You can get fry food... which is powdery superfine food for babies.

I have my guppy babies in the tank with the adults - mollies, guppies and cory cats. But have a LOT of floating (plastic) plants up on top where the babies can hide. I'm the sort that wants the survival of the fittest to keep the baby population in check.

The first two weeks they hid ALL the time, coming out just to eat food. Right now, they're exploring out a bit more - haven't noticed any missing. I have sailfin mollies which are rather large and could easily gulp down a baby or two.

I'd give them about a month? And put plants up on top so they have places to hide.

If you don't have fry food (which is the best thing to get), you can crush regurlar flake food between your thumb and index finger, almost to a powder.

Happy Guppies!

-PF

Thanks for the info! I knew about the crushed flake food trick but I didn't know they actually make baby food. I've been wetting the end of a toothpick, then dipping it into the powdered food and swirling it around to mix it in for the babies-works great!

On a sad note-I woke up this morning to find that momma guppy had died overnight. I'm pretty sure it was from natural causes (old age) as there was no signs of distress or visible signs of disease. She was very humpbacked after her pregancy, but not so much before. I think I read somewhere that humpbacked guppies are old-does anyone know if this is true?
-Robert

Not sure about the hump back age thing, but if you had her more than a couple of years, she had a good run.

I love guppys.

-PF

Yes, I do believe it is true that guppies do develop a somewhat humped topline as they age - at least according to my grandfather, who was an avid livebearer fish breeder in his day.

Because of the finnage, it is easier to spot in the females than the males.

With proper feeding and enough clean water they can be mature in 2 1/2 months. Crushed flake works great, and I wouldn't waste my time with powdered fry foods. If you want prepared foods for fry, use Cyclopeeze, Golden Pearls, or Decapsulated Brine Shrimp Eggs. Cyclopeeze is definitely the best of these. You can also feed them frozen baby brine shrimp.
Nick

Hi all,

Thanks for the additional info! I only had the momma guppy for a couple of months, so she must have been kinda old when I got her. The babies are doing fine, eating lots, and growing bigger everyday. My 4 year-old daughter loves to check on them with me, she's so proud! At the rate they're growing, I'm sure it won't be long before I put them with main population.
Thanks again!

-Robert

in a 76 degree tank about 3-4 months on flake food

My first ever female guppy gave birth on March 15th 2005. She had 13 Fry!!
9 have survived and are now adults, in which all of the females have become pregnant. One gave birth last week! (At only 3 months old) Only 5 fry that I could spot though.
I am amazed at how fast those origional fry became beautiful adult guppies. Each one different from the other. I had released the surviving fry from the breeding net into my ten gallon tank when they were about 2 weeks old. They grow fast! I have 2 danios and 2 dwarf frogs. They did not bother the fry. Unfortunatly the mother guppy had died shortly after birth. I also have 1 algae eater..which did not bother them. They did just fine in my tank at 2 weeks. By then they were easily eating regular fish food.

I also find, that as time goes on, my babies are developing more colour. Also, the one I thought just had a regular tail, started to develop a fancy flowing tail.

Definitely neat to watch them develop, though it seems to go in cycles. Sometimes a batch of babies are born and disappear within a couple of weeks. Other times only a few are born and seem to survive. I guess it just depends on the individual time and how cannibalistic they feel.

Hey everyone! I had my first birth experience with my guppies about a month ago. I have fourteen guppy adults consisting of 6 females and 8 males. One of my females were pregnant when i got her and she had 4 babies. My work schedule was very hectic at the time and i didn't have a net breeder, so unfortunately the fry became dinner for the hungry adults. That really taught me a big lesson about caring for the babies. I quickly went out and got a net breeder because i was broken hearted for my loss. I vowed that this would not happen again!! As i have said i have six females and all but one are pregnant now. The one that isn't pregnant just gave birth to 42 fry. I immediately took them all out of the tank a day after they were born. I've had them in their own tank for about five days now and i take care of them the same way i take care of the adults....and it works!!!! I feed them finely crushed betta flakes 4 to 6 times daily and they are doing fine. I don't use a filter in the tank because they can get sucked in and die. A bubble stone with an air pump works great! The thing i learned in caring for the fry is to not panic but use your best judgement and do some research. Reading other experiences has really helped me better understand how to care for the young fry. Please respond to this post, i will be more than happy to share my ideas and experience with all of you.

Demont:

Stand alone sponge filters don't suck up babies and even better are sponge prefilters that fit over the ends of power filter intake tubes, to allow the use of power filters with no danger to fry.

Then, there are in-tank box filters, which are the mainstays of just about every breeder I know, myself included.

So unless you are prepared to do 30 - 50% water changes 2 or even 3x daily, you need filtration, because those babies need to be fed continually to grow well and the more you feed, the more you need to filter and water change.

after delivery, it is good to remove the female so she can recover. the males don't give her a break and that could have caused the death of the fish me thinks.

i have had guppy fry for about a month now and some of them i could probably put in my normal tank but im not going to some of my guppies have black on them and im wondering if that means they are getting normal color soon i had 2 guppies give berth within 1 week and so i have about 50 guppy fry both moms died after birth i want to know how long it takes for guppy fry to grow to full adult and i want to know how long it takes for them to get normal color.

Hi,

I have a 10 gallon tank and recently bought some fish. I have 3 guppies (2 female and 1 male), a snail, and a bottom feeder. One females is very pregnant, do I have to buy a breeding tank? I've been reading online that its possible to save some of the fry keeping them in the regular tank.

Is my tank too crowed for them? Do you think they would all get eaten by these different fish and snail? I have 4 rubber plants surrounding the back of the tank and also a shipwreck with big wholes for the fish to swim in. Do you think this is enough coverage to offer the fry?

Thanks for the help!
Ashley

Op asks about guppy fry. I have hear about guppy drops. Are "drops" younger than "fry"?

My female guppy gave birth this morning, she had 2 batches previously that didn't survive. I had made a breeder mop for them to hide in but the red tail claimed it as his own...brekfast in bed? I made a " breeder net" out of a 1 gallon water jug and some cheese cloth. Mamma took about 2 hrs to deliver, I'm glad we were able to watch. Right after she was done she ate 2 fry. We quickly took her out and now have 6 fry. I'm amazed that a guppy could have more babies than that. 40? She was *huge* with just 8.

I'm feeding the babies crushed flakes and powderd hard boiled egg yolk. I'm wondering how long its going to take before they stop running away when they see me and instead swimming to the top and asking for lunch. :)

How long will it take for the baby guppies to grow up into a adult

i have never seen this before the mom had her fry i saved 8 of them they mostly stayed at the bottom . i would check on them every 30 minutes !the last time i checked on them 7 were gone vanished i looked real close i could see something like a fish but it was like a shadow of a fish the last fish comes to me when i look at him but he seems to be getting lighter too. does anyone have any thing that could help ? this is scary

well i guess no one comes here any more for fish . i just looked at the dates . i have to find something up dated ..