I bought 6 fish for my 10 gallon tank. Two died and apparently one gave birth! I now have had these babies for about 2 days and they are dying! I checked my Ammonia levels and they are under control now. What should I do? Should I move the babies into another tank?
I don't know what kind they are. There are about 10-12 of the babies and 4 bigger fish. I bought Red Mickey Mouse and Guppy fish.
Lauren from Colorado Springs, CO
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There really is not much you can do, except making the fish food into smaller flakes so that the babies can eat it.
I have had guppies and platys for 15 years and the biggest problem is they eat the babies.
To avoid this, you need to provide a lot of hiding places for them, i.e. bushy plants. Good luck with the fishes!
They make a floating small plastic tank especially for babies. As to keep them separated from the larger fish so they don't get eaten. This tank floats to the top of the tank and this way they stay in the same environment; so as not to shock them. I would go get one of these, Wal-mart used to carry them, but our local Wal-mart has recently quit selling fish. So, any fish/pet store should sell them. You may find it by asking for a baby guppy tank. Good luck.
Go to your local aquarium store or a store like PetSmart or Pet Supplies Plus (any place that sells aquarium fish) and you can ask there.
I like the idea of the floating tank for the babies! My mom used to net them out as soon as she saw them, and it helps to have the rope like plant in there, so they can hide in the leaves. But the problem we found with that plant is it will break apart & look sort of ugly. One way or the other the babies need to be able to hide.
Your tank is way to small. You need to take the baby fish out and some of the bigger ones. We did the same thing. We have a 15 gallon tank and got about 8 fish and they all died. You just need to either get rid of some fish or get a bigger tank.
First off your tank isnt too small. Rule of thumb is what ever gallon the tank is the amount of inches of fish can be house in it. For example 10 gallons 10 inches of fish. Your tank is prefectly fine for what you have but i would not add anymore to it. The fish that gave birth are most likely guppies because they can produce young very often and very frequently. Because you have more fish there is more waste which means your nitrates could be high, i would suggest maybe buying a more powerful filter. And the plasic container the above person is talking about is actually a container for livebearers or other fish that dont care for their eggs/fry. Change your filter and make water changes once a week at about 20% and i can guarantee your fish will live. But if you plan on keeping your guppies i suggest you buy one of those breeding containers because you will keep 100% of your young and you will be able to keep them and you may even be able to sell or trade in for things at your local pet store.
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I have had my tank for awhile, but I don't know how many gallons it is. I have 5 big fish and I bought 8 like 8 mouths ago. I have 2 catfish and I have 1 other, but for some reason my baby fish are dying. I have 1 out of the 8 left; 2 died today. Why does this keep happening? When they die my catfish keep sucking on them because they are stuck to the pump when they die. I don't know why they keep getting stuck to it, but when we find them it is too late. They have already died. What is wrong?
By Natalie
It's likely that the bigger fish are killing the smaller fish - rule of thumb is to keep all the fish a similar size in the tank. Look out for chasing during the day - in the quiet of the night killing may happen.
Talk to the fish people at the pet store for advice, they are usually pretty helpful. Personally, I would either buy one of the small isolation tanks that hangs inside of your regular tank, or buy one of the partitions they sell that you can use to divide off some portion of your tank.
