When will this guppy give birth?

[chris87]

I've had this guppy in the breeding trap for 4 days now, I have had guppies sucessfully give birth in here before and it's all gone well. It's been a few months since I've breed guppies but I'm prettey sure shes very near giving birth and has been in this way for several days now. Is she squared off? Why hasn't seen given birth? Anyone know when she will? Thanks for any help and advise

[Bubbles0oO]

Females often are squared out for a time before birth, I'd say let her out but she's gonna decide to have them sun she is let out lol so add some hiding spots in the large tank and let her out . The time in the breeders box often kills females and the fry. If this is your first livebearing pregnancy see the thread in my signaure it has tons of info and pics on livebearers

[chris87]

she gave birth today! sadly all my female guppies now have camalanus worms but for the first time this week i've woken up with more fish rather than lost them. 5 little babies so far, hoping for her to deliverer some more through the day! thanks for people's help.

[RaygunK]

Yay! Congrats! I'm relating with your top post. My guppy's been in a breeding box for 2 days. I'm so close to just letting her out, but the only reason i'm not is so i don't lose all the fry. I've set up a 10g just for the fry, so i'm really excited to stick all of them in there!

I hope she drops soon. Maybe i'll upload a new pic of her today.

[Mundle]

Can you show me a pic of calamanus worms

[BBradbury]

Originally Posted by chris87

I've had this guppy in the breeding trap for 4 days now, I have had guppies sucessfully give birth in here before and it's all gone well. It's been a few months since I've breed guppies but I'm prettey sure shes very near giving birth and has been in this way for several days now. Is she squared off? Why hasn't seen given birth? Anyone know when she will? Thanks for any help and advise

Hello C...

Fancy Guppies are extremely social fish and do best in large groups and in a "Species" tank. A pregnant female shouldn't be kept in a separate breeding area more than 48 hours, it can be very stressful.

I've kept Fancy Guppies for several years and keep all my fish in the same tank. The benefit is the fish are together all the time and the females aren't stressed because with so many, the males can't focus on one female.

I would suggest letting the female out and get her back with the rest of the fish. Keep the water pure by changing out half of it every week and start feeding all the fish a variety of food two to three times daily, just what they'll eat in a couple of minutes. I've found that well fed adult Guppies show little or no interest in the fry.

Float some plants for female and fry hiding places. Water sprite, Water wisteria and Pennywort are good ones.

Just a few thoughts to consider or not.

B

[butterfly_koi]

I didn't put my female in the box until she was activity popping them out then put her back in the tank when she was done, she had 35 fry they are all in my nursery tank and all still doing good!

[RaygunK]

ok, so maybe i'll put her back in the tank. but how am i supposed to get to her right before she gives birth?

[RaygunK]

Here's my guppy that's in the trap now. What do you think, very close, not really?

Attachment 88090

[chris87]

Yeah they're all in their own little tank now to try and cure them of their cammalanus worms, and she had 7 of them in there and they've all survived despite there being several females all in the quite small isolation tank, so they had plenty of chance to eat them and they didn't. However I do think they might not be eating them as they're so poorly, most of them are lying oin their sides, I've already lost about 10 female guppies :/. So if anyone is an expert on these worms please contact me asap, but i'm pretty sure it's already to late. And i'll add some pictures but my camera isn't great so they'll be hard to make out.

[chris87]

I tried to take pictures of the worms but all the badly infected ones have died, the ones with only one or two worms just aren't big enough to show up on my camera. On the plus side some guppies now appear to have none.... so maybe the treatment has work and the worms are dying... looks like i might have turned the corner! As i had my camera out I thought i'd take some pictures of my fry instead. And your guppy looks likes mine did last night (minus the red worms!) so I'd say within the next 48 hours so should drop. Good luck

[chris87]

managed to get a picture of one of my sick females, she probably only has a few hours left

[butterfly_koi]

Originally Posted by RaygunK

ok, so maybe i'll put her back in the tank. but how am i supposed to get to her right before she gives birth?

