Guppies

[MissD]

Anyone know what's going on?

I have 4 pretty heavily pregnant females. Two gave birth a month ago and two have been in the tank for 3 weeks. They came home pregnant, but not that noticably.

A week ago yesterday I found 1 little baby swimming around in the tank. I didn't see any others and have a 5 gallon going with the original guppy fry I had last month, so I put him/her in there with the other babies. Since then I haven't found any more young, but none of the females appear to have given birth, either. They're all still pretty square and have big, black gravid spots.

I know they can sometimes hold off giving birth due to, well, a variety of reasons, but is it common for it to be a week between births?

It's a 25 gallon tank with 4 female guppies, 2 male guppies, 1 female crowntail betta, 4 algae eaters and 2 dojo loaches in there. The temperature's a steady 76º and everything is reading normally.

Confused...

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

What are your recent water stats like ammonia, nitrates and nitrites? If the female guppy feels tank conditions aern't good enough they can somtimes put off the birth all together for a while which usually ends up in abortian, may i ask what types of algae eater you have? If they are CAE's they may be stressing the pregnant fish out...
Do you have any heavily planted areas in the tank for the females to give birth in in private?

 

[MissD]

Ahh, my helper again! Yay!

I actually don't have the water stats right now, and it's a little late to be walking around the house to check...

The females are all acting normally, which is strange. They all swim around together, and dig about in the gravel and pick at the plants. Nobody appears to be under any noticable stress.

The tank is very heavily planted though - as in, you can't see from one side to the other through the plants, so there are plenty of places to give birth.

As for the algae eaters, I'm not 100% sure what they are now. They were sold to me as flying foxes, but look different to those found in online searches.

I have a picture of the pregnant girls here:

And here's one of the algae eater(s):

Yes, one has a white head. He's special

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

They can give birth to just a couple of fry at weekly intervals but its unusual if they are doing it all the time- they are most likely giving birth to more fry but many are just been eaten. As long as they seem healthy and aern't in any obvious distress then there's probably nothing to worry about, your algae eaters also do look like flying fox's but they can grow to 5inchs each so just make sure you have the space for them when they get larger; suplimenting their diet with algae wafers is essential to keep them healthy as more than often they'll eat all the algae in a tank and then have nothing to eat.
Nice pic too

 

[MissD]

Maybe that's all it is then, especially if it's one mother. I know two of the 4 only gave birth 4 weeks ago, so when I first noticed the baby, they weren't really ready for it to have come from them. The other two I haven't had a batch of fry from, so ya never know.

My flying foxes, or whatever it is they are, are great helpers. I've got 4 digging around in my 25 gallon at the moment because they're so small, but my dad and I have been eyeing up a 120 gallon from a local fish supplier, so... They're not overkeen on any algae wafers they've had bought for them before, so they're currently on Aquarian Bottom Feeder Sinking Shrimp Pellets. Them and my dojos fight to get to them first.