First time with Pregnant Guppies...some advice needed

[GuppieBrain]

Hi there everyone.

This is my first time with pregnant guppies and the local aquariums have been pretty general with advice and I could really do with some advice from anyone in the know.

Today i decided to move them into a breeder box as some of the other fish (some other pregnant female guppies and one dwarf cichlid...he is in their for fry number control as advised by the aquarium people), were starting to follow these two guppies about and I was worried they were stressing them a bit. They have been through the whole 'chasing' thing before back when they were in the main tank with the males. I've not seen them chased at all since their move, until today and they have been in this tank for about 3-4 weeks. I've read that this can be a sign that the females are giving off hormonal changes as they are about to enter labour?

I've also been reading all evening about how a lot of people don't like using breeder boxes and others swear by them - but basically I didn't know what else to do and given I think they are coming up to maybe 4-5 weeks gestation, I was wondering if perhaps they felt a bit threatened (maybe from the cichlid??) and were holding onto the fry instead? I hope I didn't do the wrong thing moving them into the box (moving is not the word, I simply opened the side and they swam gracefully right in no problems) but I don't want the breeder boxes stressing them out either and killing them. Such a quandary.

Water parameters are good. Fully cycled tank with a pre-existing cycled filter so as expected no ammo, no nitrite and nitrates are actually sitting on 0-5 ppm. I did a partial water change as suggested on some online reading a few days ago, which was meant to be something that can help stubborn guppies pop. Temp is sitting at about 24, but I read today that they prefer closer to 26 when pregnant so turned my heater up a notch just incase. The Ph was on the acidic side which sort of surprised me, but I have gotten it slowly back up to where it is sitting at about 7.4 now.

I am uploading a youtube video at the moment showing them so any advice would be helpful...should be fully uploaded probably by about 10 minutes after this post goes up hopefully.

https://youtu.be/P3hnh9Bt28A

Cheers people.

 

[Delapool]

Hi there, welcome to the forum Have they settled in there ok and not stressed out?

 

[GuppieBrain]

Hi

Well I think so. Not thrashing or anything. They seemed more settled then in the youtube video about 15 min ago when i checked em again- how they are in the video was as bad as they got I think if u are to call that stressed.

 

[coralbandit]

Put cuttings from the anacharis in the box for each girl.
It will help girls and fry when they arrive.
One on the left will pop first(by days).
Gestation is not usually over 29 days .

How have you raised your pH?
Attempts with buffers often lead to trouble.
Make more water changes if the tank strays far from source pH.

Have you tested your source water after 24 hrs. for ph?

What kind of dwarf cichlid do you have and what size tank?
Looks nice in video!
Welcome to AA

 

[GuppieBrain]

Hi Coralbandit

I'll put some more cuttings in then of the Elodea from the main tank then tomorrow.Don't want to disrupt them now its after midnight.

It seems to be really thriving in that breeding tank (sending long roots everywhere) which has me happy. I got loads in my main tank, now that seems to be living and growing (which is a loooooong story full of mystery apparently. Im glad the current bunches have been healthy, well and shooting roots [abiet smaller] in that tank after a whole bunch of problems earlier on for a few months with them and my anubias plants all dying weirdly)

I'm surprised that the mother guppie on the left will pop first. I thought the one on the right looked bigger to my eye lol. I hope it's soon as I worry about keeping them in the breeder box though too. Perhaps I'm just paranoid, but I don't want to see any issues with illness or the mother's dying.

PH raising I was advised to do with Sodium Bicarbonate a little each day. I always tend to screw that up though and it always spikes a bit more than I would like. What is the best way you guys here recommend as the Bi-carb method was what I was told by 3 different local aquariums as the best method as it raises the KH to help buffer, next to adding neutral fresh (di-chlor treated) water. Given that tank has minimal moving filtration (than what I would have thought I needed for a fry/breeding tank) I also wonder if the setup added to the PH becoming so acidic so quickly. That and the rock/gravel. I know they can wreck a tank's PH pretty quick. That tank I will add also has had PH issues endemic to it which worries me. It was an old tank that was used for years then sat dry and dormant for a decade before being pulled out for the impromtu 'maternity' tank lol. If there is tank setup advice which anyone else can offer I'll gladly listen as with all my pets I try to do my best to keep them happy and healthy

In saying that, I've been keeping a close eye on the water as that was my first concern, especially as even though I am running that tank with a pre-established filter from the main tank, I was watching like a hawk incase of new tank syndrome. I don't have my figures infront of me at the moment, but I will be doing another full batch of tests tomorrow including Gh/Kh to see how the levels are developing there too. I know the pre-existing moving bed filter and sponge filters have been coping with the current bio load however, with their test results I was getting with my API test kits so even thought it's the first time i've used a 'donor' filter it seems to have gone well at least.

Hmm as for what kind of dwarf cichlid it is...I would have to go back through my iphone. I had another guy at the 'best aquarium' in the area make the suggestion for his type but he was way too fast with the scientific nomenclature for me to catch. I know, bad of me right?

So far until today i've not seen any of the mums being chased in that tank, but the cichlid and the 'less pregnant' yellow tailed mum were chasing (though not all that much chasing- but enough to get my attention) the two guppies in the breeding box hence why I moved them. Once they went in the box the cichlid and yellow guppie settled back to normal quickly.

