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Well I was thinking I wanted some small fish that is easy too breed and so I went shopping - Fish shopping that is! And well it was a toss up between - Platys, Mollies and Guppies. I haven't really bred guppies before so I bought 1 female. She looked a little fat in the shop and well I put her in the tank and like an hour later I looked and there were babies in there!

WOW that was quick. At last count I have about 20.

I also bought some ballon mollies as well something different. Both black females so who knows might get some fry from them as well.

Just thought I would share as I was getting bored with keeping the tank clean and that but now I am excited again.

Congrats!! Make sure you have some hiding places for the babies so they don't get eaten by the other fish. Aren't guppy babies the cutest thing in the world!
From what I've been told, after a female guppy has been "impregnated" they can have babies a few times without another male in the tank. So you may have more babies to look forward to!
Good Luck!
Jen

Yeh I know. Should be good to watch them grow.

At last count I had 20 or there abouts they move about too much!

I have plants for them to hide in so they should be OK.

How long does it take before I will know if they are male or female and how long before they will be grown up??

How fast they grow depends on several factors RAST.

1) If you feed them small amounts several times a day as opposed to a bunch once a day then this will help them grow faster...
2) If you have the water really warm like around 80-82 degrees F, this also speeds up their metabolism.
3) Doing small water changes daily also helps because it takes out the waste that inhibits growth, they actually grow like crazy if you have the time to do all three of these things. (you don't have to do these things in order for them to survive or anything, just helps their growth)

In my fry, I can tell male/female at around 2 1/2 to 3 weeks. They are not fully grown for a couple of months.

Edit: P.S.... congrats on your new babies! Take care.

Last edited by ~jamie~ at 20-Feb-2005 07:10

Congratulations, that is awesome! And what Jamie said is so true...here are some helpful hints from me:

My favorite plants to use in general are Anacharis, and Java Moss. Both are basically fool proof (I have a brown thumb and they survive wonderfully). I left a small chunk in my 10 gallon at school by accident and it has flourished again...Java Moss though can be quite hard to find. You really just have to look at your LFS's and if you see this green mossy clump that isn't solid, as them for it...it is usually java moss. I also like to have Anacharis in my tanks. Again this is almost impossible to kill...When I first began I would plant one of the front corners of the given tank with this...depending on the size of the tank, for a 10 gallon 1-2 good size bunches will be enough. For a 29 I'd go for 3-5...I'd plant this one corner really well with Anacharis...if the plant is too long don't worry, just snap it in half or thirds (I've been lucky to get really long sections of it ) and plant them too. This is one of those that will grow from snippens of itself. Then after planting this area, I'd leave some of the Anacharis floating. I find that my newborn fry like to hide in the floating bits, they really don't seem to swim too well in my opinion in this first couple of days more of darting at this point. The floating plants are where the food can get caught, the fry can get to, and the adults won't bother. After about 2-3 days you will notice that the fry aren't just hanging out in the floating plant, but are getting a bit gutsy and swimming along the sides and bottom...don't worry they are FINE!!! By the end of the second week they will be swimming out in the open, and from my experience very seldom get eaten

OK what to feed these little newborns. You can always go out and spend $4-5 on fry food or make your own from what you have, I tend to make my own, it's easy...Take an empty ziplock bag and put some of the food you feed your other fish in it. I tend to use TetraFlakes (yellow and brown can), and some dried blood worms, and whatever else I have on hand, it's up to you, sometimes it's just the flakes that they get. Anyways take a couple of tbs of flakes, and some of everything else, if you choose, put them in the ziplock, seal the ziplock without air....and grind it between your palms, fingers, hands, whatever floats your boat...it will become a fine powdery substance...then Viola you have fry food...I tend to feed everyone from this. You can keep it in a bag, or put it in an empty fish food container...a little bit will go a long ways, and it tends to float quite well...

I'd be willing to say by the end of the first month they will have doubled their size. At about 4-5 months they can start breeding (sometimes it is more 6 months) The males tend to "develop their colors and tails" at about 3-4 months. This will happen quickly...You will go to bed one night, then the next morning they have a bright colorful tail...

And as stated above once a female has been insiminated they can have up to 9 more batches of fry. Each batch of fry will usually have more and more fry involved, so don't worry if you lose a couple. I must agree though, it is dang near impossible to count the fry in the tank, they do move way to FAST!!!

I think that's it for now...oh make sure you keep up with your water changes, just be careful...the cleaner the water (but don't send it into a cycle!) and the more room, the faster they will grow, and the healthier they will be...Let us know how they are doing, fry are always exciting
Heidi


"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

They sure are cool.

THey are also very adventous at present. It is only day 2/3 and they are cruising about in the middle out in the open and past my kissing Gouramis (which are nearlly 6 inch long) but they don't seem to both them at all. I would have thought that they would eat them but they haven't so YEH YEH YEH.

I think I have about 20 of them. THey are all swimming about and look healthy. I am feeding them every few hours when I am home and doing a water change (half a bucket) twice a week. It is summer here or just finishing summer and so it is pretty hot so the temp is not a problem.

I will keep you all posted then.

Ta.

Well this morning I woke up too my fright that the female guppy was dead on the bottom.

She looked good yesterday. Wasn't swimming as much tho but thought that she maybe tired from birth.

Why is this so???

Oh and the babies are doing fine. THink I still got 20 but haven't counted lately.

Last edited by RAST at 23-Feb-2005 16:28

congratulations on the fry. I'm sorry about the loss of your momma guppy...I don't know why but sometimes it just happens. I had it happen very recently myself, and it is truly depressing. Take care of the fry and they will grow up and look like Momma we hope. Take care, and good luck, Heidi

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

They are still kicking on well. However there isn't 20 tho anymore. I have only about 10. Is this normal?? I feed them 4/5 times a day and change the water every 3 day to keep in nice for them???


Is this normal and only the fittest are surviving?

Bummer about the mum. Same happened to mine, although she got obviously sick first, and a concerted effort to save her failed.

Hopefully you also have more success with the fry - mine all ended up as fish food - obviously just not enough hiding places.

Well they are growing bigger now. THey are about half a cm or so at present. I think I have about 10 - 13 now which is a pretty good number as I lost the mum and only have these and a few other fish in the tank so they will grow and stay in there until I can tell male from female and seperate them until I have my other tank setup and get some Angel fish so I can feed them live food.

It is exciting not knowing what they will look like too. Who knows what colours they will be

Congrats! I remember when i got my first fry.....I was sooo excited. Take good care of them and have fun. Pretty soon they will have babbies, and so on.

Yeh it is exciting.

I have breed Mollies before successfully.

Now with the babies is it not good to breed them together hey??? Will they turn out OK or not? Like I don't want too if it isn't good to interbreed the babies?

Update!

They are all growing well. About 10 to 13 mm approx at the moment. So shouldn't be too long before I can tell if they are male female??? Am I correct in saying that?

Last count 13

Some of them are looking blonde a little. When do they colour up??

I have read that they colour up over night??? Also some are bigger then others so does that mean they are male???

Here is an article from this website that gives a lot of helpful information. As far as coloration I believe that it is species specific and with guppies you can tell gender depending on how you raise them but as soon as 3 weeks IME.

[link=Click here for article]http://www.fishprofiles.com/articles/freshwater/livebearerfry.asp" style="COLOR: #000000[/link]