Caring for the new born fry

What do I feed the newly born fries?



As guppy is live bearer, it is quite easy to raise their fries. Some may take finely crushed flake foods from the start, and only require frequent water changes to keep up with their growth.



Personally I prefer to feed them with hatched baby brine shrimp. You may also use live daphnia or microworms. These live food are most ideal for fries in their first 1 month.



Try not to overfeed in each feeding session as uneaten food may cause the water to foul up. Feed what the fries can finish up in not more than 5 minutes.






Tank setup and maintenance



Tank care and feeding are two vital considerations in getting young fish started to develop into fine mature guppies. Tank care can be broken into temperature of the water, filtration, water changes and the number of fish per unit of water. Young guppies should be maintained at a water temperature of 76 to 80 degrees At these temperatures they consume more food, allowing them to grow and develop much faster compared to lower temperatures (72 to 74 degrees).



A tank without gravel is best for young guppies. A box filter with medium air is the adequate filtration. The filter should be kept clean with floss changed every two weeks. Before changing the filter, the sides and bottom of the tank should be wiped with a clean sponge and the water change should be made in conjunction with the filter change. Water changes should be made when the fish are two weeks of age and weekly thereafter. A 35 to 50% change weekIy should be adequate with aged water at the same temperature. If unaged water is used, changes may be dropped to 20 to 35% weekly as fish may become uncomfortable if larger changes are made.



The entire litter (20 to 50) can be maintained in a five gallon tank the first two weeks, but then should be given more space. At one month of age, young males should be placed in a tank by themselves with no more than two fish per gallon of water. As the males develop, they should be given one gallon of water per fish.







How often do I feed the fries?




Guppy fries have very small intestinal tracts that must be refilled every 20 minutes to get maximum growth. Since a twenty-minute feeding regime is impractical, one may feed every 2 hours for 8-10 feedings a day.



Fries may be fed solely on live brine shrimp for the first week, and then begins supplementing with dry crushed flake food. Ensure that the crushed flake food is not too big for the fry’s mouth.



The first feed in the morning is best to start off with the crushed flake food as the fries will be hungry, and alternate it with brime shrimp throughout the day.



To get maximum growth rate for fries, it is best to use live food especially the first month.







How fast will the fries grow?




Depending on the strain, if fed with live food and properly maintained, the fries can double or triple in size within the first month.



The first month of the fries is the most critical. In this first month, most of the food energy is devoted to body growth, including the development of muscle and bone structure.



It is best to boost the growth of the guppy size between birth and the development of sexual organs.

For most strains, once the sexual development begins (which is about weeks after birth), most food energy is diverted to gamete production.



After the sixth week, more and more energy is devoted to sexual activity. Since female guppies can have their first drop a couple of months after birth, their food energy may be diverted to egg production and providing some nutrition to her fry. As such, breeders usually keep males and females separately to maximize the growth of the guppy.



Growth rate is also affected by the temperature of the tank. Higher temperatures speed up guppy metabolism. However, guppies raised in high temperatures and fed aggressively will have shorter lives and are more prone to disease.




At about six week, the fins start to grow, diverting energy once again from body growth. Therefore, it is important to concentrate on the first month where most growth are exclusive to the guppy size before the energy starts to divert in other directions.



The age at which the guppies start to show secondary colors depends upon the strain. Some strains darken within a day, others may take several weeks. Some male guppies can be selected for color as early as four months.



There are many factors affecting the expression of color in male guppies, from genetic to the food you feed them.