[Harry Wingfield]

I'm at a loss.
I had 5. Left them alone for a while (1 month) and got 25. I took out all decorations last week so that adult guppies would eat babies: not a single fish eaten. Stopped feeding guppies so they'd get hungry and eat their babies: fighting ensues but no babies dead or even hurt. Now I have 35. I don't want to flush them but I fear I will have to.
LFS won't take them, friends and family super not into the hobby, and no one has responded to my 'Guppy Fry For Sale/ Free' posts.
Please help, I don't want to flush them.

I put a couple of female bettas in my guppy tank. They took care of the problem, eating most of the fry. And they are pretty.

 

[Hania41806]

Feed them to your angelfish.

I do not have angelfish, nor am I planning on getting any.

I'm assuming not since you have them, but are you spraying your plants with pesticides, and feeding the aphids from those plants?

Nope, not a single pesticide in my house. When I was trying to get rid of aphids on my other plants, I was using rubbing alcohol. The plant I'm feeding them from never had rubbing alcohol on it.

How do you peform 'filter' maintenance? Frys are extremely sensitive to ammonia and it doesn't take much to kill them. Also i would not feed them bloodworm or anything similar. Just the smallest touch of flake - better to under feed them than over feed them as decaying food is a good source of ammonia.
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Frys will eat algae and other nutrients if the tank is well established and planted.

Sorry, dont know if 'filter maintenance' was the correct phrase to use. I just meant that I have been lightly rinsing my filter media in old tank water every water change, and I've been making sure to change the filter cartridge every month.

I do over-feed my babies, but I siphon up any uneaten food within 5 minutes of feeding them. I dont really think 5 minutes with just a pinch of food in a 10 gallon tank would cause an ammonia spike, plus, all of my other fish are perfectly healthy (including other babies)

I put a couple of female bettas in my guppy tank. They took care of the problem, eating most of the fry. And they are pretty.

I'm going to put my betta in the tank soon, but I don't want it eating all the fry at once (it is very food driven) and getting constipated or bloated. I think I may start feeding the baby guppies one by one to it over the course of a couple weeks or so.

 

[jake21]

What is the cartridge you change every month? What does it contain - this should not be necessary. I typically change media in my filters once every 3 or 4 years 'cept for the fine floss that sometimes clogs and won't clean. The sponge - i typically have to rinse once every 6 months but it depends on the tank as some tanks are 'messier' and will clog faster.
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If the cartridge is charcoal then you don't need it - if it is bio media then replacing it is not a great thing.

Sorry, dont know if 'filter maintenance' was the correct phrase to use. I just meant that I have been lightly rinsing my filter media in old tank water every water change, and I've been making sure to change the filter cartridge every month.

I do over-feed my babies, but I siphon up any uneaten food within 5 minutes of feeding them. I dont really think 5 minutes with just a pinch of food in a 10 gallon tank would cause an ammonia spike, plus, all of my other fish are perfectly healthy (including other babies)

 

[Plinkploop]

Lol, I keep rinsing my filter media in tank water until they fall apart. The feeding routine is definitely not causing a spike.
Yes on feeding the betta 1 at a time, they will gorge themselves if allowed to, but their stomach is only the size of their eyeballs. Betta are definitely where I learned the value of peas and daphnia lol cause they will get constipated when over fed 😂 give him (or her) some daphnia or other type of greens if you notice a distended belly and lethargy.

 

[Hania41806]

Now I have a friend with a betta that can take some baby guppies as live food. Not too happy thatthey're dying but at least they're dying for a good reason

 

[Plinkploop]

It's honestly better than being over run and then dying because your tank can't handle their bioload. I'm glad you've found a solution!! Good luck!!