My guppy started having fry today.. Not sure when it started, but I seen the first one around noon PST. The female was placed in the breeder trap last night (Lee's 3-way Breeder Trap)..... Isn't the Breeder Trap supposed to keep the adult and fry seperated if the grate is in place? That's what I was led to believe. She's had 3 fry that I've seen so far, and every single one of them have swam right through the grate again and has been eaten by the adult. I was told the breeding trap actually works and saves most of the fry!!!!

How can I save the fry from being eaten???? I cannot get uptown for any other products (not that I have the money anyways) and I do not have a spare tank.. I have 1 plant in the tank, plastic, and it won't make a different letting the adult into the tank and trying to let the fry hide somewhere

lol. it kept the adult at bay but the little ones should swim right passed it. next time you should try floating java moss. although my java cant seem to float. DARN THING! *shakes fist!!*

but youre using lee's 3 way trap. so i dont know what happened. :| do you have a qT tank? or something similar? to use the breeder for it? im sure the female still have little fry. or maybe use a bucket and put the breeder in it etc.

sorry you lost your fry. i lose mine too. :[

I have used a breeding trap by Hagen once and it seemed to work OK, but I guess the holes in the grate on yours is too big. Although, if a guppy can get through, I wouldn't think it would be much use for many fish, since guppy fry are fairly big.

Anyway, maybe you could make some kind of mop out of yarn to float in the tank. I have made these for goldfish eggs and they work really well. If you can get a ball of yarn, just cut off lengths, probably about a foot long. Double them over and tie them into a mop. Then you can attached something that floats to the doubled over end. I used styrofoam but you could use a cork or something like that. Then float this in the tank. The wee ones will hide amongst the strands of yarn. Make it good and thick to give them lots of cover. Just check the yarn to make sure it is just something like 100% acrylic without any mothproofing or anything like that.

I usually use plants like java fern or water sprite in livebearer tanks, but I would think a nice thick breeding mop would work OK.

The little net breeding baskets work really well for keeping fry out of harm's way. These are very inexpensive, and maybe you could try to get one of these to put on the side of the tank. Then you could scoop the little ones out of the tank (hopefully hiding in the breeding mop) and put them in the net basket.

Hope this helps and that you get to save a few of your babies.

Thanks for the ideas. One fry is still in the little egg thing, and there are 3 more down there, one that has escaped the adult 3 times so far (it was actually in her mouth and got away all 3 times o.0). They still keep swimming right up through

I do have yarn, but nothing I can think of to add for a float -_-

*sigh* I can't do live plants

i got another idea, how about stockings to prevent fry escape?

Styrofoam cup?

Stockings?

I may have a styrofoam cup somewhere..... How exactly do I do the mop again? is there a pic of one somewhere I can look at? It kind of lost me LoL....

She popped out another one that swam right up through the grid again -_- She didn't see it a second ago at least. Hopefully she doesn't see it

Thanks for the ideas! I have to get offline HOpefully a few will make it....

There are 4 still in their little egg things, 2 moving, and 2 laying still (haven't moved yet) and the one the adult kept getting ahold of seems to have died

I'll be back later tonight and let you know what happened. I'll try the mop thing for next time I guess. Maybe I can find some pictures or something Next time I'm uptown, I can look for the breeder net.

Oh yeah, and I don't have a qt tank.. I only have my 10 gallon and 2 fish bowls The only bucket we have is absolutely filthy and I only use it to drain fish water from the tank into and haul it outside to empty the water -_- Tank's cost a fortune so I can't get another -_-

the stockings could be used to block other passageways because you dont want the adults to gobble up them now, right? that may help. best of luck.

Thanks

There are 4 or 5 for sure that are alive.... Several others are in the breeding trap still but I'm not sure if they are alive or not. I can't really tell since most of them are laying around LoL.

I removed the adult about an hour ago. She's hiding from the male behind the lip of my filter right now LoL. Poor thing!

This was her first batch as far as I know, so maybe the 2nd will be better

more feedings and she could have over 100 fry. hope everything works out great. i just have some hiding spots and leave them there.

My poor female looks pretty worn out still. She's been breathing rapidly and not moving around a whole lot... Is that normal still? It's been over 5 hours I think now o.0

*sigh* It looks almost like every one of the fry died THere were a few swimming around a little bit around 8pm (PST) but none are moving now

How are the fry this morning?

thats why i dont recommend breeders, it really stresses the females out for some reason, i dont know why. maybe its because the females want to move around and hide behind ornaments and such.

most fry died? any left, though??

Yes, I agree. I only tried the breeding trap once and wasn't very happy with it. After that I just made sure to have lots of plants in the tank and always had lots of guppy fry survive.

Your guppy must have been waiting for me to go out of town before she went into labor!! Lol I'm in Flagstaff, comming home today. Congradulations!!!!

My mom said she seen a fry moving around, but when I went to look I didn't see any moving still

The female is hiding inside my one little plant. It looked like she was trying to push some more babies out around 2am this morning before I went to bed o.0 At least, she was acting like she was trying to push something out...

I haven't seen her eat yet. She just wants to hide from the male -_-

I was supposed to get a bucket of fake plants from my grandma but I still haven't heard back from her about it.... Somebody said the Breeding Nets work better, so if I don't get the fake plants before then (we don't get to see my grandma that often) I can try one of those.

Hey Kissy! LoL Perfect timing I guess, huh?

it could take up to 48hours to release every one of her fry.

