My Fish Gave Birth

Tynk · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 150

On Aug 29, 5:01?pm, "sophia98" wrote:
> Okay so my fish just gave birth this morning and it looks like she is dead im
> not sure if that is the position they lay in while giving birth or not but i
> know that there are 13 little fish in the tank i have no other fish to worry
> about them being eaten but am i supposed to leave the mother there so the
> small fish can eat her o.o or am i supposed to take her out of the tank....
> and last but not least what do i feed the little fish?

Of course you don't want to leave a rotting corpse in the tank.
You'll just foul up the water that way.
I'm going to assume here we're talking about live bearer fry, such as
from a Platy, Molly or Guppy, etc.
All live bearer fry are fine from birth on their own.
Take the flake food you fed the mother fish and run it between your
finger tips - crushing it to a powder.
Don't feed too much. After a few days, crush the flake, but not to
such a fine powder.
What type of filtration do you have going?
Do you have any gravel, plants, heater, etc?

Archived from group: rec>aquaria>freshwater>misc

sophia98 · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 1

Okay so my fish just gave birth this morning and it looks like she is dead im
not sure if that is the position they lay in while giving birth or not but i
know that there are 13 little fish in the tank i have no other fish to worry
about them being eaten but am i supposed to leave the mother there so the
small fish can eat her o.o or am i supposed to take her out of the tank....
and last but not least what do i feed the little fish?

Liisa Sarakontu · Joined: 30 Aug 2007 Posts: 5

"sophia98" wrote in @uwe:

> Okay so my fish just gave birth this morning and it looks like she is
> dead im not sure if that is the position they lay in while giving birth
> or not but i know that there are 13 little fish in the tank i have no
> other fish to worry about them being eaten but am i supposed to leave
> the mother there so the small fish can eat her o.o or am i supposed to
> take her out of the tank.... and last but not least what do i feed the
> little fish?

Which species? And in what kind of aquarium you have them (size, water
quality, filtration and so on)?

Momma livebearers are not supposed to die after giving birth, but they
quite often do that if they are kept in too dirty, too soft or too acidic
water or they are not fed properly during pregnancy. In these cases the fry
is often also weak and if they grow up, they might be deformed and
smallish, perhaps unfertile too.

Dead fish has to be always removed from the tank immediately, because they
spoil water quickly if the tank is quite small.

Feeding babies depends on the species, but small live food is best for most
species. Very small fish need infusoria, bigger babies (like most
livebearers have) can eat small artemia, cyclops or daphnia. You can also
give high quality flake foods and vegetables.

Liisa

Reel McKoi · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 65

"sophia98" wrote in message @uwe...
> Okay so my fish just gave birth this morning and it looks like she is dead
> im
> not sure if that is the position they lay in while giving birth or not but
> i
> know that there are 13 little fish in the tank i have no other fish to
> worry
> about them being eaten but am i supposed to leave the mother there so the
> small fish can eat her o.o or am i supposed to take her out of the
> tank....
> and last but not least what do i feed the little fish?
==============================
If the mother is dead remove her. The baby fish should be fed small amounts
of fry food several times a day. Also start doing partial water changes
with water of the same temperature as the tank and dechlorinated.

How large is the tank and what kind of fish are they?
--
RM....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
Zone 6. Middle TN USA
~~~~ } ~~~ }

Reel McKoi · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 65

"Liisa Sarakontu" wrote in message @195.197.54.116...
> Feeding babies depends on the species, but small live food is best for
> most
> species. Very small fish need infusoria, bigger babies (like most
> livebearers have) can eat small artemia, cyclops or daphnia. You can also
> give high quality flake foods and vegetables.
==========================
These kinds of live foods are seldom if ever available in most parts of the
USA. Sometimes someone in a fish club will be growing their own and will
share some with another hobbyist. You can't just walk into any pet store
and buy it here.
--

RM....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
Zone 6. Middle TN USA
~~~~ } ~~~ }