Pregnant guppies!

[Ariel234]

I had three female guppies and 3 male. All 3 female started showing signs of pregnancy about 2-3 weeks after they were put in the same tank. After a month one of the female guppies looked like she was going to explode with fry and meanwhile the male guppies always seem to pick at their abdomens a lot. One day I came home and the biggest( most pregnant looking) guppy was missing a side fin and was swimming on its side in circles. She lived like that for about a week and a half then died. Now it's been a little over 3 month and my other two females are still pregnant to the point where you can count the pair of eyes belonging to the fry in her abdomen and ther gravid spots are dark. But the males will not stop picking at then and attacking the abdomen and gravid spot. I'm scared that the same thing that happened to the other female will happen to these before they give birth, or will they even give birth at this point?

 

[snajera7]

So you have 3 males and 3 females? If this is so, your problem is that you have way to many males and they will keep attacking your pregnant females. For every male you should have 2 females so for three males you should have at least 6 females in there to help with the males not attacking the same female to death. I would try to get a hold on a tank divider and separate the females so they can safely have there babies, then once she's done having the fry you should take her out and separate her from the fry cuz she will end up eating them if kept with the same tank.

I hope everything goes well.

 

[Ariel234]

Another question: is it normal for the guppies to still be pregnant after 3 months? I read that it usually only take around 28 days??

 

[snajera7]

Another question: is it normal for the guppies to still be pregnant after 3 months? I read that it usually only take around 28 days??

Female guppies will probably always (when placed with a male) be pregnant. Even after she has her fry it's most likely that same day she ended up preggers again and so on. Someone even told me today that even if you buy just female guppies and no males that the females will be pregnant anyway. This is because the females store the males sperm and that's why they have like batches Of fry at a time, this could be because the local pet store is constantly breeding them to sell so even if the female is introduced to a male once and separated it's most likely she still is storing his sperm.

 

[snajera7]

So maybe your female has just been pregnant a number of times in the last three months and she's had some fry already that you haven't noticed. Try moving any plants or decor around an you could have a few pop out. Or (hopefully not the case) check your filter. It could be that some got stuck in there.

Good luck!