Guppy fish are one of the most sought after when it comes to having an aquarium at home, or a fish tank, for their attractive drawings and for the great simplicity of their handling when raising them. They are fish native to northern Brazil, Venezuela and other places in northern South America, and are found in ponds, streams and small lagoons.
It is a warm water fish that feeds on mosquito larvae and water fleas, but also on vegetables, since it is omnivorous, and it also needs to eat everything so that its colors shine to the fullest and it looks its best. It has the peculiarity that it is very sensitive to copper sulfate, a substance that is used to eliminate snails from aquariums, so other products must be used for that purpose, otherwise the result will be the death of most of the snails. Guppy fish you can have.
They reproduce easily, and even the females have the ability to store sperm and have successive waves of fry from a single copulation. When the new guppies go out into the water, they will need some care on your part so that the parents do not eat them and they reach maturity and you can enjoy their movements. Here are several tips so you know how to take care of guppy fry in the best way.
What do you need to care for guppy fry?
• Male and female guppy fish
• Various aquariums or fish tanks
• Breeding box
• Special feed for fingerlings
Instructions for caring for guppy fry
1. Water quality. Optimum water quality is important for the guppy fry to grow quickly and healthily. To maintain this good quality you can use a kit that you will find in pet stores, which will be useful to have the levels of ammonia, nitrites and nitrates at the right point. Ammonia and nitrites should be at a level of 0 parts per million and nitrates should not exceed 10 parts per million. You also need to change the water in the aquarium every week, always taking care not to lose any fish, adults or hatchlings. Always keep the water temperature between 23.8 and 26.6 degrees Celsius as the ideal scale for frying, although adults accept a greater difference. To clean the water use a sponge filter or a very soft mechanical one,
2. Separate the fry. The guppy fry are very palatable as food for the rest of the fish that may be in the aquarium, even for the guppy fish that are the parents of these fry. Therefore, as soon as they appear in the aquarium you should take them out and put them in a separate fish tank, or you can also put them in a breeding box made of mesh inside the aquarium.
3. The birth. It is not difficult to observe the proximity of the moment in which the female guppy is going to give birth when you see this one that she puts on weight visibly and shows a black spot on her belly. The darker the spot and the fatter the female, the closer the delivery of her is to her. Sometimes you can see some black dots in the stain, which are the eyes of the fry. The female can give birth to between 3 and 100 fry in a maximum period of three days, although the first litter can be born in about six hours. If you see that they no longer hatch, you can return the female with the male to the main aquarium or tank. When the moment approaches, he introduces the female in the breeding box, which has some dividers and floats, so that the fry fall to the bottom of the box. If you use a separate aquarium or fish tank, go taking out the fry and in turn place them in another fish tank, with some vegetation. If you leave the fry that are being born with the mother, she will eat them in all probability.
4. Adequate food. Fingerlings need a high-quality, protein-rich feed. Given their small size, you can give them food in flakes reduced to powder and infusoria -which are almost microscopic animals that are presented in a liquid-. As they grow, they also give them the food of the adults, such as mosquito larvae and brine shrimp.
5. Remove the sick. Carefully observe the progress of the fry in their tank and if you see if there is a sick one that does not behave like the others, remove it because it is very difficult for it to survive. Also, you cannot add any medication to the hatchling tank, because you will most likely not administer the proper dose and kill all the fry.
6. Put them in the main aquarium. When the fry grow up, put them with the rest of the adult guppies and other fish, if you have more than one species in the tank. They will be able to move them when they have grown in size and literally do not fit in the mouths of adults, then they will no longer be prey for them. Make sure that all the fry have grown and are the same size as the adults you already have.
Tips for caring for guppy fry
• Remember that fry do not need their parents; on the contrary, if you leave them all together, the adults will eat the young.
• Feed the fry their specific food for them five times a day.
• You can buy infusoria at the pet store, but you can also grow them at home.
