Is my guppy pregnant?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

lornajane89

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Aug 18, 2011
Messages
312
Location
midlands uk
I thought she was but im no expert. Please see attached pics. Thanks

Dean
 

Attachments

  • ForumRunner_20110911_085242.jpg
    ForumRunner_20110911_085242.jpg
    62.8 KB · Views: 78
  • ForumRunner_20110911_085257.jpg
    ForumRunner_20110911_085257.jpg
    60.2 KB · Views: 94
  • ForumRunner_20110911_085325.jpg
    ForumRunner_20110911_085325.jpg
    60.9 KB · Views: 91
  • ForumRunner_20110911_085427.jpg
    ForumRunner_20110911_085427.jpg
    63 KB · Views: 87
  • ForumRunner_20110911_085515.jpg
    ForumRunner_20110911_085515.jpg
    60.9 KB · Views: 93
Thanks for the reply. Shes currently in the community tank with loaches, dwarf gouramis and juli catfish should i get a seperate tank set up for the fry and birth or a hatchery they sell them for £10 at the lfs. I do have plants and caves for them to hide but id like it if they didnt all get eaten
 
Gouramis, though usually docile, will pick the babies off (as well as the adult guppies who don't have very good maternal instincts!). Your best bet is to get a trap if you want to keep some alive. She does look pregnant but dropping can be quite spontaneous IME.

Your other option is to let her give birth freely which would save the stress but your mortality rate could be quite high. If you have plenty of bushy plants and hiding spaces you may get a few survive. Let me know what you decide to do and I will try and give you best advice!
 
We have bought a hatchery to seperate her. Should we put her in immediatley or wait longer? We were also looking for a small tank to put the fry in but found breeder nets. We got 2 just in case. Do u rrcommend these nets or are they a bad idea.

Thanks
 
I would recommend the nets as they have a free fresh flow of water running through whereas, without a lot if attention, the boxes will stagnate. Other users on here don't like the nets if the holes are too big as the fry can be sucked through the mesh in some cases but with livebearers the fry are usually too large anyway!

The gestation period for a guppy is four to five weeks so if you time it right you may only need her in her hatchery for a few days. Getting the timing right first time is hard but after her first batch you will be able to put her in the hatchery four weeks later and be nearly spot on timing most attempts. Basically it is trial and error with your first lot but it won't harm her to much to be in there as long as u ensure fresh water is in with her.

She may go off food near to dropping and become unsociable and hide in corners or behind plants. Look out for these signs as she will more often than not drop soon after.

Another good idea is to put some plants in the hatchery for fry to hide amongst before they manage to separate themselves. Cover up the intake on your filter with some tights so they don't get sucked in!

Good luck!
 
GUPPY BIRTHDAY!!

came home from work to find loads of tiny eyes peeping from behind my pump. Ive netted about 30 and isolated them in a breeder net, but there are a few more that tuck themselves away pretty good. Maybe another 5 or so but ill keep trying.

Its typical we took her out of the hatchery the other day cause she seemed stressed out and now she had them in our main tank but i dont think we have lost too many our other fish dont seem to be too interested in the fry.

Thanks for all the help guys!

so in about 30 days now we should put her in the hatchery again?

Oh and any ideas on what to feed my 30 or so new additions

:)
 
Congrats!! For food run out to Petsmart or Petco and buy Hikari First Bites. It comes in a little green baggie/packet. Its much more nutritional then ground up flakes and will help them grow faster. Good luck with the little guys!!!
 
Sorry to keep on but how much will 30 somethin guppy fry affect my bioload. I do plan on selling/giving away the lot once they are bigger. In the mean time how often should i be feeding them. I dont know how im gonna clean the breeder net out.. Or if ill need to... I saved alot but one is dead in the bottom of the net ill just have to try and pick him out i guess. The 5 that got away i suspect have been eaten now.

Quite excited as to how their colours will come out. We think the dad was blue/silver with an orange tail and the mum is a goldy colour.... Cant wait!
 
You should be able to see if the fry will be gold bodied or dark bodied already because the fry will be orange or grey. With regards to their colours that's the exciting part, they can mirror the parents or be a mix of the parents or even a complete different colour depending on if the parents had any recessive genes match up... Exciting!

Congrats anyway an follow the advice on food as above. A little think i like to make sure i do is to pull the net up every so often near the top of the water letting it sink down again and refill up with water, kind of like a mini water change, don't know if it works too much but IME it has served me well!
 
Also with regards to bio-load, I presume small guppies won't do too much harm, neither will your tetras, it's generally the larger fish which will affect it more like your gouramis. But someone else will have to give you accurate info on this. Anyway you will probably be able to keep a few of the nicer ones.

Lastly, yes in about four week she will be good for dropping, I find it's roughly exactly 28-35 days after dropping when a next batch come along. But if you are worried about bio-load perhaps just leave her in the community tank and let the strongest survive?
 
Congrats on the babies! They are so ridiculously small, that they really won't affect your bioload too much. Yeah, you put her back in th breeder in like 30 days. Remember that she needs to swim sround though to get the drop going, so thats why they often have the fry in the main tank rather than in the breeder. Up to you, I don't put my girls in the breeders anymore because it stresses them and doesn't let them get the excersize they need. However, having the fry in the main tank means more casualties. But, the mom will eat the babies too, and she can pick off quite a few of them will in the breeder with them. Again, all up to you. I have fed mine guppy fry with crushed flakes, first bites, and boiled egg yolk paste. All of those options work well, but I am partial to yolk paste once a day as well as flakes or first bites.
Again, congrats on the new younglings!
 
Back
Top Bottom