How to Care for Baby Guppies

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Guppies are beautiful friendly freshwater fish that reproduce very easily. Their fry are very easy to take care of if you know what you are doing.

Steps

Survey your tank setup: Guppy fry are an excellent food source for most types of fish (even their parents). Separate fry from adult fish if possible. Placing them in their own separate tank is best, but if you do not have an extra aquarium you'll need to get a mesh "breeding tank". These devices go inside your existing aquarium, and serve as a holding pen for the fry or the adults. If you are going to keep the fry in this container, make sure it is mesh, otherwise they might swim out.

Check the Water quality: Guppy fry will grow fast when their water quality is good. To keep it pristine conditions use a test kit and test for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Keep ammonia at 0 ppm., nitrite at 0 ppm., and nitrate at less than 10 ppm. Keep doing weekly water exchanges, but exercise caution not to suck up any fry.
Be sure you feed them well: Baby guppies need high quality foods to grow and be healthy. When they are first born use fry food or finely crushed flake food. As they get bigger keep using flake food.
Use a sponge filter or a very low power mechanical filter to keep water clean. Make sure the filter has some kind of protective sponge over the intake to prevent small fry from being sucked in.
Keep the water temperature at 75-80F. Do not let the water temperature get outside this range.
Check for illnesses: Diseased fry have a very low chance of surviving. Remove any sick fry immediately. Do not medicate a tank with fry in it, as it is too difficult for a regular fish keeper to use the right dosage.
Watch them grow: Monitor their growth, and place them back into the main aquarium once they are big enough not to be eaten. Make sure they are all growing fairly uniformly. Once they are all big enough, release them and watch them interact with their expanded world.

Tips

Breeding guppies is fairly easy, though you might want to setup a breeding tank and keep a male and a female in it. Once the female becomes pregnant, remove the male. Once the female gives birth, remove the female.
Fry are not in any way reliant on their parents. In fact, the parents will eat their newborns if given the chance.

Warnings

Don't keep babies with parents or other fish; they will eat them
If using a mechanical filter make sure it is very weak or has something covering the intake so the fry don't get sucked up.

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Guppy Fish

Monday, March 26, 2012