New Babies in the House!
I am very excited today! There are new babies in the house. No, not children. Not puppies. Guppies! If you know me at all, you will know this makes me giddy! Let me explain!
About two months ago I was on the hunt for some guppies to add to my growing collection of fish and aquariums. When I was growing up, the fancy guppies that we see today were very rare. What we did have access to were some "common" or "wild type" guppies. They were much smaller than today's guppies with smaller fins and certainly nowhere near as colorful patterns on their bodies and fins. They were very hardy little fish and much would have to go wrong to kill these little guys who would multiply like crazy in tanks of all sizes, shapes and temperatures. Today, these are called "Endlers" and they are harder to get especially as a pure strain and when you can find them, they are often expensive. I am told that they are not just common guppies but actually a different species than the fancy guppies we see. Interesting...
I don't like to have to fuss with my fish (water parameters, ph, dissolved solids and the like) so the hardier and more adaptable they are, the better I like them. Anyway, I found a local breeder who breeds some "mutts"- a cross between fancy guppies and endlers. A good start for my needs just to have some fish to have some fun with. She happened to have some babies that she really didn't have room for. Would I take them instead of the adults she was selling? Yes, please!
There is nothing more fun that watching baby guppies "color up" or develop their adult colors. You never know what color or pattern they will have, especially if you didn't get to see the adults. Every day they change just a little. Even more fun is when you have cross-bred guppies as they often show a combination of characteristics from their parents. Genetics is a wonderful thing!
So, it's a waiting game-but you don't have to wait too long since guppies and endlers both mature around 3 months of age. The ones I got were about a few weeks old, and still had their baby grey color and small size. Perfect for adapting to my water conditions and temperatures! And also perfect so I could watch them grow up under my watchful eye!
The breeder sent me home with 22 small fish and one young orange male who was getting beat up by other fish in her community tank. His tail was healing but still looked tattered. Could he come with the others? Yes, please! Now I had an idea of what at least one of the parents might have looked like.
So after much ado (twice a day feedings-most from my live cultures, some fussing about adding plants and other cover to the tank), I had 11 fast maturing females with growing bellies and 11 young males with some color and one adult guppy whose tail had long-since healed.
A few nights ago, I observed that the young males were getting rather "frisky" with one large female in particular. I also noticed that she was getting quite boxy in shape in combination with a large dark spot at the back of her belly. This combination told me that she was nearing her due date to "drop" her young. The next few days would be important to see how many she would produce. And how many would be eaten!
After noticing that the males were grabbing at "products" the female produced out her back end (gross!), I decided to remove the 5 most mature males to another tank since they seemed so interested in what was coming out the female's back end. If they would catch poop, they would certainly eat baby guppies as they were born! Off to the big 55 gal community tank they went!
I started a close watch for beady eyes peeking out from the hiding spots I provided impending babies. Four or five times a day when I was near the tank, I looked in and scanned the surface for any extra specks that might be new in the tank. Yesterday morning, I was rewarded with 3 pairs staring back at me! They were all eyes and stomach, it seemed. A long grey tail. Perfect tiny replicas of their parents, if colorless! An hour later or so, I looked in and noticed the babies now had big peach-colored bellies. Bruce has shared some of his newly-hatched brine shrimp with them and they ate heartily!
This morning, I counted 4 more pairs of eyes looking back at me. Already the first three were testing the limits of their tank mates by swimming dangerously to the outer edge of the plastic topiary ball I had put in as a hiding spot. It reminded me of the young fishes' behavior in the "Finding Nemo" movie. The kids daring each other to swim out into the "Drop off". In this case, the very real danger here were the remaining male guppies and maybe even the females! The little ones wisely fled back to the safety of the green ball when the males did half-hearted grabs at them.
At that point, I decided that everyone's stress levels (including mine) would be lowered if I removed the males to another tank and kept the mothers and babies in what was now the maternity tank. So the younger males were moved to another tank with our Pygmy Corydoras catfish. After a few hours of adjustment, everyone is settled in and both the females and fry seem much happier!
This afternoon, all of the babies were venturing out of the topiary ball and some even as far as the bottom of the 10 gal tank. Brave little fish these are! The females are mostly going about their business of hunting down food. I keep them well-fed so they are not tempted by the tiny morsels swimming nearby. Of course the babies are fed teeny tiny food too! They will grow rapidly.
Most adult guppies will start to recognize baby guppies as individuals rather than food at about a week of age so this is unusual that first-time mothers and mother's-to-be are not eating day old babies! Hopefully there won't be any incidences of mistaken identity if I happen to be remiss in feeding the extra meals. The mother of this batch is still gravid so more babies are still to come! Meanwhile, the fry get fed 4 times a day with live food and tiny ground up flakes to start them off on the right fin! I will keep you updated!
