# Community fish to take care of Guppy fry "problem"



## compulsiveguile

So... like any other new fish owners, a friend and I were interested in breeding guppies. We headed out to PetCo, bought a male and female guppy, and BAM! we had some guppy fry within a month or so. 

We took care to keep the fry safe for the first couple weeks in a breeder separator and then released them into the "wild" ("wild" = one 10 gallon tank with mom and dad). They've been doing well so far (side question: one is deformed... should I put him/her out of his/her misery? He seems to be doing okay...). As you might guess, a couple weeks later, we found ourselves with another batch of fry. Now we have babies swimming EVERYWHERE in the 10g tank. 

So my question is as follows:
Is there a safe community fish that could benefit from the "live feed"? I don't want to try to sell them... seems like too much of a hassle. I know the 10g tank is not really that big, but I think another fish would survive just fine. I've heard male bettas are a possibility, but I fear that they'll tear up the somewhat colorful male guppy. What are your thoughts?

Thanks in advance!


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## willow

hello and welcome.
the joys of guppys  they breed like rabbits.
the deformed one i would suggest needs to go,as it will no doubt breed
with any females it can,and pass on the deformaty.
a male betta will attack the guppies and do quite some damage.
as for another fish for the 10glln,hopefully someone will come along and suggest something
for you.


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## HereFisheeFishee

Tetras (If they are big enough) will eat the fry as well as dwarf gouramis.


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## Shadowcat0789

Get a Dwarf African Clawed Frog! I'd suggest a regular ACF but they get too big and would eat everyone thus NOT being good for a community lol


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## Tyyrlym

When the fry are small pretty much any fish that can catch them will eat them. As they grow larger you'll need bigger fish to get them. The big problem is that in a ten gallon tank you can't hold some of the more obvious candidates. Lemme say this though, some fry will survive. No matter how many predators, some will survive. This is the guppy's entire breeding strategy, breed faster than they're eaten. They're very good at it. 

I'd probably go with something like a school of tetras, maybe cardinals, and hope for the best.

Remove the deformed one. I'm guessing its a bent spine? It'll just be passed on and on if you don't.

A betta will rip up a male fancy guppy. A big flowing fin like that is an eat me sign to a male betta.


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## Mikaila31

Well absolutely none of my fish will touch baby endlers. German Blue Rams, rummy nosed tetras, true SAE, adult endlers, ADF's, they all spite me. I bought a celebes halfbeak to eat them, but he won't either. Instead they all eat dinner in peace:-?.


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## compulsiveguile

So here are the suggestions I've seen so far:


The Dwarf African Clawed Frog
sounds interesting... anyone else have an opinion regarding this?
 
Tetras
Problem sounds like they might not be big enough
 
Cardinals
And it sounds like the Betta is a no-no. We have one batch of fry that's about 1.5 months old and another that's a couple weeks old.

My roommate and I have talked, and we decided that we're willing to risk buying a fish that's more on the aggressive side... if that helps direct the suggestions at all. I don't think we're being inhumane.

Thanks for all the suggestions. You guys/gals are awesome!

Edit:
And by the way, yes, the deformed guppy does have a bent spine.


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## Mikaila31

Sorry to say, but nothing I can think of could go in a 10gal w/ the parents and eat the fry. Ideally you would want a separate larger tank. As for your options, I can tell you none of those fish have ever eaten newborn endlers for me. 

ADF's- May get "lucky" will still leave you with a lot of fry. They have poor eyesight and spend most of their time at the bottom, while fry tend to stay towards the top. I've never seen my ADF's get lucky.

Tetra's- depends, all the species that would fit in a 10gal would IMO not eat the fry. Cardnials definitely would not as they are much too small. My adult rummy nosed tetras at 2.5" totally ignored them as well.

No local store will take the fry?


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## Shadowcat0789

regular ACF would for sure eat everyone but you'll have to be careful you get one big enough to eat the fry but small enough so it doesn't eat mom and dad, then maybe give him back to the fish store? depending on the guarantee on him and how fast he eats you might be able to "rent" him for a week


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## watts300

I had 5 molly fry I didn't have room for. 

I placed an advertisement (free) for them on Craigslist. My only "requirement" was that they go to some one that knows how to keep fish. I would rather them have been eaten by bigger fish than to be "wasted" and flushed because the new owners didn't know about water conditions. 

I still got two emails in less than two hours. 

I gave them away the same day. If/when my molly squirts out more, I'll have another ad on Craigslist. It was really easy.


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## 1077

Once had a Raphael catfish that was proficent at eating young molliies. Problem was ,, as he grew larger, (most max out at 6in.) he also developed a taste for the adults as well.When I first got him,her ,I kept the fish in a ten gal. for nearly six months and fed it various foods ,while also using the ten gal to house the baby mollies while deciding on which ones to keep.Babies kept vanishing so I placed the now much larger raphael in 55 gal with the adults and it was there, that I discovered that adult mollys were also vulnerable.They are a sneaky and largely nocturnal fish and prolly not what one would wish if your aim is to see a lot of him or her. Along the same lines as clown plecos.


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## doctorb

A goldfish will eat the fry. And if or when he gets too big for the tank, toss him in a pond and buy another one for 12 cents.


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## Tyyrlym

An already stocked 10 gallon tank is too small for a goldfish before it ever even touches the water.


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