Are my female guppies pregnant?

[oliver00]

Is my female guppy in labor? What do I do?

Hello, I'm new to this site.

But I just recently added 2 female guppies to my 10 gallon that already has a male guppy. Right now, they swim around exploring the tank a bit, but are also often just skimming the top of the water; they also stay together a lot. They don't seem unhealthy and eat fine when I feed them. But I've noticed that they both have a visibly dark gravid spot.

One of them is very skittish, staying on the top of the water. She keeps nipping at the fish that greet her in the tank. Also, her stomach is now a blocky shape. I think she may be in labor, and I didn't know what to do so I just pulled up all my anarchis so that it would make a good cover because she keeps sitting on the top and seems to want to be alone. I don't have a separate "breeding box" to put her in so I'm not sure what to do. The only other tank I have that has a filter is a 5-gallon with 3 ADF and 2 amano shrimp. Do I move her in there or leave her in my 10-gallon with 3 platies, 3 guppies & one dwarf gourami?

When she goes under the light, little circles are visible inside of her and she seems very distressed. She keeps having little twitches. Any information or advice would be much appreciated. I'm excited to see her give birth, but unsure of what to do or expect, as I just got her from a local pet store a week or so ago.

Update!! BOTH females are doing this, but the photos are focused on the female with only half an orange tail (the other half is clear), who is doing these things more.

 

[Delapool]

Any updates? Did you get any fry?

 

[oliver00]

Yes!! There are 6 fry right now. They're currently in my community tank with a lot of anarchis floating at the top. These six have done a good job hiding up there for the last day or so that I've seen them. I actually only noticed them because I was about to vacuum the gravel, and I saw one swimming. Quite a surprise! A few hours after this post the females started acting normal again so I figured it was a false alarm, but guess not.

I have a 5-gallon tank with 2 ADF - one juvenile female, one adult male. I was wondering if the fry would have better chances in that tank or in my 10-gallon. I'm going for a survival of the fittest deal right now since I can't afford to (and don't want to) try to raise every fry that comes out of these girls. I'm doing what I can to keep them alive (feeding them, making sure they have enough hiding spots) but what happens in the tank with the other fishes is out of my control right now. My thoughts are, if they're fast enough to swim away and smart enough to hide, then they'll be alright with all the floating plants and hiding places I have in there right now.

But anyway, do you think they'd be better off in my ADF tank (it also has 2 amano shrimp and less hiding spots, although I'd move some anarchis there if I moved them) or in their current tank? Would it be danegrous to move them at this young age? Anyone with any info would be great, as I've never done this before so right now I'm just feeding them 3x a daywith finely crushed Top Fin fish flakes and checking the count since it was 4 last night and now it's 6 that are up top together.

Any info would be great, since I'm super new to this! Here are a couple photos of them from last night, when there were only 4. I have since added some more floating plants.

 

[emerald76]

Just leave them in the current tank. It's not worth it to move them. Some may survive, some may not, but it's a wait and see game. Netting them would be nearly impossible, and you can't afford to have forty fry growing up in ten gallons of water. Yes, it's kind of horrible, but it's nature in this case. See what happens. Guppies are pretty hardy, if you aren't careful you'll soon acquire seventy of them. If you really want these ones to survive mash up the yolk of a boiled egg and mix it with tank water before feeding, but that will give you very dirty water very quickly.

 

[oliver00]

Yeah, I agree. Like I said, I was/am already going for a survival of the fittest ideology right now, and 3 have made it this far. I'm feeding them 3x a day finely crushed fish flakes; they're growing very fast, and are even faster swimmers!

The point of my question was whether or not they'd have a better CHANCE at living in the 5-gallon, because I know their chances are still slim in any tank without a breeder. In my opinion, it's not very horrible because it's just nature. To each, their own, on how they deal with stuff like this.

Thank you for the help, and giving me a new way to feed them, if needed!! Now just to wait

 

[icedcoldmine]

If there are any males in the tank or in the tank that they were in before there's a 99.99999% chance any female guppy is pregnant lol.

 

[oliver00]

Hello! I misnamed this thread, because it was more based on if my guppy was in labor. If you read the title and description, you'd see that. Thank you though.