It definatly looks like she has no more fry... She's extrememly skinny now and looked the same last night. It didn't look like she had any more fry in her o.0

*sigh* Only 1 little fry lived. I see him/her moving around a little now and then but it's not eating (I have the Hikari First Bite stuff and get a small amount on the tip of a toothpick and put it in the water for it). It's also laying on it's side a lot. Is that normal? I thought it would be a bit more active o.0

My female, like I said, is extrememly skinny now and she won't eat. She's not swimming up anywhere in the middle or top of the tank and only scootches around the bottom of the tank. Is this also normal?

My female guppy swam up behind my filter intake tube and I got a little better look (not a great one still) at her. It looks like she injured herself while having the fry o.0 She looks sort of deformed now I don't think she's going to last much longer She still won' eat. I placed a flake underwater next to her but she ignored it..... *sniff*

My little fry looks to be doing okay for now. It was flitting around a little awhile ago. I don't know if it's eating, but I hope so!!

*sigh* Looks like I'll need to buy another female (I'll get 2 this time... I tried to buy another last month but the employee at the store used hot water and cooked the fishy and my mom didn't notice until she got home and gave the fish to me -_-). Hopefully I'll get the plants and such from my grandma before then though.... Give them some more cover

Oh I'm so sorry about the mommy and baby fishy

Sorry about your momma guppy. Sometimes it is very stressful for these poor fish to give birth. I hope it goes better for you and your guppies next time.

aw. sorry about that. i would definitely use more plants next time, if you have giant pebble rocks, use it, the fry would hide in it.

Thanks

TouchofSky: It seemed far more the stress. She hurt hurself pretty bad. I got a good look last night and it looked like her backbone was nearly broken. She didn't make it through the night

-_- I would haev more plants, if I could get them LoL. They are so spendy at Petco here so I can't afford any (they only come in packs of 5 or more for $15+ -_-). I'm waiting on my grandma.... She has a bucket of plants she was going to give me but I haven't heard back yet.

Pebble rocks? I have some of those bigger "gem rock" things. I used them in my bettas bowl since they are very smooth. I don't know how well they'd work to hide fry though. LoL Most lay down flat -_-

I might make it uptown on next Monday so I hopefully can get my Nitrate test finally. I'll see about getting 2 females this time as well. Since I need to renew my ID, perhaps I can drop by my grandma's since she lives down that way. If not, I'm hoping to see her for my birthday the first week of July

Thanks again for all the tips! I'll try without the breeding trap next time. If my fry makes it, I'll use the breeding trap for a betta so he can stay in the warm water rather than a bowl or something

good luck next month. i did some research onf vita. C that it helps with cellular growth, heres the link:
here. dont mind the food preparation etc part, theres some posts about vita. C.

how's the baby?

Thanks for the link Raith

Baby is doing okay I caught it swimming around the breeding trap today. It was up near the surface, hopefully eating LoL. That First Bite food doesn't like to sink very well like it says it's supposed to o.0

*sigh* My male looks like he has a small bite taken out of his tail fin Will it grow back? The female probably did it while he was pestering her yesterday -_- It doesn't look really bad, just a very small spot.

Yay baby!

If you pinch the food under the water and wet it, it should sink. You will have to be careful to keep the bottom of your breeder trap clean, though, you don't want rotting food in there.

Just keep your water clean, and your guppy's tail should grow back just fine

guppies are resillient. best of luck!

Thanks

Heh, for the food, I've been swirling it around when I put it in the breeder trap so some of it starts sinking right then and the rest sinks a little later

get get a pinch, grab it between your fingers... put your fingers in water, IN water: release the first bites. it will sink. :]

LoL I can't grab them between my fingers -_- I tried that after I crushed some of the flakes up for my adult guppies but it all gets stuck under my fingernails so I have to use tweezers (for my adults) and I was using the toothpick for the fry.

*sniff* I think the fry died I haven't seen it move from the same spot for a few hours now I think it might be safe to say it didn't make it *sniff*

What would cause the fry to die off so quickly like that? I did my tests (all but Nitrate, since I still don't have that test) and they were all fine... Nitrite has remained at .05 since the 2nd test, Ammonia has remained at 0 and my PH averages between 7.6 and 7.8 *sigh* Oh, water averages 75-78....

a large portion of fry just don't have what it takes. They are too weak most of the time. Ever hear how the giant clam shoots out billions of little tiny eggs into the ocean? Only a VERY small portion make it, because a lot of them are too weak, end up as fish food, don't get fertilized, etc. Anyways, I know its a stupid analogy, but its just the way nature works...animals that reproduce so many at one time do it for a reason

Kissy is right, some of them just don't make it. Hopefully you will have better luck the next time if you can get lots of plants and the fry can hide in the plants in your main tank. I think the fry will eat tiny organisms from the plants when they are first born, and that helps.

the only time where the fry will make it is:

micro food.
no preditor[adults]
plenty of small[no other gups except fry]
water is always pristine.

Raith,
I have to disagree slightly here. I have had many, many guppy fry survive in my 38 gallon heavily planted tank, even with lots of adults. Given enough hiding places, a lot of the fry will survive. I haven't fed them special food, they seem to graze enough micro organisms from the plants and algae to take them along until they can eat finely crushed guppy flakes.

Thanks everybody I'm hoping to get uptown Monday and get another female or two.

I cannot get live plants though, but if I can ever get ahold of my grandma again, she has that bucket of fake plants for me I can use to help hide the fry. Somebody also gave me instructions to build a home-made breeding net to catch the fry and put them in.. There's also the breeding mop thing

While I'm uptown, I can also see if Petco has a BBS kit or something and price it (not sure if I can buy it though).

have fun with the BBS. its going to be messy. =p

LoL Thanks.. Not sure if they even have it though Might have to stick with that First Bite stuff