# Livebearer Fry Question



## looniebin (Jul 15, 2010)

I have Molly, swordtail, platy and guppy in my aquarium. 
After a year, here is what I notice, my tank is full with guppy fry. How can this be? I have the same amount of adults per fish type, 3 female and 1 male for every kind. 

I think I have 30 or more guppy fry inside the tank but only 6 platy/swordtail fry ( I can’t tell which is which) since they look alike and I think their growth is stagnant. The worst one is molly. I probably only have 3 or 4 in the tank. Their growth is fast, they are bigger than platy fry although they are younger in age. 

So, why do I have very little molly, platy and swordtail fry? Is there anything that can be done to increase the fry number for molly, swordtail and platy?

Btw, what is the life span on each type? Based on reading around, guppy and platy is 2-3 while molly and swordtail is 3-5. I just wonder for those who have been rasing livebearers in years, do they really last that long? How often do you find your fishy dying of old age? How often on sickness?


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

How big is the tank? A lot of factors could be at play here. If you only have 30 guppies, most of the fry have been eaten. Ditto for the mollies and platies, more so because they are more colourful and easily seen when they appear. Guppies can live 3 years and swordtails longer if the water is cooler. I never heat livebearer tanks. Water changes, size and frequency, affect growth rate


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## looniebin (Jul 15, 2010)

I have a 38G tank. I start up with 12-15 adults. I only use aquarium heater in winter times (Dec-Feb) set it at 76F. In summer, right now is 88F if I dont turn on the AC but when I do it cool to 80-82F. The tank used to be heavy with plastic deco plants but I am in project on changing it into real life plants. 

I have a lot of fry but none of them adult yet. The biggest fry is 2cm. If the tank get over crowded I probably seperate the fry into my 10G.


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## george (Apr 11, 2009)

Lonniebin, in addition to what Bill said, try to move the pregnant females to a separate tank or at least use a breeding cage to increase the fry chances of survival. Also, feed your fishes frozen/live food if you want them to breed more often and to give birth to nice healthy fries.


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## looniebin (Jul 15, 2010)

Hi George, 

how can I tell which female is really preganant. I never see any female drop. I see a couple that are big and have this black dots in her tummy. I thought they're pregnant but they never drop any fry  so I really can't tell which is pregnant and or ready to drop.


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## KhuliLoachFan (Mar 8, 2008)

My guess is you don't have a way to feed the fry enough, and prevent them from being eaten by the other fish. How often do you feed the fry and with what? If you aren't seeing the fry they are dying before you find them.

Use breeding traps to separate out the platy fry. Many livebearers will eat their own fry. 

In my platy tank, there are no guppies, and my platy survival rate is very high. In my guppy tank there are only guppies and a few cory cats. As they spend their time at the top (the guppy fry) and the corys do not seem to prey on the fry, it works.

W


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## looniebin (Jul 15, 2010)

I used to take every fry I see and seperate them into 10G but then after reading here and there I decided to place the fry back into the main 38G with their parents. I read if I do this, they will grow faster and healthier given that I provide a lot of hiding place for them and so I did. I place a lot of plastic plants deco inside the main tank. 

When I seperate the fry in 10G, i feed them crush egg yolk and crush flakes. After a couple months, almost 1/2 of them die. There is no adult in the tank so I am not sure why they're dying. I change the water 2 times a week, there is a filter with sponge on it, feed them little food but often in a day. 

So yeah, this is why I decided to place them back in main aquarium. I read somewhere that if I do this, they will get better nutrient.


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## george (Apr 11, 2009)

Ok, there are a few things to know:

1) keep them in a small tank (the 10G is perfect) until they are about 0.25" and then you can try to introduce them in the main tank. If you see the parents chasing them ... maybe you can keep them in their tank a little bit more.

2) Get some real fry food. I feed mines Hikari first bites. They eat eat like crazy so dose it properly.

3) Put some real plants in their tank. If they are hungry they can eat the micro algae forming on the plants. There are some nice plants you can use like hornwort and java moss. You don't have them or don't want to buy them from the store, just ask. This is a nice helping community.

Doing this will help you in the long term.


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## looniebin (Jul 15, 2010)

Thanks George, 

I'll do like you suggest  hope to have more fry in future


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

How much water do you change each time in the fry tank? Fry are usually less likely to die when they get bigger, so I would suspect water quality is an issue.


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## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

Eye yolk spoils your water very quickly. How often are you feeding them?

I feed him TetraColour granules, as they are easy to crush into smaller pieces. If you're using a breeding net then you could consider putting a few shrimp in there to clean up any uneaten foods.

TetraColour granules:
http://www.petworldshop.com/pictures/tetra-color-tropical-granules.jpg
http://www.aqua-fish.net/imgs/articles/tetra-color-granules.jpg


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## george (Apr 11, 2009)

That's another option as well. I prefer to first feed mine with Hikari for 1 months and then move to Tetra.

And the best place to have Tetra food is John (sugarglider).


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