Guppy Not Getting Pregnant?

[OldMan47]

Mine will constantly beg for food too. I just refuse to give it to them. When they have been fed enough I stop. It turns out that they are not overly predatory of fry when they are well fed even though they are still begging constantly. I am not an ecologist so it is nice to have a name for what I have observed repeatedly over the last 50 years.

 

[DanielLB]

So it's been nearly a month since i last posted. Any changes or additions to the tank you might ask ....




Well the answer is no lol. After upping how much i fed them (now once every day) i decided to just wait and see what happened. None of the guppies seemed to be happier with more food nor the female get any 'larger'. However, since last week i have noticed the males interacting with the female a lot more. The males also chase each other around the tank, sort of 'squaring' up to each other, and now chase the female (but not extensive so nothing to worry about). I also woke up one morning to find that the female seemed to be a lot larger than she had the previous day. Her gravid spot is slightly larger aswell and when you look into it, there is a pale-see-through type area inside (only small). Now i don't want to tempt fate - but has the time finally come? is she pregnant lol?!!!

 

[OldMan47]

It sounds like the fish are starting to come into breeding condition. It is a term I seldom use with livebearers because they often have enough food surplus to be in breeding condition in a typical community tank situation. I suspect it is why people think they are "just add water" fish.

 

[DanielLB]

Still nothing ... lost count of how long I have had her so I'm going to assume she (or the males) are infertile?

 

[OldMan47]

I am going to ask you to try something Daniel. Do nothing that you are not already doing except one thing. Place a nice big clump of java moss in the guppy tank and quit worrying about fry for a month or so. This is an example of a nice big clump of java moss in my own 10 gallon guppy tank.

And another shot of a big clump of java moss in a 10 gallon. This time it is a clump in my Heterandria formosa tank.

Don't worry about having enough lighting for java moss, I think I could grow it inside the cabinet under my tank.

 

[DanielLB]

Out of complete surprise ... i found 4 fry today in my tank!!! The female was never big or looked pregnant (apart from a very dark gravid spot) so i must have been impatient! Just glad i know i'm doing things right and there not stressed or anything! not sure if there are more fry as it's a heavily planted tank!

 

[the biffster]

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

well if you dont listen to oldman47 i would say you will find it hard
to breed your guppies as for me with feeding i feed once a day
just enough so that when the fish are finished feeding thee is non
left or very little left also with white worms[planarian worms] is a sign
of over feeding and i dont class them as a threat to fish in any way
infact i have seen fish feeding on them but like i say they are brought
on buy over feeding under feeding brings on all types of problems
fish out of condition wont breed and if they do the fry will be deformed
not somthing that you can sell on to the lfs if you have to

 

[DanielLB]

Thank you biffster, i did take on board OldMan advice.

Just a question to anyone out there - if i were to presume this was the first pregnancy my guppy had is it not surprising she only gave birth to a few and didn't look "pregnant" or is it just down to luck and chance?

 

[the biffster]

Thank you biffster, i did take on board OldMan advice.

Just a question to anyone out there - if i were to presume this was the first pregnancy my guppy had is it not surprising she only gave birth to a few and didn't look "pregnant" or is it just down to luck and chance?

sorry if that sounded out of order i used to breed
guppy's on piece i had that many i was giving them
a way just to get rid of them . i have had guppy's
only have one and some over twenty five+ i think
its just all down to the quality of the stock you
start with and what condition you can bring it to

sorry the biffster

good luck with the breeding

 

[OldMan47]

A very young fish will often only give birth to a small number of fry. There will only be maybe 10 or 15 the first time around. Each fry drop after that will be larger. A survival of only 4 fry is small by any standards for guppies. My own colony of guppies, see the above picture, gives me about 5 to 10 fry with each drop. That is a tank so heavy in predator adults that I remove all adults for sale every few months. As soon as there are no adults present for predation, I get well over 10 fry survivors even from my youngest females.
Good cover and decent feeding are my own ideas as a good way to get a high fry survival. I am no scientist so there may well be an even better way to get high fry survival rates.

 

[DanielLB]

Thanks for that info OldMan. I ended up finding more than 4 fry but it's heavily planted so still not sure of exact numbers. thank you for all your help though