aquarium guppie breeding

Question
Hi I have a 17 liter aquarim and i keep  12 guppies in it,7 very small ones about 2 m and 5 of about 4 cm.I would like to breed guppies but what should I do if one of the guppies is pregnant.( put it in another aquarium i guess) but is it safe to leave the small guppies with there mother? And if i have young guppies can they go in the 17 litel aquarium?

thanks bbam

Answer
Hello!
You basically have three options when you have pregnant guppies. The first is to let her have her fry in the main aquarium and provide plenty of thick plant cover (including floating plants) for the fry to find refuge and not be eaten. Sometimes live bearers will not eat their fry if the adults are well-fed, but of course there are always exceptions. The second option is breeding 'traps' as they are called, little net boxes or plastic boxes that contain the female and the fry are kept safe as soon as they are born. The third option as you have mentioned, is to move her to a 2.5 gal or larger setup if available. Move her in when she starts getting pretty large but not when she is to the 'bursting point' otherwise it will be quite stressful to her. Make sure to keep the water quality very healthy to keep her strong and vibrant. Don't allow ammonia/nitrites to rise or nitrates to build up. And offer her high quality food supplemented with some frozen or live foods.

Feed the fry the same as adults. But with tinier particle sizes.

When the fry have grown to a size larger than your other adult fishes mouth size then you can move them back to the main aquarium.

I do hope this helps!
Karen~