Pregnant Guppy Please Help......

[BabyDoll]

I have a guppy who appears to be ready to pop it looks as if I can see the black eyes of the fry though her lower abdomen. She is albino so that helps. My problem or problems are....I had her in my main tank which is 80 gallons. She was staying right at the top most if the time and the other male guppies were staying with her none stop. I want to keep the babies. So I thought instead of putting her in my breeding box thing (small clear box that floats with a divider) I decided just to move her to a small five gallon tank by herself until she gives birth. Ok, so I moved her and she seems very upset about the move I guess. I was hoping to avoid stressing her. But my other tank is to big for her babies. I would be lucky to even find them in there. So since I moved her she is sitting in one corner in the top of the tank. She will not eat. She swam around a little at first but for about the past hour or so she stays in that one spot. I'm really worried about her now and really don't know what would be the best thing to do at this point. She has everything that is needed in the smaller tank...air,light,heat,plants etc. also she was in the small tank before I bought the bigger one so I thought she would be ok in it till after having her babies. At this point any advice would help. I moved the tank so I can see her as much as possible and she is just sitting in that one spot. What should I do........

 

[Ian086]

Most of what you said is the signs I see before my guppies give birth. They do tend to become very lethargic, hanging around the bottom or top, beside the heater. They tend not to eat for a day or two before they drop. I really think you have nothing to worry about. If your not using the trap, make sure you have plenty of bushy real/fake plants for the fry to hide. It is very likely that the mother will eat some/all of the fry. They tend to give birth late in the night, when the tank is dark and quiet. They can hold off the birth or even abort, if they feel stressed. Try and keep stress to a minimum, little to no lights, turn off the airstone..
I have been lucky to see some of my guppies giving birth and have feed her as she is giving birth. I find this reduces the chances of her eating the fry. IMO, they eat the fry because they haven't eaten for a few days before the birth.
Do you have a liquid test kit. Just test it and make sure the water quality is good. This can be a factor of whether she gives birth. Like all fish, they need good quality water, especially when giving birth.
For the fry, I would suggest leaving them in the 5g on their own, remove the mother. You will need to cover up the filter pipe, with a prefilter sponge or a piece of BRAND NEW pantyhose. This stops the little guys getting sucked into the filter.
I hope this helps you out. All you have to do now is wait!!!!.
If you need any more help, just give me a shout.... Ian

 

[freshwaterashley]

Most of what you said is the signs I see before my guppies give birth. They do tend to become very lethargic, hanging around the bottom or top, beside the heater. They tend not to eat for a day or two before they drop. I really think you have nothing to worry about. If your not using the trap, make sure you have plenty of bushy real/fake plants for the fry to hide. It is very likely that the mother will eat some/all of the fry. They tend to give birth late in the night, when the tank is dark and quiet. They can hold off the birth or even abort, if they feel stressed. Try and keep stress to a minimum, little to no lights, turn off the airstone..
I have been lucky to see some of my guppies giving birth and have feed her as she is giving birth. I find this reduces the chances of her eating the fry. IMO, they eat the fry because they haven't eaten for a few days before the birth.
Do you have a liquid test kit. Just test it and make sure the water quality is good. This can be a factor of whether she gives birth. Like all fish, they need good quality water, especially when giving birth.
For the fry, I would suggest leaving them in the 5g on their own, remove the mother. You will need to cover up the filter pipe, with a prefilter sponge or a piece of BRAND NEW pantyhose. This stops the little guys getting sucked into the filter.
I hope this helps you out. All you have to do now is wait!!!!.
If you need any more help, just give me a shout.... Ian

Agreed.

 

[BabyDoll]

As for now I am still waiting. I hope she had them soon I feel bad she is staying in one spot still. I'm keeping it quiet and the room dark so she can relax.

I'm hoping she has them soon. Thanks so much for all the help. I'm just not sure how long I should leave her in there? She ate a small bit. I just hope I everything goes ok.

 

[Ian086]

As for now I am still waiting. I hope she had them soon I feel bad she is staying in one spot still. I'm keeping it quiet and the room dark so she can relax.

I'm hoping she has them soon. Thanks so much for all the help. I'm just not sure how long I should leave her in there? She ate a small bit. I just hope I everything goes ok.

Your obviously a worrier, which is not a bad thing. It shows passion for your fish. Trust me, what you are seeing is perfectly normal. It is better for her to be in a tank on her own while giving birth or close to it. Otherwise the males will constantly harass her, sometimes to the point of death. So you are actually doing her good....

 

[BabyDoll]

Your obviously a worrier, which is not a bad thing. It shows passion for your fish. Trust me, what you are seeing is perfectly normal. It is better for her to be in a tank on her own while giving birth or close to it. Otherwise the males will constantly harass her, sometimes to the point of death. So you are actually doing her good....

Thanks so much and yes it's worrying me crazy lol but I was thinking the same thing. That it would be better for her on her own. Still no babies but she is resting above the gravels. I'm keeping an eye on her so if she has them to move her before she eats them. But thanks all this helped so much. And calmed my worrying. Thanks again.

