Fry mixup

[James From Cali]

So looking at the many gupppy fry in my tank and just hoping to see the colors I get in this batch I noticed a strange looking guppy fry. Then I realized that it was one of the fry I noticed before I had changed out my Rosy Barbs. So now I have an free swimming Rosy Barb fry chillin with Guppy fry. I suppose there are safety in numbers lol. It reminds me of what teenage pirahna do in the wild(school with other fish such as pacu, silver dollars for food and survival).

[@marko@]

fry are all very similar, and they will mistake each other for the same species. thats how i got my betta fry to eat flake food, i added 3 fry who ate it to show them that the food is edible, except the fry were guppy fry.

[lauraleellbp]

I remember reading through some studies that found when betta fry were raised with guppy fry they were more active and grew more quickly than when betta fry were raised only with other bettas.

Interesting, I thought.

[James From Cali]

That is really interesting. I want to try that. When I get more space for more aquariums I will have to I guess lol. I think it is very interesting when you have one species influencing another.

[Karackle]

Very interesting! At work (i work in a zebrafish lab so we have tons of tanks on an pverflow/recycle system) we feed a combination of live food and pellets. Some of the tanks always have pellets on the bottom, but some do not. We figured out it only takes 1 fish to figure out they can eat what's on the bottom of the tank and the others follow suit. In the tanks where we find pellets on the bottom, no one has figured it out yet pretty cool i think Same idea with the guppy fry (who will go after anything) showing the betta fry that flakes are food. VERY cool! Cool that the active guppies help the betta babies be active and grow fast too! Animal behavior is a fascinating field.

[@marko@]

yep, i read that.
it was done by a great guy who did a lot of research and work with bettas. all of his stuff is on his site: http://waynesthisandthat.com/bettas.htm

[mistergreen]

try raising the beta frys with with their father. After a year you'd have to take the dad out because his kids will kill him.

[James From Cali]

Thats really creepy. I think its really interesting now to watch all the fry group up at night and then the single Rosy Barb Fry Hovers right above them. He has gotten larger within the last few days, maybe cause of the raise in temperture and the increase in food.

[@marko@]

Originally Posted by mistergreen

try raising the beta frys with with their father. After a year you'd have to take the dad out because his kids will kill him.

a lot of people who tried this had the reverse happen, the dad ate his fry after a month or so.
i hear that its a common method in asia.
i however had great results raising the fry the western way:
spawn in a 1/2 filled 10 gal
dad out once the fry are free-swimming
add a gallon a week
then start daily WCs

[lauraleellbp]

Originally Posted by @marko@

a lot of people who tried this had the reverse happen, the dad ate his fry after a month or so.
i hear that its a common method in asia.
i however had great results raising the fry the western way:
spawn in a 1/2 filled 10 gal
dad out once the fry are free-swimming
add a gallon a week
then start daily WCs

That's pretty similar to the way I used to raise mine.

No way you could leave a betta father with their fry for up to a year unless it's in a pond or something- in just a few months the juvie males are old enough to start fighting with each other and need to be separated.