Female guppy, new mother, seems ill.

[Susan Phillips]

Our favorite female guppy gave birth on Dec. 26 to several dozen fry. She is now sluggish, hanging out near the bottom, in a head-up, tail-down position, with her top fin lying flat. The other fish in the tank seem as usual, including three other guppies, water quality is good. We have a 10 gallon tank, several varieties of live plants, only established in early November but after some early die offs and one ich outbreak, recently water has been crystal clear, and the fish very active and healthy-looking with no deaths in over a month. We moved some fry to a nursery tank, I don't believe any fry remain in the main tank though with all the plants it is hard to tell. Any advice? We did a 20 percent water change today. Otherwise have not taken any action. The filter was changed and a 30 percent water change carried out about a week ago.

 

[loganj]

Although I know very little about guppies, having never kept them much, I'm going to hazard a guess that the mother guppy is just showing signs of stress due to giving birth...sort of a piscine post-partum depression? Perhaps some of our other members who have experience with breeding guppies can give a better answer.
Logan J

 

[Grant R]

After my female guppy gave birth to around 9 fry, I removed her back to the 45 gallon tank and the 11.1 gallon then became home to the fry.
Within two days, my female also looked very off-key and died overnight.

I put it down to the 'post-birth' stress, as I had no previous problems with the fish and everything was fine before the birth.