Guppy Females - how to tell

[Guppy Gal]

I've been doing a lot of reading and research and it still confuses me.

I have guppies that I'm determining if they are pregnant and how far along they are.

I have two fairly plump female guppies. How do you tell if they are just chubby or pregnant?

I do know about the ever so talked about 'gravid spot'. The one fish has a dark spot which hasn't disappeared, nor has had any babies. She is pretty round and I know she's pregnant. I just don't know how to tell when she'll drop her fry. With the other fish in the tank, I don't want the other fish to eat the fry. I have plants, but I'd feel bad if they got eaten.

When is good to put her in the breeding box? The last fish I had, I put into the breeder box because of a gut instinct. Sure enough, the next morning she had 9 fry.

I'd feel bad putting her in it too early, but on the other hand, I don't want the babies munched by the other fish.

Suggestions welcomed!

Susan

 

[William]

I have two fairly plump female guppies. How do you tell if they are just chubby or pregnant?

Well you know about the gravid spot which shows there are fry (their eyes) .

Secondly, with my guppies I found that the only way to know when they were about to give babies is when they seem "about" to explode!! Its usually the last couple of days when like you had, a gut instinct they are about to have them. The fact your guppy still has the gravid spot shows she hasn't spawned, so you didn't miss anything . Usually a guppy will give birth to 0-30 fry getting more as they get older 8) . I found with my guppies that the next morning the tanks littered with them a few may have got eaten in the interlude, but the majority should be there after 12 hours especially if it has plants as you say. I also use marbles in my tank, on the bottom corner, any ones will do boil them a little first to kill anything which may be on them, then watching out they don't hit fish on the way down put them in a corner, the spaces between them which may seem small are enough for the fry to live in for a while. Plants, I just have the two back "corners" of the tank with plants. Its a bit of a mess there really should do some trimming . I now have so many fry (especially platies) that I no longer even put the fry into the breeding net. I know it sounds harsh and I know some will get eaten but the cleverest will survive.

At the start I like you wanted to keep all/every baby, it stays like that for a few months and then it's not more babies

Guppies are not called "million fish" for nothing B)

Good luck!

 

[Guppy Gal]

Ok, that's awesome advice.

What I did is moved all the guppies to my new 20 gallon tank. I wanted a entire guppy tank, and my hubby has his 20 gallon tank with the Platys, Tetra (red eye and harlequin) and addition of a dwarf frog and the Golden Mystery Snail.

We've prepared the new guppy tank and it's doing well. So the guppies were added yesterday evening after a water change.

I bought 4 bunches of hornwart and let it float at the top. There is tons of spots for the fry now. I am not adding gravel to the guppy tank just yet. I want to keep the bottom clear until I get it going. There are only 11 guppies and I hope to get more females in a couple weeks. Currently there are 7 females (had 8 but one died before moving her to the tank) and 4 males.

I keep a close eye on them. Yesterday night, I noticed one of my newer blue females has a big belly. I didn't notice it before.

Do females gradually get big or does it happen fast? Being new to this, I anxiously await new fry. My original female which had 9 fry, we ended up with 7 that lived. The others died.

I will try not to put the female in the breeder box until I know she's dropping the fry. I'm sure down the road I will not use them and let nature take its course. But for now, I want each and every baby... they are too cute. My fish supplier will buy the babies from us so it's also a profitable idea to keep as many as I can.

With the 7 fry we have, when can I add them to the guppy tank? They are 2 wks and 3 days old and getting bigger every day.

Thanks! B)

 

[William]

The only thing to watch out with guppies is... with all the interbreeding to get the colours we now have they are actually quite weak fish. I found that I got 6 seemingly healthy fish and they just dropped off one by one for no reason over 2 weeks. The water paremeters were perfect and all the other fish were fine. Fortunately the legacy lived on in some fry and those fry have now had more fry and all are happy and I haven't had another mystery outbreak.

Ok the mystery (applesnail) you have will be good, cause it will eat any dead babies preventing them rotting but fortuantely isn't able to catch the living ones Snails are my other love make sure you give him some lettuce/ blanched zucchini (courgette) . The guppies will also enjoy this, it may cloud up your water a bit though so don't leave it in too long.

The fish seem to get bigger slowly then the final days its like woaaha the fish is huge!!

As for making a profit selling the fish its very unlikely I'm afraid, you'd be lucky to break even, the guppies have to be around 1" before they'll buy them off you and unless you have a special baby tank for them then they'll grow slower in a community tank maybe growing selable size in a month or two, by that time taking into account food and electricity... well its something

 

[William]

As for adding the fry to the main tank its when they are bigger than the mouth of the biggest fish, since they're your first lot I'd perhaps leave them in a touch longer, how big are they? You wouldn't want to risk them getting eaten But if they are bigger... then you can release them.

 

[Guppy Gal]

Well the first batch of Fry are getting pretty big.
The second batch is only a few days old, so you can really see a difference.
The first batch might be 1/2 inch from tail to mouth.
With the other guppies that have died, I might have to keep them so my tank doesn't get too empty, or maybe trade them for other guppies at the fish store so that I can make sure they don't breed with brothers/sisters.

I'm watching the females we have now and hoping they start to show signs of getting ready to drop! B)