Pregnant Guppy Died Whilst Giving Birth !

[Cazangel]

Hi,

A friend of mine who also has tropical fish gave us four guppies a while ago two male and two female, one of the females got pregnant and grew very large and was showing all the signs of going into delivery ( such as hiding near the heater ) however by that evening she was bouncing her belly across the bottom of the tank and two hours later I found her dead and on close examination she had two small punture wounds in each side of her tummy and she was a lot thinner which led me to believe that the babies have swam out but this was very shocking as this process has killed her and I think the babies have been eaten by now. Can anyone tell me what happens when a Guppy gives birth and any reasons why this may have happen to her. Water stats are fine and I have cleaned the tank out since but just want to keep an eye on my other female guppy.

Thank you

 

[kewskills]

I have had mollys die when giving birth, i still dont know why.

I have also had a pufferget egg bound and she died, for some reason.

I know this was no use but just wanted to share.

 

[Cazangel]

Thanks can anyone else
help

 

[Cooper2085]

Well il go out on a limb here and answer.

Alot of guppys are able to breed at a very young age. My female guppy fry are 6 weeks old an are almost there now. If you happened to get a female guppy that was say... 3 months old which became pregnant and gave birth i would say it was the stress that killed it. I have had 1 female guppy die during giving birth, sometimes the stress of it is just to much.

 

[Cazangel]

Well il go out on a limb here and answer.

Alot of guppys are able to breed at a very young age. My female guppy fry are 6 weeks old an are almost there now. If you happened to get a female guppy that was say... 3 months old which became pregnant and gave birth i would say it was the stress that killed it. I have had 1 female guppy die during giving birth, sometimes the stress of it is just to much.

Thanks for that they are very young and she was huge when pregnant it looked like something from Alien as if the fry got so big inside that they burst out of her she had small punctures to both sides of her gravid spot ?

Thanks for your input anyway it's appreciated

 

[dunchp]

It is possible that she wasn't pregnant and that the fattening was caused by a tumour, or a blockage in the fishes digestive system.

I have had this happen from time to time with all sorts of livebearers and this is one of the reason why it is so important to feed a balanced diet and to keep the water clean etc.

 

[Cazangel]

It is possible that she wasn't pregnant and that the fattening was caused by a tumour, or a blockage in the fishes digestive system.

I have had this happen from time to time with all sorts of livebearers and this is one of the reason why it is so important to feed a balanced diet and to keep the water clean etc.

I feed my fish a variety of foods including blood worms , flakes and wafers and the guppies only eat the flakes as he other fish are too quick! The water stats are great. I think she was pregnant as I saw some fry inside her where her tummy had split.

 

[dunchp]

Well there are quite a few possibilities. If you are sure that she was gravid (pregnant) and that it was the giving birth which caused her to die then it could be diet related, a separate secondary illness alongside the pregnancy or could be death to do with the actual parturition. If the developing young were fully formed inside the mother then parturition would be a good bet but don't just assume this was the case, it could have been anything and the pregnancy could just have been a bit of a red herring (pardon the pun).

The other possibility is that the female died and the other fish in the tank caused the damage which you have outlined by eating her carcass.

Can I suggest however that you try to introduce some blanched spinach as part of your fishes diet as this is always a good idea.