New to guppy breeding. Advice?

[LoriM]

Hello everyone!

Nearly two months ago I brought home one male and 3 female guppies to add to my 20 gallon long tank. As expected, all three females began to show signs of pregnancy and one of the three dropped 7 fry a little over a month later. This was shortly before Halloween ( I think Oct 27, to be exact). My other two females still look pregnant but there have been no more fry. Any idea what might be causing them not to drop? The one seems pretty huge and the other one is a smaller fish in general but still seems pretty fat to me. Some days they seem to be squared off but some days they are rounded. I have tried to attach a photo of the larger female, hopefully it worked!

At this time there are the two female guppies and 7 fry that are approx. three weeks old as well as two Nerite snails in the tank. The tank has a fair amount of hiding spots and also live plants (hornwort, java fern, dwarf chain sword)

The male guppy and the female that did have fry have both died, but I think that was my error in moving them out of the main tank into another tank without acclimating them well enough.

Thanks in advance for your advice!
Lori.

 

[SaraB]

How much are you feeding them? What are you feeding them? What are your water parameters/water change schedule?
They might just be constipated, if that's the case try feeding them chopped cooked peas.
Sometimes livebearers will get stressed and absorb the fry but try the pea thing first to see if that's the problem.

 

[LoriM]

I feed them once a day, either flakes, those stick on tab things or pellets, and I have recently started feeding frozen brine shrimp. I just rotate through these things. I do think it’s possible they eat more brine shrimp than they should, but they were “overdue” before I started feeding that.

I change water weekly, about 30%. Water parameters are:
nitrate 20ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Chlorine 0ppm
Alkalinity 100ppm
Ph 7.6
Temp 79

My strips don’t test ammonia, I know I need a liquid test kit.

Thanks for your help, I will try the peas!

 

[BigNorsk]

Well I have had guppy females that look like they dropped fry after deworming. If they have a heavy load of parasites, they will reabsorb the eggs and never drop. That would also explain the deaths.

If you haven’t dewormed since getting them, I would do so.

Most likely would be tapeworms.

I like Prazi Pro, but other products work too.

Callamnus is a possibility but more complicated to treat so try the tapeworm treatment and see how that goes. Tapeworms are much more common.

 

[LoriM]

Thanks for the reply! I fed peas only for two days, and I would say they look smaller but are still rounded. Both females have always pooped normally. I will look in to treating for tapeworms next.

 

[LoriM]

I tried something called Artemiss Microbe Lift. I am in Canada and I guess it’s illegal to sell Prazi Pro or API General cure here. The stuff I tried didn’t make any difference. My adult guppies still have swollen bellies and some of the young fry do too.

Any suggestions what else I could try? My largest guppy also flings herself against plants every once in a while, I’m not sure if that gives any clues as to what could possibly be going on.

They don’t seem uncomfortable or behaviourally any different, but I would like to breed them if possible.

 

[BigNorsk]

Canada got rid of a lot of options. For external parasites looks like kordons rid ich plus is available, their copper product is too. I would prefer the rid ich plus.

For internal parasites, I couldn’t find anything.

 

[Autumnsky]

Maybe these guys can ship?

There is Dewormer 1 -II -3

Each has a different deworming medication.

https://angelsplus.com/collections/fish-flake-food/products/medicated-deworming-flakes

I have lost Guppies to internal parasites many times. I now know what is wrong and feed them deworming flakes, but not these last ones because my flakes were years expired and thrown out. Getting new ones this week. Hope they can ship to you.

If you have a veterinarian, can they order foods for you?