17 October 2019

guppy fry and white clouds

I lost one white cloud in QT. It was hiding in a bottom corner and I accidentally ran into it with the siphon hose when doing a wc. Just an airline hose, but either the shock or the impact was too much for it. Feel bad. The other five still look well, far as I can tell. Except one kind of has a hunched back?
Fifth wc is hiding in the sponge tunnel:
Saw the adult guppies snapping at the babies in the tenner, my kid tearfully begged me to "save them!" so I set up the mesh box. This time I folded a piece of hose around the rim instead of using the clips. So it just floats. Put in a few oak leaves, a few small ramshorn snails, subwassertang, salvinia floaters and a piece of parrot's feather.
Using a shrimp net and medicine cup, I caught fifteen fry. Have searched the tank with my eyes every day since, that appears to be it for now.
Little male is already flirting and chasing the females again. I think I actually saw the mating this time- they spin in a circle sides tight close together for just a few seconds. It's cute when the male flares all his fins, waggles them like crazy and does a little backwards shimmy in front of the female: look at me, look at me!
Fry are all the little white specks in there. I'm feeding them four or five times a day- first bites, gold pearls, smushed cooked pea, crushed powder of flake foods and drips of the soupy water from when I thaw frozen foods. Can't even see the food particles in that, but I see the babies eating it.
Once a day I siphon out the bottom of the box with an airline. They seem to be doing fine so far. Showed up in the tank on monday so just three or four days old now.
I was honest with my kid. I told her we'll take care of them all until I can tell them apart- I'm guessing at three or four weeks old the anal fin differences will be apparent- and then sort them. Keep the males for pets and the females will um, probably get fed to the angelfish or paradise fish. She protested and said nooo, can't you sell them? I told her we probably can't even give them away, this is natural, it will be over quick, and showed her a calculation of how quickly the tank would fill with masses of guppies if I kept all the girls. Well, that ended the protest but she is still sad at the idea. I'm sorry to be tough.

Overhead pics of the fry:

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