bun in the oven

[silvershark]

i got some guppys today to try my hand at breeding, specifying that i wanted the females that were NOT pregnant, however i think one is cos when i was acclimatising them, i noticed a rather plump one with the fabled black mark that was being ignored by the males, i got one of those breeding traps that i've had for some time, now is it wise to move her into that before she drops??

also when can you tell they are about to give birth?

 

[guppy_man]

you cant tell the exact day when shes going to drop nut you will no when it is close because she will have a really dark gravid spot and her belly will go almost in a boxed shape not round, like squared.
you better be prepared because ive had loadz of guppies and still got some now i had a female in a breeding trap for 3 days and she dropped 38 fry in 5 hours.
have you got her in a livebearer drop box its like a rectangular box with 2 compartments so when the fry drop they fall safely in to another compartment where the mum wont be able to eat them.

good luck and expect over 20 fry

 

[silvershark]

you cant tell the exact day when shes going to drop nut you will no when it is close because she will have a really dark gravid spot and her belly will go almost in a boxed shape not round, like squared.
you better be prepared because ive had loadz of guppies and still got some now i had a female in a breeding trap for 3 days and she dropped 38 fry in 5 hours.
have you got her in a livebearer drop box its like a rectangular box with 2 compartments so when the fry drop they fall safely in to another compartment where the mum wont be able to eat them.

good luck and expect over 20 fry

yeah man thats the breeding trap!!
so if i put her in there at the last minute she'll be fine yeah?

also will my other fish eat the fry if i just left her in the community?

and onother one! what can i feed these little buggers cos i was gonna get some fry food next week but as i sed, didnt realise she was knocked up..

 

[guppy_man]

if she gives birth in the community tank the mum will eat em and the other fish will
she should be fine in the trap i was giving my female 2 flakes a day to kepp her healthy.
feed them brine shrimp for about 2 weeks and then you can give them grounded down flakes they will take about 3 months to grow big enough to go in the tank about the same size as a neon tetra.

 

[Annastasia]

Breeding boxes can be hard though, because if you put her in too soon, she can get stressed and abort the pregnancy...

She may eat some of her fry if you left them in the community tank, but chances are some could hide...especially if you have lots of hiding places, and/or plants.

Good luck with your fry!

 

[3fsh]

If you feed your fish often enough, I doubt that they would eat all of the fry she gives birth to. My fish used to eat their fry until I started feeding them 3x a day instead of 2x. Now there are 20+ guppy fry in the tank! I feed my babies Liquifry for the first few days, Hikari First Bites when they are about a week old, and then they get finely crushed flakes and crushed, freeze-dried bloodworms after they are a few weeks old.

 

[silvershark]

i got an empty tank my oldest boy used for his triops, its only a couple of litres though, would that be any good as a temporary home?? what sort of filter should be used as i only got a spare internal one not a sponge filter?

 

[Kiarra]

Honestly, if you get a Guppy at a pet store, she WILL be pregnant. It's pretty well unavoidable. The only sure way to get a female Guppy that isn't pregnant is to get a specially kept virgin female from a breeder.

 

[silvershark]

ok so i've not seen any of them "drop" any fry yet but this morning when i looked the black spots werent there!! this evening they had re-appeared tho is this normal?!

one is pretty plump without black mark, one is plump with black mark and one is pretty skinny with black mark!! what does this mean?