I have had a female guppy now for 3 weeks. She has had a gravid spot the whole time, however, it disappears after the tank has been in the dark for a few hours. The spot then comes back when the lights have been on for a while. There are also 2 male guppies in the tank but pay no attention to her whatsoever. How come she isn't getting pregnant? Plenty of plants in the tank, water changed a week, fed twice a week and all water parameters fine. What's going wrong?
Guppy Not Getting Pregnant?
- Thread starter DanielLB
- Start date
Curiosity101
Is now at University! :D
Should could be infertile, or the males could be infertile. Do you have a picture?
biokid101
Fishaholic
well i wouldnt say impatient.i had a female guppy that i got the 5th of january and she had babies 3 days ago so she shouldnt be infertile.that same females gravid spot did the same thing as urs so she should get pregnant soon.
Thanks for the replies. I will leave it a few more weeks before i consider buying another female guppy. Has anyone got any suggestions to help along the the reproduction process lol? I was watching them today: one of the two males kept getting up close to her to do the job, but just swam off whilst the female chased him round the tank!
Get more females. Male to female ratio for any common livebearer is 1m:2-3f. I myself never keep any less than 1m:3f.
What size tank is it? Because you have 2 males i would recommend about 4-5 females.
Xxx~misscosmo~xxX
What size tank is it? Because you have 2 males i would recommend about 4-5 females.
Xxx~misscosmo~xxX
Its a 28L tank so its quite small in volume - that's the reason why i only bought 1 female guppy as it will soon get overstocked with 4/5 other females (and potentially hundreds of fry), and i have had the males for nearly a year now.
Ah. That changes things......alot. 7.4 gallons is OK for about 4 - 5 guppies i would say. so if you have 2 males i would say 2 more females. If you want more females i would try to find somewhere that can take any fry they have before you get them. I will be selling some of my fry on here to locals, taking some down to my LFS or just selling them to some people who are not on here but are local. I currently have 40-45 fry that are 3 weeks and 3 days old and 15-20 fry that are a couple of days old. These will all be going to different homes except a few of them.
Xxx~misscosmo~xxX
Xxx~misscosmo~xxX
Thought i might update my situation: it has been 5 and half weeks now since buying my female guppy and i would still say there are no signs of pregnancy. She hasn't grown in size but i would objectively say her gravid spot has darkened so she might be in the early stages shown in the pinned topic. Hopefully she might show signs of progress in the next week or so!!
hughessomefish
Fish Addict
i have had this issue my female guppy was infertile, i find that the infertile one's don't live as long as the fertile one's.
Your fish need to be in good condition to breed Daniel. Feeding twice a week will never get them in good enough condition to reproduce. Although we often caution about overfeeding,the rare case of people underfeeding does affect the ability of the fish to reproduce at all. Daily small feedings will go a long way to getting your guppies in good enough condition to breed. A state of near starvation will never get them there.
I completely understand where you are coming from. But my local fish shop I find are experts in the fish business and recommended it to me. When i first brough my tank Pets at Home said twice daily which i found far too excessive for a small 28L tank. I wouldnt say my fish are starving and even when fed twice a week there is still left overs
Your LFS is poor at fish care if they tell you that twice a week feeding is enough for robust good health that leads to good breeding. It is fine for the near starvation conditions required for keeping fish ready to ship easily but that is not the condition you want your fish to be in if you want to see reproduction. Reproduction in fish, much like most animals, is a result of a healthy and productive environment. When the mere presence of an animal, including fish, is at the maximum that can be supported by that environment, the reproduction stops. It is genetically wired into the system of most animals not to reproduce themselves out of existence by eating every scrap that is available and resulting in too little resource to support the surviving animals. You are giving your fish a signal that they have found themselves in such a situation by severely restricting their food source.
hughessomefish
Fish Addict
plus if i might add most pet stores the workers at the stores don't have fish,they just have to learn a "scrip" to be able to sell there products,but stores dedicated just to fish normally have the best knowledge.
Like i said,i appreciate your input but even a quick search on the net suggests feeding from anything from several time daily to once a week. So really there is no set quanitity. Everyone has their own different ways of keeping fish and i find feeding my fish more than twice a week results in problems in the water in addition with white worms (planaria i think). If my fish were being 'starved' are there any signs i should be looking for? (bearing in mind i have had the two males since last august and my female for nearly 6 weeks?) since your so adament i will take into consideration your opinions. thank you 
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