Q&A for How to Care for Baby Guppies

Healthy fry usually are happily swimming around the tank. If they are laying at the bottom all the time, that is usually not a good sign.

If you have bigger fish in with the fry, the babies will hide on the bottom to avoid being eaten by the adult fish.

When that happens, remove them as quickly as possible. If your aquarium has a lot of hiding places, the fry have a smaller chance of getting eaten.

This depends on temperature and your feeding patterns. If you want them growing as fast as possible, keep your temperature at 75-80 degrees and feed them regularly throughout the day. If you can't feed them regularly or want them to eat at their own rate, you can place live plants in your tank. Guppies and other fish love snacking on plants like that. You should start to see them growing within a couple weeks and they should be fully grown or almost fully grown in 2-3 months.

Baby guppies are hungry and ready to eat shortly after being born. The best way to feed them is to give them small amounts of food throughout the day.

It depends on the temperature, but they should be getting big at 1 week old and should be fully grown by a few months old.

Most guppy mothers will reduce size back to normal after giving birth. After she gives birth to the fry, you should leave her in the birthing tank for a while, as not all guppies give birth all at once. Monitor her if you do, as she may eat the fry when done birthing.

You shouldn't need any specific supplies for the female guppy. She should be able to survive just fine without any special help while she is pregnant. To keep her nice and healthy while she is pregnant, make sure you do the following: Keep the water clean, do not move or touch her if you don't need to; transfer the female into the breeding tank as soon as she gets puffy, but do not transfer her too early; and feed her regularly. It is important she stays fed because she has babies inside of her that also need to stay healthy.

Once they are pregnant, the guppy will typically have her babies in 21 to 30 days.

Is your water temperature quite cold? This can be a reason, as guppies produce more males in warmer waters.

If you think they are big enough, you can set the guppy free. However, if they aren't, then perhaps wait a bit more. However, there is nothing you can do once the guppy parents are back with the fry.

You do not exactly "need" a filter, as the babies are just fine with you cleaning it about every week or every couple of days if you feed brine shrimp.

Guppies can get pregnant immediately after giving birth, so it may be normal.

It's likely that your fry need more exposure to light. If they don't get enough light, their spines may not form healthily. You can try to increase their time in the light, but it may be too late for them to develop healthily.

Guppies are live bearers, which means they have live births. Once the guppy is pregnant, it will take 20 to 30 days for her to have her babies.

if you don't want them to breed, then you should but if you do want them to breed, then leave them together.

They may not be thriving. You can try to increase how much you're feeding them and make sure they're getting enough light.

You can't really do anything about that, since it disappeared already. However, that shouldn't really happen, unless you have adults in there when you shouldn't. Also, you can try cleaning the tank once in a while, just not too often. Make sure the fry don't get sucked up into the siphon/pump that you are using.

They'll reach maturity at about 6 months old, though they can start reproducing at about 2 to 3 months old.

Guppies usually start breeding at 2 to 3 months of age. They'll then breed about once a month unless you separate the male and female.

Any adult fish will mistake the fry for food. Use a breeder box to separate the fry from the adult fish until the fry are big enough to avoid being eaten.

Yes. When offspring of one female are interbred, the color and size of fins is enhanced but their resistance decreases. After every 4th generation of interbreeding, introduction of new more guppies is recommended.

It depends if your baby guppies are big enough not to be eaten. If you think they are too small and its possible that the can be eaten then you should wait.

Leave it, as most of the time you can't do anything. Let nature take its course.

People say that they can give birth around 10 guppies, but they can be eaten. It's most likely for 5 to survive but it depends if you keep a great eye on the fish. It takes about 6 hours to give birth to all of them.

If you get a female guppy, the guppies will start to rapidly reproduce. If you leave the female in the aquarium and don't use a breeder net, the big fish will eat all of the babies.

Put a soft sponge around the filter opening. This should prevent them from being sucked up and your filter should continue running smoothly.

Yes, it's best for them to have a heater. It depends on the room temperature where you are.

They'll enjoy eating ground up dried bloodworms, freshly hatched brine shrimp, and freshly hatched daphnia.

If she's swimming normally, she's likely finished giving birth. However, she may get pregnant again immediately, as guppies store sperm.