tupperware Sandwich container, check for babies, then pour into bucket, and repeat.
Try not to stress the mother fish out by netting them, or making too much of a ruckus in the tank, she may abort the fry if she is stress, it could kill her or them, and is better for her to have them naturally anyway.
Make sure their is plenty of plants in the water, live are best, espescially floating plants. You can make a floating plastic plant by purchasing one like plastic hornwort and freeing it from the base. Float the pieces on top to make a baby nursersy. Make it easier to catch em cuz they come to the top rather than the bottom.
Good luck, and if the babies are colored "orange" or "black" all over and you have platies this color, chances are the fry are platies. If they are clear or colorless, or only have tiny dots of color, chances are they are guppies. As they grow you will be able to see what they develop into!

Come Play Yahtzee With Me!
http://games.atari.com
Http://www.myleague.com/yahtgames

i know how t ocare for tyhem i have 2o somthing others to care for. i lost 1, the smallest one, but thwe others are healthyer, i also while i was at a friends house, i lost 2 adults, i am so annoyed, my best breeders died and the last one to go near the tank was my mom .

[span class="edited"][Edited by Lindy 2004-08-06 21:25][/span]