Unexpected babies

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crispie764

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 10, 2007
14
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Watertown,NY
Tuesday night I got some more fish at Petco. I noticed last night that either my female swordtail or one of my mickey mouse platys had babies. I know I need to keep the babies from other fish but I feel I have no choice to leave the mother with them in my 10g tank because she could have more. All that is in that tank is four fake plants and some bulbs for plants I'm waiting for to grow. Would they be safe if I have them in their with their mother. Can I also keep the Oto Catfish and male Betta in there. I can move the catfish to another tank if I have to but the male Betta would have to go back in the tiny container it came in, I have male Betta's in both of my other two tanks. Would he eat the babies, he does like to hang out in the spots the babies would probably be.

Also, how worried should I be about the filter. It's an AquaClear 20. I can adjust how strong it sucks stuff up but it may still be too strong for the babies. I know most if not all of you will tell me to get a breeder box or something but I can't find anything like that at any of our pet stores.

Give me as much advice as possible if you can. This is the first time I've had baby fish so I'm really excited. There are 7 of them that are still alive, 5 were eaten because I didn't know they were in there at the time.:cry:
 
Float some wisteria on the top of the tank, then net them out of the wisteria strategically and place them in a breeding net. That is what I did when I bred livebearers.
 
Will I find that stuff at Petco. Our store always seems to be out of stuff all the time. Plus, I don't think I have ever seen anything there for breeding, but I could be wrong.
 
Just let them be. You could take the betta out if you want (prolly a good idea) but the 7 fry should live. Providing they get adequate food.
Put some stockings over the intake of the filter so no fry get sucked up.
 
Well unfortunately they died over night but if we have more I'll remember what you two told me. Once I get my other tanks at my grandfather's house I'll have one only for event's like this. Would an Oto Catfish accidently eat them if I kept it in the tank?
 
Petsmart has mesh breeding pens that you can suspend from the rim of the adult tank. They go for under 5 bucks- I picked one up for my baby guppies and all 26 are still alive in there after 2 weeks.
 
Thanks Druu, if I get to go to the pet store today, I'll have to see if I can find one of those.
 
No problem, one word of advice though. You've got to wash the mesh every week or so because algea builds up on it much faster than it does on the other tank surfaces. My pleco was on it, and if he managed to rasp a hole through it, I'm sure I'd have very few or no babies left.
 
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