# For some reason I thought bettas eat guppy fry



## darkfalcon7 (May 18, 2006)

They actually don't eat their young unless their quite starved. Obviously you're feeding them well, so there's no desire to go hunting for additional food.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Mine loved 'em.

what else to do with guppy fry.... what else to do with guppy fry...

I dunno but if you think of something good, let me know b/c I have the same issue with cherry barbs (nutty things are WORSE than guppies in my tank...)


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## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

Hmm I have actually seen my adult guppies go fry-hunting right after feeding them.

What to do? What to do? 

It's hard to keep all of them as it is simply not feasible to make sure they all have adequate space in good water condition. I can only keep the good looking ones. I think I might be forced to cull some of them and keep only a few. Then give away the rest.

OR buy an oscar and a 100g+ tank or a RES turtle. Turtle might be too slow for the guppy though. My friend had guppy feeders and the turtle was too slow to catch them. Ended up with 100 guppy fry in no time and super polluted water.

What to do? What to do?


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## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

How about puffer fish? Those are nasty little critters, do you think they will decimate guppy fry?


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## hooha (Mar 14, 2004)

Apistos/Blue rams.....


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

Fancy bettas are too slow to catch anything...
Get a short tailed betta or a large female betta... A paradise fish or gourami will do as well.


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## Batch (May 10, 2007)

*What do I do with so much guppy fry*

I put them in my small pond with the comets. yum-yum

Batch


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## frogmanjared (Feb 21, 2008)

A red eared slider wouldn't be the best choice. First of all, they get huge, very fast. As they mature, they tend to become more vegetarian and less of a predator... so you can't have any live plants in your tank :icon_sad: . That's why I'm moving my RES to a plastic pond and turning my 75 gal into a beautiful planted aquarium.


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## kana (Oct 23, 2007)

Can you give them to your LFS?

My female betta wants to come live in your all-you-can-eat 10 gallon tank!


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## EricSilver (Feb 23, 2004)

dekstr said:


> I bought a betta for $5 today.


You've only had it for one day. 

Let it settle in; get hungry; don't feed it; and then watch how fast the guppies disappear. (If your tank was larger, I'd suggest an angel fish.)


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## psybock (Jan 12, 2007)

Well, guppy fry are one of my conditioning foods for breeding bettas. Like Eric said, give it a few days and they'll start munching, every betta I have (around 20 of them) enjoy the chase of finding guppies, then again, my mom's betta is in a 10 gallon with 5 baby guppies and doesn't touch them, of course he's very low key as well. At any rate, give it time and starve the fish a little, you'll see very quickly how fast they disappear. Also about the comment of feeding well, I have feeder guppies (about adult 15 pairs) that share a tank with a swarm of babies (about 150) and don't seem to snack on them, of course I feed them well to keep the babies coming and keep them from munching...

Kevin


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## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

Great comments everyone!

Yes I will commence starving my betta for a few days starting now. 

Just wondering though--will exclusively feeder guppy fry as betta food provide complete nutrition?


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Nope. Not complete. I'd still feed some betta pellets at least once a week.


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## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

lauraleellbp said:


> Nope. Not complete. I'd still feed some betta pellets at least once a week.


Oh alright, thanks. I don't have any betta pellets! Way to plan ahead eh? lol


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

No biggie- most bettas aren't picky. If yours will eat flakes that's good too (mine never would eat flakes- only pellets- the snobs!). Same with most other fish- variety is better than any one food.


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## EricSilver (Feb 23, 2004)

lauraleellbp said:


> No biggie- most bettas aren't picky.


Wow -- mine must have been true snobs since they would not touch anything but live worms, or frozen mosquito larvae.


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## EricSilver (Feb 23, 2004)

dekstr said:


> Just wondering though--will exclusively feeder guppy fry as betta food provide complete nutrition?


That's an excellent question since, once they become used to live food, or a specific type of live food, they might ignore others.


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## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

Well I did try some staple flake food yesterday. Betta was not in the mood. However...that one guppy fry was probably overfed ten times more than what it should've eaten.


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## psybock (Jan 12, 2007)

My bettas take out whatever touches the water, some of them jump to get the pellets out of my fingers before I even drop them...Mine thrive on a diet of betta pellets (staple), frozen blood worms (treat 2x a week), frozen foods (1 day a week, brine shrimp or blood worms), and the occaisional guppy fry or flake food (brine shrimp flakes, they have more protein and normal tetramin flakes for variety purposes...). I also given them black worms once a week or once every two weeks depending on availability....

Kevin


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

^^^ ideal diet. Mine used to love brine shrimp too- I'd feed every now and then just for a treat (because of the way they're kept in the typical LFS they're actually usually not that nutritional unless they're spirulina-enriched...)


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## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

That's a really great diet, like a 10 course betta meal! Probably better than what I eat in simile!

I read somewhere that if your brine shrimp are green, it means they might have been fed on spirulina--thus the green insides.


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## Suzie Q (Jan 8, 2007)

Female Betta are the best to have...or a PK Male...the VT, CT, SD, HM and DT are to slow due to their heavy fins to do enough damage in the guppy fry population. If you have only had your guy a day or 2...see if the LFS will trade you for a female...if you want more than 1 female...then you need 5...any less and you will have a lot of fighting for the dominate position.

Good Luck!


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## psybock (Jan 12, 2007)

Well, hikari has a brine shrimp that is enriched with spirulina, they are in frozen cubes and they are green, those would possibly be great for constipated bettas b/c of the plant matter, split peas also work just peal off the skin of a thawed pea (plain frozen peas) some bettas like them others don't. You could always gut load your feeders with a vegetable food, it might work as well. Either way carnivores don't get much plant matter so anytime you can get it in them is good. I have found with a varied diet they don't get sick (swim bladder disorder, constipation, etc) as much and seem to be far more active.


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## Schoolofdisabledguppies (Jun 9, 2018)

Use red tailed sharks. Works for most of my 40 gal tank.


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