Let her pop a few out first, then you will know for sure that she's dropping. then put her in the box if she seems stressed at all take her out and just let her have them in the tank

[butterfly_koi]

Originally Posted by chris87

managed to get a picture of one of my sick females, she probably only has a few hours left

This is some info I've found on the worms,

"Parasite Lifecycle The life cycle of the camallanus is a complicated thing. The camallanus can have a direct or indirect parasitic cycle. Meaning the infection can spread from fish to fish or from fish to an intermediate host to another fish. This implicates that letting a tank lay fallow of fish will not stop this pest. The camallanus has a five stage lifecycle. From what I can understand the life cycle is defined by the number of molts this particular type of worm goes through. The first stage consists of a new-born, free swimming larva. An intermediate host such as a copepod or the direct host (in an aquarist’s case this is the fish) then ingests this larva. For the indirect cycle, the fish consumes the infected copepod and contracts the parasite. In the direct host the camallanus molts twice over the next ten days, then twice again before reaching full maturity at 30-40 days. The female camallanus hangs from the anus of the infected fish, sheds larval young , and thoroughly infects the entire tank Camallanus worms can be avoided in your aquarium by quarantining new fish for several weeks prior to adding them to your tank, and watching carefully for worms, or even medicating the fish with a de-wormer. There is only one problem with this solution, is that camallanus worms can take up 6-12 weeks to develop to a large enough size or become frequent enough for the average aquariast to notice. Most fish infected slip through quarantine in 2-3 weeks time with no symptoms. Often with the nematode Camallanus, your first view of the parasite may be one or several reddish worms protruding from the fishes' anus.Don't try to net the fish and pull off the worms with a tweezer; they are deeply embedded and you'll just tear the intestine wall. Parasitic nematodes weaken the host; what kills it usually are secondary infections. The worms are actually transparent; the red tint is from the victim's blood. The ones you see are all females, which can get to a centimeter in length; the little males are a third their length. At this point the host's intestine is packed with parasites, and the creatures are shedding their microscopic larval young into the water"

[RaygunK]

Originally Posted by butterfly_koi

Let her pop a few out first, then you will know for sure that she's dropping. then put her in the box if she seems stressed at all take her out and just let her have them in the tank

Thanks. I took her out. I guess i'll just keep randomly watching her to see if she's having them. Where do they normally give birth, top, bottom, corners?

[Mumma.of.two]

The very best thing to treat camallanus worms IMO is Levamisole. Apparently it's tricky to find in the US (I'm assuming your there). I would start a thread asking where to find it. I'm in Australia and have access to it in a bird worming medication called avitrol.

[chris87]

At this point the host's intestine is packed with parasites, and the creatures are shedding their microscopic larval young into the water"

Ok, so in my main tank where I saw all the females with the worms sprouting out of them, they will have been having babies in my main tank where my curently uninfected (visibly atleast) fish are currently and so they'll all soon become infected?
What I don't get is why have all my female guppies all become infected at the same time whilst no other fish have any signs atall? In my main tank I have: male guppies, clown loach, some random black loach, a shripm, a plaque eating creature, zebra barbs and tetras.

[chris87]

Where do they normally give birth, top, bottom, corners?

they normally give birth near the heater. Or in densely planted areas of the tank or away from other fish, especially male guppies. Some people say they go to corners though I've never noticed this specifically, but I don't have that much experience! But that's what I've heard and experienced a few times.

And no Mumma.of.two I like in the UK, I'll have a look for that, but I'm going to a fish shop that I know are better than most other shops tomorrow and hope they have something powerful. I've heard of buying these wormers that are for sheep rather than actually for fish but I'm a big wary of these. However thanks depending on how successful I am tomorrow I might end up seeing if any avitrol exists over for in England.

[Mumma.of.two]

Originally Posted by chris87

they normally give birth near the heater. Or in densely planted areas of the tank or away from other fish, especially male guppies. Some people say they go to corners though I've never noticed this specifically, but I don't have that much experience! But that's what I've heard and experienced a few times.

And no Mumma.of.two I like in the UK, I'll have a look for that, but I'm going to a fish shop that I know are better than most other shops tomorrow and hope they have something powerful. I've heard of buying these wormers that are for sheep rather than actually for fish but I'm a big wary of these. However thanks depending on how successful I am tomorrow I might end up seeing if any avitrol exists over for in England.

The sheep meds will be the same thing. It's actually a livestock wormer. Lol. The avitrol comes in liquid and pill form. You want the pill. The liquid has glucose and will cause massive bacteria blooms.
http://www.aquariumlife.com.au/showt...-found-in-fish
A bit of a read but heaps of good info.

[ocminpin]

Originally Posted by Mumma.of.two

The very best thing to treat camallanus worms IMO is Levamisole. Apparently it's tricky to find in the US (I'm assuming your there). I would start a thread asking where to find it. I'm in Australia and have access to it in a bird worming medication called avitrol.

Petsmart has it! In the medication part of Fish section by the Tetracycline and Macryn