# Baby Guppies as Live Food for Betta?



## Netti (Apr 25, 2014)

I'm not really happy about using the babies of my other fish as feeder fish, but I have quite a few baby guppies in my 40 gallon long community tank. :|

There are 5 male adult guppies and 4 females (I was given 2 from someone, the other two are babies that grew up). Needless to say that these females are constantly pregnant and I will end up with too many babies surviving.

So I took 5 of the babies and put them in Fynn's tank. I even put one in Liloo's (young female betta) tank. 
Liloo managed to catch that baby guppy in less than a minute. I'm not sure if Fynn managed to catch one yet. These little guys are fast and good at hiding. Fynn's tank is 10 gallons, with live plants and a long piece of drift wood that has Java Moss and Java Ferns growing on it.

I can't believe Liloo is still begging for food. Her tummy should be quite full, there will be no evening feeding for her today! Or possibly she is just doing a happy dance?!


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## Warhawk (Feb 23, 2014)

In my experience betta don't eat too many fry, I have keep males and females in community tanks with guppy fry being born and while I'm sure I lost some a lot grow to adults. I know Betta are predator fish but maybe they eat smaller fish or I just keep mine well fed. 

As far as feeding live food to your fish a lot of what you will find on live foods is about feeder fish you find at chain stores. Those I would not feed to my fish but if you raise your own fry they should be fine. The way I see it if your able to grow healthy guppy fry and your Betta enjoy them go for it. Part of the reason I have so many livebearer breeding is for food for other fish, animals eating other animals is part of nature.


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## Netti (Apr 25, 2014)

Thank you for your reply Warhawk. That is very helpful. So, him mostly ignoring them at the moment, makes sense now. I will leave those babies in there for now, and see how things develop. If it looks like they are causing him too much stress then I am going to remove them.


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## Fin Fancier (Aug 11, 2012)

I'm not sure what size your boy's tank is, but if you want the job over and done with quickly I'd suggest floating a breeder's net in the tank and adding him and the guppies to it. Feeder fish are fine if you breed them yourself, but males tend to have a hard time chasing with long fins holding them back. The heavier planted a tank is the higher the chance the guppies will just hide until they are too big to look like food.


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## Netti (Apr 25, 2014)

Fin Fancier said:


> I'm not sure what size your boy's tank is, but if you want the job over and done with quickly I'd suggest floating a breeder's net in the tank and adding him and the guppies to it. Feeder fish are fine if you breed them yourself, but males tend to have a hard time chasing with long fins holding them back. The heavier planted a tank is the higher the chance the guppies will just hide until they are too big to look like food.


Yup, I think you're right, his fins might be what are holding him back. One of the babies is probably already too big for him, there still are three small ones, even after I've taken out one other small one to give to Liloo. 
Fynn's tank is 10 gallons, planted and with drift wood.


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