AboutChris Robbins Expertise I have 25+ years of personal experience as a pet
store employee and manager in the family pet store
business. The main part of our business was
Freshwater Fish. I can answer questions on; Fish care, diseases,
parasites and fish identification, feeding your
fish, breeding and sexing your fish, setting up
your aquarium, cleaning your aquarium, and
"what`s this weird stuff in my tank/on my
fish" questions. I am not an African Cichlid expert, Plant expert or Brackish Expert. No Pond or Saltwater Questions Please.
Experience I worked in and managed my family's fish and pet and fish store for 26 years and maintained the 35 aquariums. My experience also has included occasional in-home consultation and aquarium maintenance for my clients.
Expert: Chris Robbins Date: 3/13/2008 Subject: Please Help!
Question I have a ten gallon fresh water tank with 2 guppies, 2 dwarf gouramis, 3 tiger barbs and 1 algae eater. But anyways, my female guppy is pregnant and I put her in the breeder box (it's called lees 3 way breeder or something) and put her in it on monday 3/10 and when i got home from work she had only 1 baby in there. I kept her in the breeder box overnight and the next day. I took her out today but noticed that she had white stuff on her fins and concluded it was ick or ich. Then I noticed she got bigger again and looked like she was going to have the rest of her fry soon so i put her back in. I don't know if she got ick from being in the breeder box because none of my other fish have it. And I don't know whether to leave her in the breeder box or not but I don't want the babies to get eaten. What should I do????
Answer Hi Jennifer;
She may be getting bullied by the barbs and could be really stressed trying to find a safe place to have babies. Tiger Barbs are pretty aggressive fish that actually need at least a 20 gallon tank. They are not compatible with guppies.
The breeder boxes are really not that great because there isn't much room in there and the mother fish feels very exposed and unable to hide. It would be best to give her a birthing tank of her own. You will need it for the babies to grow up in anyway. Your main tank is going to be overcrowded if you keep the babies there. Put lots of live plants for the babies to hide in. They need to hide from their mother too because she can eat them if she finds them. Once the babies are born, give her a few hours to recover and move her back to the main tank again.
