Horray! New babies are finally here!

[Scy64]

One of my incredibly fat female guppies FINALLY had babies! So far there are two- both look quite healthy, and seem to be doing well. I'll be watching throughout the day to make sure I don't miss any others.

Right now, I've got them in a small holding box, with a plant from the main tank (as well as main tank water). I've crumbled a mix of Goldfish Flakes and the normal Tropical Flakes I feed the guppies into a very fine powder. Can't tell if they're eating it or not, but they do swim up to it.

Food wise, is there anything else I should be doing? I think I need to invest in a clear breeder box (the net that I have turns out to not work as well as I'd hoped- can't see through it well enough to find babies!). Right now, the male is ironically in the breeder box to protect his tail from the females (I found about 1/3 of it missing the other day), and the females seem fine together. I'm catching babies as I see them, and isolating them. I'd like to get the babies back in the main tank, but more protected then they would be in the hard-to-see-through breeder net. I think I also need to find a way to get that male out of the way until the females become less agressive.

Suggestions are welcome! This is my first batch of fry, so I'm quite excited! I want to do all I can to insure that they grow up to be adult guppies!

[fish_doc]

Congrats,

The breeding nets are much better than the breeder boxes. They allow for better water flow.

[leafgirl115]

I agrea with fish_doc they are better Pluce they are cheeper!!!

Congrats on the fry.

[Scy64]

I've got both the net and the box right now- I do like the net, but I just can't see anything inside it. I'm thinking about putting the female that's most likely having the babies in the box so I can see her, and the other in the net (though I doubt they're going at the same time, I can't be sure).

The fry count is up to 10 right now! A few are swimming around the entire fry container, a few are just sorta cruising, and a few are hanging out at the bottom. =)

No deformities or problems as far as I can tell at this point!

[darkfalz]

I got babies yesterday too. Congratulations

[Scy64]

Congrats to you too!

I found one more baby, bringing the total up to 11 so far. Haven't seen anymore in a while, so I'm not sure if she's done giving birth or what. She's still pretty fat...almost looks like she hasn't lost any girth around her middle!

[darkfalz]

Could have had a blockage or something. I think my female had a few left, but is "absorbing" them instead. I did get one dead little blob with eyes, but the other 22 were fine. What are you feeding them?

[Scy64]

The final tally of babies is 11. She stopped giving birth around mid afternoon, and though I checked periodically, no new babies (at least that I could find) had been born. All 11 survived their first night, and they're all still swimming around happily. I decided to invest in some fry food (though I've heard crumbed normal food works, I purchased some Hikari Tropical First Bites). This food is like a fine powder, and I can see the fry swim up to it and eat one speck at a time. I'll be changing their water today, and also cleaning up the main guppy tank (it's a mess now, mostly due to me moving plants around to protect any fry I may have missed).

I'll probably start a blog about this, because it's my first time with fry and I want to document what I do (because it's fun to do so, and because others can give me tips if I'm doing something incorrectly).