Dumb guppies?!!!

[juliemichelle]

I'm throwing a fit!! I bought 5 females and 3 male fancy guppies 2 months ago, put them in a fully cycled 20 gallon tank with some salt...cranked the temp, heavily planted the tank with fake plants and I've waited...and waited...and waited!!!! In the past 2 months we've only had 1 guppy fry!!!! I even bought a breeder thing where a bubble tube sucks the babies into another holding tank so the mommas don't eat them and still nothing!!! What am I doing wrong!!! Everyone else seems to have more guppies then they know what to do with and I have one guppy!!!!! Ugh! Ugh!!!

 

[Allivymar]

How old are the guppies? They may be past breeding age. Or, they may be eating the fry somehow. Or they all may need a little viagra

 

[myriam]

That is quite odd, because livebearers breed pretty regularly, like every 4-6 weeks! And you are right, it seems like for everybody else (including myself), there is an insane proliferation of fry.

Are you sure they aren't eating them all up? I have seen them eat their fry and it's rather quick, in one big gulp. And they can each eat several, one after another.

If you are putting the pregnant female in the breeder thing, you mean she has only dropped one fry? That is really odd, because if she is truly fat and pregnant, she should drop many, many fry within 24 hrs, and you'd definitely see them in the breeder thing, whether they were alive or stillborn.

Could it be possible that the females have dropped fry, but for whatever reason they are stillborn, and you just never see them sink into the gravel?

You have no other fish in your tank, right?

Other than the above, the only thing I can think of is maybe something is up with your water and the females are dropping fry but they are all dying and you never see them. They are really small and would disappear quickly into the substrate's crevices.

I'm stumped :?

 

[juliemichelle]

Sigh. I bought 3 more male and 3 more females yesterday from a different fish store and hopefully we'll see some action. I have "neutralizer" that I use in the water it takes out the chlorine and keeps the ph at 7 for one month and softens the water no matter how many water changes I do. These are the only guys ...wait I do have a small (for now) pleco. Surely he hasn't turned carnivorous. :?

 

[Allivymar]

I wonder if its the treatment you are using juliemichelle. The chemicals used to change pH levels can affect fish negatively on occasion; most of us here use products which ONLY dechlorinate/dechloraminate and nothing else. I wonder, if you try a similar product and not mess with the pH if you'll see better breeding results.

 

[myriam]

I have "neutralizer" that I use in the water it takes out the chlorine and keeps the ph at 7 for one month and softens the water no matter how many water changes I do.

If your tank is cycled, and you do a weekly water change/gravel vac, your pH should stay level without having to add any other chemicals. Allivymar is right, most people here seem to just use a dechlor product for the water, nothing else.

Also, how often are you doing water changes, and how much?

 

[TankGirl]

Most livebearers do best with the water on the harder side, so I agree with Allivymar and suggest you slowly allow the water to return to its normal state, since you don't want to shock them. I am suspicious of any product that claims it will keep your pH stable in spite of water changes.

 

[PlatyLady]

I have a tank of livebearers, and the almost all the girls are continuously preggers. I've only had a few fry survive to grow to "too-big-to-eat" size, but that's on purpose (I could be overstocked in a matter of weeks if not!). I'm sure that's partially because I must suck some up during gravel vaccuuming, and because I don't use a breeding trap or anything - all the fish in my 28 gal chow down on fry quite readily.

Oh, and maybe your female to male ratio is a little lopsided too. It looks like you now have 8 females and 6 males. Is it possible that too many males are constantly harrassing your females and stressing them out?

 

[TankGirl]

Good point, Platylady- I know my 3 females to one male is good for a constant supply of fry, and sometimes I feel like a few more females would not hurt things, since the males certainly seem randy! Judging by the way he chases them mercilessly I would cut back on the males, if possible, if they are anything like mine.

 

[Blatchy]

My guppies had a batch of fry (20 live, 6 or so still born). Not sure if your aware but the female when pregnant will get rather large and develop a black spot which over a few weeks continually darkens as the fry grow inside her. You could try introducing more females so that the ones you have dont get stressed as mentioned. If you are considering buying more look for a black spot and a semi rounded body when purchasing and chances are the ones you buy will already be pregnant.

I only have one male and one female at the moment and he seems fine to leave her to her own however when she was giving birth he seemed very interested. You could also try feeding the guppies some brime shrimp and possibly raise your temperature and leave an inch between the water and the glass cover of your tank as this in my own experience seems to help the fish in your endeavers of having fry.

One other thing I have witnessed is that my females tail darkened and gained a blacky-blue marking after delievering her first batch. Not sure if this is relevant but i think it may have been a sign of her maturing. She was only small when I first bought her.

Good luck in having some fry (Its pretty amazing to watch them come out and how the female wiggles when trying to release the fry from her)... mine took around 2 months before I discovered my first batch of fry after introducing the two to each other.

 

[Madame_X]

My platies didn't breed for several months after I got them. I was starting to think I'd never have any fry, either. But once they did--yikes!

I suspect you'll find that your guppies will eventually start breeding. They'll know when the time is right!