buying pregnant livebearers?

[willowthepoet]

How many of you buy your livebearers when they're already pregnant? I know that when I have to replenish my guppy stock (because they always seem to die after giving birth) I always buy females that look pregnant.

Is there any disadvantage to this? (aside from obvious in-store inbreeding)

 

[Tiffi]

Well, they could be again inbreed. I think that's what you guessed it was, wasn't it?

To find guppies, at a lfs that are not pregnant seems to be impossible.

 

[iamurdad88]

i have 3 female guppies and they have all given birth and they havnt died...
they are pregnant again right now so i dont know y yours die after they give birth ..

 

[Tiffi]

Could you repead once how they give birth? Do you transfer them to a floating breeding tank or something?

 

[willowthepoet]

I've tried putting them in one of those floating deals, but they seem to cause a lot of unnecessary stress, so I got some bigger gravel and more coverage for the bottom of the tank for the fry to survive and just yesterday another female gave birth and then died. She was healthy before, and I didn't put her in anything at all.

I don't get it.

 

[iamurdad88]

Um i have a lot of floating plants set up on the right side of my 30 gal.
my females give birth there, and then they hang out in the floating plants until they are big enough to swim around the rest of the tank.

ya.. and i have A LOT of guppies.. i just counted 18 and then 4 of the orginals i started with.. so ya lol do u want some of mine ?

im sry your having problems with yours..
im guessing your just having bad luck :?

 

[honmol]

You might want to consider the possibility of something at the fish store. Maybe they weren't as strong as you thought to begin with. I've never lost a guppy and don't think I will until mine die of old age

 

[fish_4_all]

I always buy pregnant live bearers simply because they always die right after giving birth. That way I have the offspring and am able to rear them and bring new ones in to keep a good gene pool. Just make sure you get them from different stores and ask them who their supplier is. My lfs has swords that are the same color and pattern and they are really boring. No variations at all. I had to cross mine with fish from another store just to get babies of different colors.

 

[jrp1588]

I've never had problems with mine dying after having babies. They sometimes look a little worse for wear afterwards...but never die