My fish had babies, now what?
Livebearers:
If you suddenly see lots of little mini fish in the bottom of your fish tank, it's likely you've had a live-bearer (molly, guppy, swordtail, platy) give birth. So now what? What do you do with them?
The first thing to determine is whether you want to keep these guys or not. While deciding, there are many things to consider. Remember that it can be hard to sell the babies. Some fish stores may offer store credit for the babies, but that is not until they have been raised to a sellable size, usually around 4-6 months. You will have to house them and feed them regularly until that point in time, do you have the space to do so? If you choose to keep all of those babies, remember that those babies will become sexually mature and will soon be having fry of their own. It is very easy to let a livebearer population spin out of control. Fry become sexually mature BEFORE they are even sellable size, so they will be having babies before you can even sell them. Additionally, having fry slows down a fishes growth. Livebearers that become pregnant at a young age will be smaller than those that don't, and usually less colorful. Less colorful = less sellable. Males will also be smaller and less colorful if raised with females. The idea being that they focus their energies on mating rather than growing. Please consider the space and time needed to successfully raise fry if you choose to do so.
How to raise livebearer fry:
So you've thought it over and you want to raise these little guys to adults. Where do you start? I will give my suggestions on raising a successful batch of livebearer fry, there are obviously many ways to do it. I do NOT recommend using a breeder net. Breeder nets become messy, are hard to keep clean, and I've just never had good survival rates with my fry in breeder nets. What I recommend is buying two 10 gallon tanks, 2 sponge filters, 2 heaters, 2 thermometers, and one 20 gal air pump. Plop the two sponge filters into your already established fish tanks for a few weeks prior to the birth so they will be cycled and ready for you to use when the fry come. See the section on cycling a tank for more info. Set the two 10's near to eachother with the 20gal air pump nearby. You can split the pump's air flow between these two 10's. Fill both with conditioned water, sponges, air tubing, thermometers, and heaters. Fry need warmer water than adult fish, so raise the temperatures to around 80 degrees. They also need to feel secure, so some java moss might not be a bad idea (see the "for sale" section if you have trouble finding it in your area). Your goal will be seperate the males and females into the two different tanks. They will not have gonopodiums at this young age, so you will have to look carefully for a gravid spot. Take any that have a gravid spot and put them in the female tank, put the others in the male tank. You will most likely have to consistently re-evaluate the sexes of your fry and move them around accordingly as some will develop more slowly than others.
Feeding:
To feed livebearer fry is much easier than egglayers. Most will take finely crushed flake food willingly. The fry should be fed a minimum of 3 times per day in small amounts. They empty their stomachs quickly and need the full tummies for maximum growth. Make sure to not let old food sit on the bottom of the tank as that will spoil the water. I feed my fry 2 servings of finely crushed flake food and 1 serving of microworms daily. The fry should begin coloring up within a month or so depending on what species and color they will be. Remember to continually seperate male and female fry.
I want to get rid of the fry:
As harsh as it is, sometimes this is the best option. If you do not have the time or resources to raise fry, it may be better that they are gotten rid of instead of being left to live a miserable life in a cramped tank with inadequate care while growing. The easiest way to do this is to do nothing when the fry appear. Most adult fish will eat the fry and make short work of them, including their parents. The fry are nutritious snacks for the adults and in the wild, this happens everyday. It is natural and a part of the lifecycle. If a fry is smart enough, it will hide from the adults and you may have a few survivors, survival of the fittest. If your adult fish are not eating the fry and ignoring them, simply stop feeding the adults for a few days. Another idea is to contact your local fish store (LFS) and see if they will take the fry in as feeders. Don't expect to make any money, they sell feeder livebearers at $.10 a piece or less, so if they pay you anything at all, it won't be much. Check with your friends to see if anyone needs any feeders for larger fish, such as oscars. Do NOT flush live fish down the toilet. I despise anyone that is stupid enough to do this. If you believe in a God, how could you do this to one of God's creatures? If you don't, how could you cause pain and suffering to another living thing? Fish don't just die after you push the flush lever, they suffer through your sewage pipes, alive, then finally land in your raw sewage somewhere depending on your piping system. They there suffer in your excrement and probably some chemicals and die a slow miserable death. It's not fair to the fish and it's animal cruelty. DON'T do it.
When breeding non-show quality livebearers, (you don't have show quality livebearers unless you've purchased the parents from a breeder, fish store livebearers will not produce show quality fry) do not expect to make any money off of them. A so called "guppy-business" will not turn a profit. It is far easier to just buy one sex of adults to prevent them from breeding in the first place. Many females that you bring home from the store may already be pregnant, see "getting rid of fry" above. Remember that if you keep males and females together, a single female livebearer can have up to 50 fry a month. Within just 2 months, that's potentially 100 new fish to have aquariums for.
Egglayers:
You suddenly see lots of little eggs stuck to the glass of your tank, a plant, maybe lying on the bottom, now what? This highly depends on what kind of fish has spawned. If the eggs are in a community tank, they may be quickly eaten by the other fish. If you don't want the eggs, do nothing, and they will disappear as fish eat them. If you do want to keep the eggs and resulting fry, you will need to do specific research on raising that type of fish. Egglayers are much much more tricky than livebearers and require much more care. When the fry are born they will be almost microscopic depending on the fish and will need microscopic food, such as infusoria, to eat until they are large enough to take other foods.
Supplies: Now that the weather is warmer I am offering my great "stuff" to anyone interested. I offer infusoria cultures, microworm cultures, snails, java moss, and some other stuff, please see the "for sale" section! :)
