Female Guppies Dying After Birth

[leeandstacie]

I set-up an aquarium and put in one algae eater, 4 female guppies and 1 male guppy. The four female guppies died within a week but the male and the plec are fine and I now have around 20-30 baby guppies. Is it normal for the mothers to die?

Please help
Cheers, Lee

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Lee and Stacie.
It is not unusual for a newly acquired guppy to die. Unfortunately, many of the readily available guppies are not very hardy nor in very good health. When I lose a new guppy female, I am never surprised. On the other hand, the fry that you have now may well outlive both their parents by a fair amount. There is usually nothing inherently wrong with a pet store guppy except that it has not been well cared for. I have taken to buying a single specimen of a livebearer that I want and using the fry as my stock. Unfortunately the adults seldom last very long.

 

[TheguppyKing]

oh bad news , i had the same thing a baby gets stuck in his/her mums ####

 

[leeandstacie]

Welcome to the forum Lee and Stacie.
It is not unusual for a newly acquired guppy to die. Unfortunately, many of the readily available guppies are not very hardy nor in very good health. When I lose a new guppy female, I am never surprised. On the other hand, the fry that you have now may well outlive both their parents by a fair amount. There is usually nothing inherently wrong with a pet store guppy except that it has not been well cared for. I have taken to buying a single specimen of a livebearer that I want and using the fry as my stock. Unfortunately the adults seldom last very long.

Ta muchly
The fry are now between 2 and 3 weeks old I think I will have to take the male father out as I have read he may try to breed with the female fry before their bodies are ready.
There is so much difference between what people say about things on here you get confused as to what to read. For example what to do when you are breeding guppies, do you take the female out in a breeding tank or put the fry in a breeding trap blah blah blah, I think practice will make perfect but the most suitable idea seems to be to take out any adult males from the main tank

thanks again, Lee

 

[OldMan47]

If I am interested in high survival rates with fry, I always move the heavy female into a tank by herself that is thick with cover like a large clump of java moss. The java moss provides a good hiding place for the fry and the female won't be followed around by hungry mouths while delivering the fry. After the fry are born, you would either remove the mother or leave her alone depending on her temperament and her tendency to chase fry. I have seen aggressive fry eaters and very peaceful mothers in exactly the same species of fish. It is very much an individual personality thing in livebearers.
If you are concerned about early breeding, you will need to separate more than the large male. All of the young males will also be eager to breed. You really need a separate tank to hold all of the virgin females if you want them to grow big first.

 

[leeandstacie]

If I am interested in high survival rates with fry, I always move the heavy female into a tank by herself that is thick with cover like a large clump of java moss. The java moss provides a good hiding place for the fry and the female won't be followed around by hungry mouths while delivering the fry. After the fry are born, you would either remove the mother or leave her alone depending on her temperament and her tendency to chase fry. I have seen aggressive fry eaters and very peaceful mothers in exactly the same species of fish. It is very much an individual personality thing in livebearers.
If you are concerned about early breeding, you will need to separate more than the large male. All of the young males will also be eager to breed. You really need a separate tank to hold all of the virgin females if you want them to grow big first.

Is there an easy way to sex the fry while they are young as they all look the same to me.
There is an obvious difference in the adults but these fry are 2-3 weeks

Cheers, Lee

 

[OldMan47]

You can only actually tell as each of the males starts to show the gender by developing a gonopodium. The best bet is to remove all of the fry and then check them each day to spot the males as they start to develop. I have personally not found it worthwhile except when trying to do line breeding where I needed a virgin female from a particular drop to further develop that line. Even then it was more work than I liked but it did work out. There were always a few males that just didn't show what they were until it was almost too late to prevent them breeding.

 

[leeandstacie]

I have seperated my fish now and in the tank are now the fry and a gold algae loach. I was only concerned about early breeding because I thought it was detrimental to the females health. Is early breeding dangerous?
Forgive me for not looking all the info up, its so different everywhere you read.

Cheers

 

[OldMan47]

I usually do not worry about having breeding keep my females a bit smaller. I am not in a competition to see how big I can get them and it does not affect their genetics at all. Typically a female may end up a bit smaller if she starts breeding early but it doesn't seem to hurt their health much.

 

[leeandstacie]

Thanks for all the info
I think I will let nature take its course in that case

Cheers again, Lee