How to Care for Baby Fish

How to Care for Baby Fish

Perfecting the environment

 

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.
Keep the water temperature at 75-80F. Do not let the water temperature get outside this range.
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.

Survey the tank setup. Guppy fry are an excellent food source for most types of fish (even their parents). Separate fry from all 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.

Remove the female from the breeding box promptly. When the female gets a dark gravid spot and then becomes very puffed up and blocky and starts to get an uneven look around the torso, she's full of fry and about to give birth. Place her in a breeding box, which has a divider with slots in it. The breeding box floats in the aquarium. Have it floating before you catch the female. After the female has given birth, which takes up to six hours, and she is no longer producing young, remove her from the breeding box. She can go back with the other adult fish.

• If you have a separate tank for the fry, you can release them into it. (That's where they should be floating.) If not, you can remove the female and the divider from the breeding box and keep the fry in it for some time.
• If you do not remove the female, she will eat any fry that find their way back up into the top part of the box.

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

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 the fry 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.