Guppies Dying Before Delivering

[mughal113]

Today my second fancy guppy died before delivering. She was of course gravid and i think was to deliver the same night i found her lying dead behind a piece of drift wood
The first one died in the same fashion. She gave birth to six fry after i moved her to a breader net, ate one of them and then died. I thought she might have died of stress so I did not separate the other one. But same result. I have a 15 g tank with live plants (Java moss and a couple others), UGF, no heater (in my country, temprature is is mid thirties this time of year). Change 30% water every 3rd day and water quality is good enough. Please help me out!

the stock:
A pair of black sailfin mollies
two silver lyretail females, and one silver male sailfin
one pair of micky mouse platty
one small pleco. 3'
only one female guppy left (which i dont wanna lose) with two males

 

[WILDER]

How old are they, giving birth all the time takes it's toll on them, that why it's important to seperate them and give them a break, they can store sperm for several months, and they need to be on a very good diet.
The can die before birth, during birth, and also after birth it quite common, sorry, R.I.P.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The male guppys cannot be doing her any good, too many males for a single female, male guppys can harrass females an aweful lot before they give birth and the stress they cause can somtimes kill pregnant guppys- for platys, molys, endlers and guppys you need at least 2-3females per male to help prevent the males over-stressing individual females.
The males harrass the pregnant females partly to be the first male to mate with her after she's delivered and partly to eat her fry, which may be of a rival male (this also helps weed out any fry that weak from the start and help give the strong ones a better chance of survival).

When you buy female guppys, they are almost always pregnant (its very rare to find virgin female guppys), if you really want fry but want to help cut down on birthing complications with females i would set the males their own tank or rehome them, or just keep one male in the tank- boost female guppy numbers as well (don't overstock the tank though). Stock up on planting and make sure there are plenty of densely planted areas in the tank, as females will often go hide in planted areas when heavily pregnant so they can give birth in peace.

Make sure the females are getting a varied diet- in particular, make sure they are getting enough veg; algae wafers, cucumber, cooked peas and spinache etc will all be accepted by livebearers . Bloodworms, krill, tubifex and daphinia etc are all high protein foods and will help give pregnant livebearers energy before they give birth, frozen/fresh is more nutritious than dried.

 

[diburning]

you can try to perforn a c section with a toothpick... sometimes the fry will still be alive.

 

[WILDER]

thats a good idea if you have the stomach for it.