Anyhow all I can remember about the cichlid is that his variety isn't meant to get much bigger than how he is-just wider/fatter, is meant to be great with adult guppies (he was bred in store in a tank with guppies apparently) and will only eat the fry and shouldn't pick on the adults-which is why he is there incase my numbers get WAY too high. I can't handle selectively kulling them so will let nature do it I hope. The guppies came into my life basically as Turtle food...yeah u read that right. I was advised they are some really good healthy turtle food for my turtle except it turns out, now about 1.25 months after first getting the guppies -that the Little One doesn't have any interest in catching/hunting/eating them, or even in eating the Elodea, Val or duckweed which he has in his tank and meant to be part of his staple diet. So in the end my guppies are now primarily ornamental. Anyhow that's is for now- im off to bed LOL.

 

[livefishguy124]

keep them feed if they are still really trying to get out take them out, put some plants in there, fake or real just to make them fell safer, and hide, they naturally hide and now they are just in the open, plants will make them more comfortable and less stressed out, if they are to stressed they will release babies late or early, which will kill the babies

 

[GuppieBrain]

Hi everyone,

Very quick reply. No babies yet, the plants went in this morning. They seem much more settled, the left one has been hovering statically behind the plants the last hour or two which can be a good sign things might happen soon. I think I will keep them in again overnight without any issues I hope all things considered.

I did make the discovery this morning that there is a baby fish in the tank that is a few weeks old, but I've no idea where that came from unless the fish I sadly did lose 2 weeks ago died giving birth??? I didn't think she was far along the pregnancy at all thouguh, but the fish has been happily hiding in the wisteria all this time.

WIll post more tomorrow now as its 11pm again, hopefully with news the first one has popped a few dozen fishes

 

[coralbandit]

Good luck !
Too early yesterday to know difference from Left and right!
Right one should pop first.....
Glad they are settling in with the plants.

 

[livefishguy124]

see plant made it better, if i see a babie hiding in my tank that is a few weeks old i leave it, if they survive that ling they will live to get to a adult and making it come out to catch it makes it prone to being killed

 

[GuppieBrain]

Hi. Another quick message- No babies yet from the two pregnant ones in the breeder box, though one slipped out during feeding this morning. It took all of 15 seconds for the other fish outside the breeder box to start chasing her so after about 5 minutes slowly tempting her with fishfood al-la Hansel and Gretel style back into the box I got her back in without much drama. So I guess they will have to stay in there till they give birth if that is what the other fish are going to do. I just hope they give birth soon, they can't get any bigger surely.

I have left the little fish I found outside to stay with all the wisteria, elodea etc. I wouldn't want to even try to catch it, simply it is too good at hiding and I also don't want to stress the mother's out hanging about the tank too much.

 

[GuppieBrain]

Hmm still no babies lol...Im beginning to feel like that generic 1950s movie dad who is pacing for ages in the waiting room at a hospital eternally waiting hehehehe.

Ok so anyhow I thought i'd put up my latest tank results from this mornings tests.

pH- 7.5
ammo-0 ppm
nitrite-0 ppm
nitrate-5 ppm
GH- 5/6 degrees (89.5-107.4 ppm)
KH-2/3 degrees (35.8-53.1 ppm)
Tank temperature is 25.5-26.1 across random points in the tank. External air temp currently is 20.2 around the tank.

So it seems everything is still stable as they all match my last lot of results. I believe the Calcium Hardness (KH) could come up a bit though ???

 

[GuppieBrain]

Hmm still no baby fishes...can't believe it!

 

[GuppieBrain]

Well one of the fishies have given birth? But we don't know which one. There are about 10 baby guppies swimming at the top of the breeder box or the top of the tank as quite a few have escaped it (so much for that).

Either way they seem ok for the moment, hiding in the cover provided by the plants and ironically a leaf I was going to pull out in the first place (that was what got my attention, the leaf as it had died overnight). For now I left the leaf given how settled the babies seemed hiding on top of the leaf.

 

[Delapool]

Whoo hooo! Congratulations

 

[GuppieBrain]

Thanks. The real question is, what do I do with the mother fishes? Given I can't tell which has given birth (they still look identical) I guess I leave them both in the breeder box for now. I read yesterday it can take 24 hours for a mother fish to pop them all

I would have thought i'd see some difference...will that become clearer over the next day or two?

 

[GuppieBrain]

Ok, so an update. Turns out that I was able to figure out which mother fish gave birth...neither of the two who were in the breeder box!

Was a yellow one who I thought had ages to go yet.

Sad thing is, the mother died. One of the other fish attacked her and she died of her wounds

I guess the good thing is her babies are doing well and are getting bigger.

The odd thing is the other two silvery ones from the vid/pics STILL look just as massive an have not given birth.

I decided a few days ago to take them out of the breeder box, Obviously it wasn't doing anything and the mother fish that did give birth was not in it anyhow...also the babies were able to get in and out of it (I think the box was actually more a Betta box rather than breeder box...i didn't buy it, my dad did) so that probably didn't help.

Anyhow can't believe the other two are still pregnant. I've lost count but its probably coming up to another two weeks!