We have 14 little guppies , 2 days old now !! they are suspended in the main tank in a plastic breeding trap and are fine at the moment beacause they are still small ( not even as long as my little finger nail ) Does anyone know how long they can stay in there for? I am busy looking on ebay for a small tropically set up fish tank that doesn't cost a bomb but once i get one it will be at least 9 days before i can put babies in! Also does anyone know what the chances of survival are for baby fish - is it high or low?

Things aren't made easier by the fact that we also have a heavily pregnant Pineapple Swordtail so could have double the fish soon

How old do they have to be ( or how big ) before they can join the rest of the fish in the tank?

Thank you for any help or advice in advance , Kate

I keep mine apart for about 12 weeks or more, because the other guppies will eat them!  You do know that guppies survive quite happily in cold water?  They don't grow so fast in cold water though.  We bought a small tank from Argos and keep our babies in there until they are big enough to put in the main tank.

Good luck

Really , god i never knew that!! even as babies they would be ok in cold water? do you know how long they can stay in the breeding trap for?

As soon as mine are born I transfer them from the breeding trap straight into the other tank, obviously the water has to settle for a while before adding them.....just remember to feed them as you would the adults!

We actually 'gave away' 300 babies to the local garden center........the trouble is they are all pregnant again now!   We counted,  one female had over 50 babies in one delivery!   most of them survived too.....which is why we give them away! :)

thanks , when you say feed them as you would the adults do you mean : a , just rememeber to feed them or b , feed them as much as the adults because they are growing? Sorry if i sound a bit thick!!

Thanks , Kate

If you are putting them into a NEW tank, you do need to wait for it to cycle, cold or tropical.

Depending on the size of your exissting tank, you can speed this process up by using some of the water you take out of the old tank, and 'seeding' the new tank wtih it, and get teh filter sponge from the old tank, cut it in half and put it in the new filter.

Youll still be looking at a fortnight id guess for the new tank to be cycled for the babies to go in.

They 'may' survive if you put them in a tank of cold, uncycled water, but id very very much doubt it, unless you keep your central heating incredibly high, in any case the ammonia and nitrite levels will burn their gills, leaving them vulnerable to disease and parasites.

I would get a second tank, and then seperate out the males and females and have two set ups, one all male, one all female, as 'mongrel' guppies are worthless, not particularly hardy etc, unless you have piranah or other larger predators who will take live food.

As for feeding them, i would feed a good quality flake food, crushed quite finely at first, until they get bigger.

Em

My small tank is always ready for my baby guppies, water is in the tank weeks before, so is room temperature.  They survive no problems without a heater, but do have a filter running.

I also feed finely crushed fish flakes

ok , mine are eating the finely crushed flakes at the moment so doing good so far. Some are a golden colour and some are a grey colour - is this normal?

Guppies are normally grey when newborn, are you sure the others aren't sword tails? :) Usually the way to tell them apart at such an early age is by colour.

no definately know they are all guppies because we put mummy guppy in breeding tank at night and next morning all 14 babies were in there...

... unless naughty male swordtail had his wicked way with mummy guppy previously ....

...although don't know if that happens in fish societies!!