Guppy pregnant?

[jem0220]

I got this fish yesterday at a pet store. She looks a little round to me. I've been searching online and staring at pictures of pregnant guppies all morning. Maybe someone with some experience could give me some advice. You can see in the picture a reflection of her from the side and a view from the front. Thanks in advance.

 

[emeraldking]

She's carrying but it will still take some time before she actually will have offspring...

 

[jem0220]

Thank you

Thank you. How long would you guess before she gives birth? A few weeks? Also I've read that you keep them in the tank with other fish. Should I let her babies be born in the main tank? There is one other guppy, a Cory catfish, a few neons and some shrimp in there also. If I leave them should I add some more plants for them to hide in?

 

[MICEY]

just about everything in the tank including the mother will eat the fry , more plants will help if you have a lot of plants so may survive and all females from pet shops are pregnant

 

[emeraldking]

Corys basically won't eat those guppy fry... Neons will chase them but hardly eat them. Other fish (even guppies) may hunt them down. But a mistake what a lot of aquarists make is assuming that adult fish (and I don't refer to predators) will always hunt those smaller fish down. But the fact is that once they're used to having smaller tank members around, that the hunting will get less and in the most ideal way that they will let those little ones alone... But the fact is also that most people won't let them get used to that. But of course, you can never say a 100% that those little ones won't get hunted down. Nature remains nature...
But my experience in all those years is what I've mentioned before. And believe me that of the 100% of each drop of fry almost 100% will survive overhere. And I'm keeping all ages together in one tank of each strain I've got at home. And I've got 60 tanks actively running inside the house with all kinds of livebearers and other fish in them.

But yes, I won't tell you to do it like this. It's up to you wether you like to keep those little ones together or seperate from the adults.

 

[emeraldking]

Oh yeah, before I forget to answer your other question...
It may take a couple of weeks before she delivers. Frequent water changes can speed up the delivery by the way... But why should you? Let nature have its natural course...

 

[jem0220]

I agree. I'll let nature decide when it's time. Having her give birth to the fry in the tank is another story. I'm not sure if I'll be making a habit of breeding fish and I would hate to have all of those babies gobbled up by mom and the other guppy. I'm thankful I have a couple of weeks to ponder this. I checked out your website Emerald king. Very cool!

 

[emeraldking]

I still have to update my website for not all fish of mine are posted overthere yet. Too occupied at the moment. When spare time is more at hand, I'll try to update the site...

 

[jem0220]

Babies!

She gave birth to some fry this morning! I wrangled about 12 of them up but there are still a few hiding out. What a surprise. I'm so glad I had a few hours off in the middle of my work day.

 

[emeraldking]

A bit too early. But as you were already mentioning that there's an amount of a bit over 12 fry. Not that much for a guppy. So, for sure you can expect more to come within a shorter while. So, she wasn't totally due...

In another topic overhere at AA, I've written something about dropping fry earlier than they suppose to.

But anyways, congrats for sure at this moment!

 

[jem0220]

I'll definitely be keeping a close eye on her. She is a pretty decent sized guppy and I've read that older females can give birth to up to 100 fry at a time. I will definitely look for that post you mentioned. Do you think it was stress? The babys seem to be a decent size, active and appeared to be eating.

 

[boonsbikes]

I never separate mine and I've got more thin I can handle now but I have a lot of plants


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[emeraldking]

Could've been stress. But you know when female livebearers are brought into another tank with a different quality of water. From time to time they tend to deliver sooner. If you add sufficient cold water to the tank, the same thing happens.

I've got some females overhere which will deliver within 3 weeks instead of 4. And those fry will be just the right size and wellbuilt as well.

But the most important thing here is that the female and her fry are okay...