 

[Ian086]

Thanks so much and yes it's worrying me crazy lol but I was thinking the same thing. That it would be better for her on her own. Still no babies but she is resting above the gravels. I'm keeping an eye on her so if she has them to move her before she eats them. But thanks all this helped so much. And calmed my worrying. Thanks again.

I would leave in her in the 5g tank for a day or two after the birth, to let her recover and feed. I would instead, try and catch the fry and put them in a trap. After the two days, you can move the mother back to the bigger tank and then release the fry into the 5g....

 

[BabyDoll]

Ok that sounds like a good idea, thanks again. I'm still waiting she ate a little but is still just resting. I have another small tank I can put them in how long should they stay alone before going into the big tank?

 

[freshwaterashley]

They should stay separate until they are too big to fit in your larger fishes mouth.. what kind of fish do you have? If its just guppies you should be waitig for at least a month.. also.. the cleaner the fry tank is the faster they will grow... not saying clean it constantly bur make sure there is not alot of debris. I do 20 percent every 2 or 3 days on my 1 g fry tank. Keeps them happy and they seem to grow very fast. Wait until they are at least 1cm and you will be fine

 

[BabyDoll]

Ok that sounds good ill do that twenty percent thing cause I want to put them in the bigger tank as soon as possible. There is just guppies in there right now so they should be ok. Ill wait till they r one centimeter though just to be safe.
Thanks so much everyone for all the help.

 

[Ian086]

They should stay separate until they are too big to fit in your larger fishes mouth.. what kind of fish do you have? If its just guppies you should be waitig for at least a month.. also.. the cleaner the fry tank is the faster they will grow... not saying clean it constantly bur make sure there is not alot of debris. I do 20 percent every 2 or 3 days on my 1 g fry tank. Keeps them happy and they seem to grow very fast. Wait until they are at least 1cm and you will be fine

I agree.
Just a couple of things to think about though. Make sure whatever tank your keeping the fry in, it like every tank, has to be cycled. Also if you are keeping all the fry and putting them in the big tank;
1. You are going to have hundreds of fry in no time.
2. You are going to have a lot of inbreeding.
I trade all my fry, when big enough, with my LFS. I only let my regular breeding pairs breed, 1m/3f. My LFS separates the males and females. If I want to breed the fry, I swap out all the related males. IMO, this is essential, when trading/selling, because I want to keep the fry as pure as possible.
If you are planning on keeping them all for yourself, it's not a big issue. Inbreeding leads to smaller, weaker, sicker and sometimes deformed guppies. Inbreeding, especially in livebearers, is an issue already but I want to try and do my bit. Just something to think about.....

 

[BabyDoll]

Oh, I've not thought of that at all. Ok new plan I'm going going to have to decide what to do. Cause I don't want any of those issues you just described. In my big tank I only have four females and two males. I don't want any of the issues you described and I'm glad you did cause I would worry myself crazy if they started getting sick or deformed or anything like that. I am defiantly not going to add them to the big tank. If anything just keep them till I can work out what to do with the babies. Thanks again. She still has not had any yet. It's driving me crazing waiting. She is doing ok or seems to be.

 

[freshwaterashley]

What i do is keep the fry that i like and swap the mother for either in store credit or a new breeding male. I have had inbred fish but have never had a problem with deformities from it. Nor have they been sickly or weak. Once i had a guppy with only one eye come out but thtlat was bc he was born a little too early bc of the stress of moving her to her own tank. But he is right. Inbreeding is a problem, but most local store baught guppies are already inbred .. maybe not at petsmart or petco. I dont buy there though. I usually buy from an exotic pet store or a family owned because they are alot cheaper and i have a tight budget.

 

[BabyDoll]

Ok I think I'm going to do like u said keep a few I like and see if the pet store here would be willing to help. We have a few locally owned store so I'm hoping to trade or get store credit. I don't want my tank over run with a crazy amount of guppies either. She still has not had her babies. She is not eating at all so I'm thinking it will be anytime. Thanks so much. I'm new to this and I just want them healthy and happy. She is much more relaxed in the smaller tank now too. I was worried but I think she is ok.

 

[Ian086]

What i do is keep the fry that i like and swap the mother for either in store credit or a new breeding male. I have had inbred fish but have never had a problem with deformities from it. Nor have they been sickly or weak. Once i had a guppy with only one eye come out but thtlat was bc he was born a little too early bc of the stress of moving her to her own tank. But he is right. Inbreeding is a problem, but most local store baught guppies are already inbred .. maybe not at petsmart or petco. I dont buy there though. I usually buy from an exotic pet store or a family owned because they are alot cheaper and i have a tight budget.

I agree that most of the guppies we get are inbred but we can do our bit and not let ours deliberately inbred. As was said, a simple way around this is just to keep your breeding stock separate, trade all your fry or swap out your males.
A solution to having too many fry is, just let the females give birth to the fry in your main tank and most/all will be eaten by the adults....