Hi , posted a while ago about my new baby guppies and was given some really good advice

Now i have a new problem - the then babies are about 5 weeks old now and are just a bit smaller than the neon tetras in the main tank (about 2 cms - ish! ) and was wondering how big they have to be before they can be put with the other fish in the main tank.

Reason for asking : .... the mother guppy has just had some more fry and are at present in the breeding trap but obviously cant stay in there for too long and they seem too small to put with the bigger fry!! Or , would they be ok?

Please can anyone offer any advice , it will be greatly appreciated
Many thanks in advance , Kate

My mum has tropical fish and she puts them in the big tank once they look like fish. Apparently when they are teeny tiny the other fish mistake them for food and thats why they are eaten. After about 2-3 weeks she normally puts them in the big tank and they survive. Good luck.

ok thanks. just worried though as we have a red tailed black shark and a red finned albino shark ( this one aquired by accident ) which can be quite aggressive so i'm a bit scared that they may take delight in chasing the babies and ultimately eating them!?!

The other fish are smaller so im sure that these would be ok.

Does your mum have bigger fish in her tank or are they all about guppy size?

Have you got plenty of places the babies can hide, ie in plants, under rocks etc?  They will naturally stay hidden if they can to keep away from predators.  Good Luck!

yeh , got lots of them - but the catfish , clown loaches and sharks like to hide there too and im worried that they'll find them and eat them. they've done so well so far i'd feel awful if i put them in and they get munched before they are ready. But at the same time i don't want to keep them in the smaller tank longer than needed

We always had a floating weed type plant (sorry can't remember the name, no longer keep fish ;) ) so that the babies could hide in there. You'll soon be so inundated with baby guppies that you'll need to get a new tank :D We ended up leaving them to survive in the tank with the other fish. Only a few made it, but at least we knew they were healthy, and wise :)

Same here, a few months ago we removed 300 babies, all around 4 weeks old, gave them to the local Aquatic centre, since then we just leave them, it's amazing how many do survive hiding among the plants, logs and even the stone on the floor of the tank.

I'm quite tempted now to remove the females permanently!  Males are much prettier anyway.......well in Guppies they are ;)