Mystery Fry

[Justjoshinya]

So my sanchezi passed away one week ago, I cleaned the tank up a bit and wanted to keep it cycled and start a community tank. On Thursday I bought 3 female bettas and 1 male betta. I also bought 3 yoyo loaches.

Saturday I bought 9 rummy nose tetras 12 neon tetras, 9 red eye balloon tetras, 6 panda Cory's. Also Saturday I noticed my male betta was harassing the females so I removed him from the tank.

Today I bought 9 assorted male guppies 6 females (females were kept in separate tanks at LFS) i also bought 4 glow light tetras and 1 snowball pleco.

Tonight just before the lights were going to turn off I noticed about 6 tiny fry up in my guppy grass by my overflow. So I have no idea what gave birth or who's they are. What are the odds that one of the female guppies gave birth in my tank within literally the last 6 hours?

I mean I dont think anything else should have spawned within that time frame? Maybe the bettas but all 3 females are pretty small. And the male was removed a few days ago. The loaches, neon, and pandas, and red eye tetras are all rather small. The rummy noses are decent sized.

Any thoughts?? I was just taken back when I saw the tiny tiny fry right now, I mean none of the fish have been in there even a week at this point.

It had to have been a pregnant guppy I bought today right? But the female guppy tank they came out of had no fry in it or juveniles. I dont know.

 

[tlindsey]

What are the odds that one of the female guppies gave birth in my tank within literally the last 6 hours?

I would say the odds are favorable that they are guppy fry.

 

[Jexnell]

Usually when you buy livebearers, the females are already pregnant. And in hours to days after you bring them home they could start dropping the fry.

 

[Justjoshinya]

Usually when you buy livebearers, the females are already pregnant. And in hours to days after you bring them home they could start dropping the fry.

Yea I just did some research, looks like females can hang onto sperm and keep producing without any males present for like 6 months or something.

Might have made a mistake with the female guppies I can see this getting out of hand quickly. I'll either remove them or set up another tank to grow out and sell/trade the fry.

 

[Jexnell]

What size is the tank? You have options if you don't mind fish eating other fish. If not like you said separate the males and females.

 

[Justjoshinya]

What size is the tank? You have options if you don't mind fish eating other fish. If not like you said separate the males and females.

Its a 100 gallons i believe, it's 60" long x 18" wide x 22" tall. Its heavily planted with amazon swords and anubias and a few java ferns ohh and guppy grass that hitch hiked in and could never fully get rid of it, it always came back.

I watched one of the female bettas go after the fry but they are dang quick and tiny. I'm not opposed to fish eating fish but id rather only the fry get eaten not my tetras.

 

[Jexnell]

Its a 100 gallons i believe, it's 60" long x 18" wide x 22" tall. Its heavily planted with amazon swords and anubias and a few java ferns ohh and guppy grass that hitch hiked in and could never fully get rid of it, it always came back.

I watched one of the female bettas go after the fry but they are dang quick and tiny. I'm not opposed to fish eating fish but id rather only the fry get eaten not my tetras.

You have a couple choices, you could get a couple male Honduran red points (Amatitlania sp) they stay on the small side 3.5 to 4in


Females have orange on the belly like convicts females do


Can also look at Amatitlania nanolutae

Male

Female

Both are very tame as far as aggression for a cichlid. I had both of them with all sorts of other fish from small tetras to livebearers never an issue with them being aggressive.