Guppy Pregnant Question?

[tailormadefish]

Hi Guys

I've had my female guppy in a fish breeding container for a few days now. Am just wondering how long before she drops her fry?

I have been feeding her everyday as usual. Is that alright?

I've attached some pictures for reference..

 

[KittyKat]

She looks a few weeks away.

The average breeding container is a very stressful place for a fish to be, I recommend that you let her out and either leave her to birth in the usual tank (add moss and other plants to save fry) or invest in a dedicated tank for birthing. At the very least, add some plants to the breeding container to make her feel more secure. A stressed female can easily mis-carry or "reabsorb" the eggs.

 

[tailormadefish]

Thanks for you reply,

I had a feeling it might be a bit stress full for her. I've got some Java Moss and other plants in the tank.

When do you think its right to put back into the breeding container then? when will i know?

 

[the_lock_man]

When do you think its right to put back into the breeding container then? when will i know?

In order to answer this, I agree with what KittyKat said,

The average breeding container is a very stressful place for a fish to be, I recommend that you let her out and either leave her to birth in the usual tank (add moss and other plants to save fry) or invest in a dedicated tank for birthing. At the very least, add some plants to the breeding container to make her feel more secure. A stressed female can easily mis-carry or "reabsorb" the eggs.

What KK is saying there is don't put her in the breeding container at all. If you leave her in the main tank, you can net the fry and pop them in the container to protect them from being eaten.

 

[Dieses Madchen]

Do not use the breeder box, as states above. +1 on adding lots of plants and java moss for fry cover. Net the babies and put them in the net. They will be okay for a couple of weeks, and then they will be too big to be eaten If you see her being reclusive and hiding, after she has squared off, then you go ahead and put yourself on fry watch and try to net the babies when you see them

 

[TropicalLad21]

I agree leave her in main tank and just net the fry into a breeder box.... my guppy give birth in main tank and i just netted fry into the breeder box.

Then once your fry is big enough so the other can't eat them pop them in the main tank.

Good Luck.

 

[tailormadefish]

Thanks Guys,

I've released her back into the tank and I've put plenty of plants around the tank. Hopefully that should help the fry..

 

[the_lock_man]

 

[OldMan47]

I am finding that we are becoming far to prescriptive about livebearer breeding setups in this forum. Let me set something straight right now.

Breeding traps, the plastic box type, have been used for decades with no ill effects for tiny fish like guppies. Larger fish, like mollies and swordtails, need a much larger breeder than most people own, so it can become a stressful situation to use a breeder box for them for that reason.

The simple statement that a breeder is automatically stressful for a fish is ludicrous. Commercial swordtail breeders place the mixed adult fish population (1 male to each 5 females) into a large cage, maybe 2 feet on a side, which amounts to a large breeder box, and they place that cage into a several thousand gallon pond. The end result is about 30 fry per female per month that can be scooped out of the larger pond. I am sure that none of us think of a space 2 feet on a side as stressful, that would be equivalent to a 120 US gallons enclosure, but it is really just a breeder box proportioned to the number and size of the adult fish inside it.

My own preference is good cover from plants like java moss and allowing a colony to breed freely. It works for me because there is no way I could monitor all of the females in 26 separate single species tanks and spend all of my days isolating them for a drop. People with only 1 or 2 tanks can easily keep track of their females and give them more individual attention than I can. For those people, a single species colony breeding setup will not work and a trap or net may be their best option.

I hate to inhibit the free flow of information but will start trimming threads if this disrespect for other people's breeding methods continues.

 

[KittyKat]

My own experience (from before I knew any better) is that commonly sized "breeder boxes", "breeder nets", etc., do have a detrimental effect on the fish (most of my livebearer experience is with guppies), especially if used bare and in a tank containing other fish. Specifically, what I observed was that in these boxes fewer fry were born, the number of miscarried fry (or dropped eggs) was higher, the birthing date was noticeably often later than expected and a higher proportion of females died during birthing. There were significant differences even between a "breeder box" in a reasonably planted tank and a bare 5 gallon tank. This is based on my observations from a few 1000 birthings and I have always tried to keep written records of all of my breeding attempts.

On the other hand, I do expect that a 2 ft net is considerably less likely to cause a problem for the fish compared to a (for example, measuring the only one I can find left over from those days) a 5*3*3 inch one.

As for commercial breeding, I don't think it is particularly relevant to what *we* do at home. After all, many commercially bred pedigree cats and dogs are kept in small cages, and I don't see how that could ever be of any good for the animal even if they regularly give birth and I feel the same about fish. Most of us are not in this for the money, why should we not try to be better?

I hate to inhibit the free flow of information but will start trimming threads if this disrespect for other people's breeding methods continues.

What do you consider disrespect? Advice and recommendations based on our experience and/or observation? Opinions do differ: if no one is able to disagree, then there is no point for a forum! Might as well just write up an FAQ based on an individual's opinions. And what about my breeding methods? If you tell me that what I have found to be true is not, you're disrespecting them yourself

 

[OldMan47]

We each have our own methods KittyKat but telling someone that what they are doing is wrong because it does not match your own preferences is showing them disrespect. We are all free to relate our own experiences and I would encourage it. This section of the forum had become almost as pedantic on breeding methods as certain other parts sometimes are about minimum container sizes for a single small fish.

The tone of the posts in the common livebearer section was becoming almost unfriendly to anyone who dared to disagree. I simply chose this particular thread to point it out because we had several people in a row confirming each other that breeders were wrong.

 

[KittyKat]

I simply chose this particular thread to point it out because we had several people in a row confirming each other that breeders were wrong.

Continuing on the off-topic thread… so just to be clear, you do not have a problem with recommendations, only with anyone saying that something is actually wrong?

 

[OldMan47]

I have a problem with making other people feel they are doing something wrong when they are just using a different method.

I see a big difference between saying, "I always do this and never use that method" and saying "It will result in harm to your fish doing things your way."

Let's try to keep things positive please.

 

[KittyKat]

So using the first wording, are we allowed to follow on with an explanation about why we chose to do something? Should we say "I believe", "this publication states" or something like that?

 

[ripil]

+1 i actually agree with you both. advice should be fed gently in a friendly manner not force fed (altho i'm guilty) i've said loads of times don't use breeding traps. in my experience the breeding trap idea is a bad. used it three times two dead guppies and ones tail faded and looks see through now, where she just sat on the bottom for 4 days looking miffed. maybe i moved them too late or something. when i was new to fish i seemed to make every mistake possible or thats what it felt like. i still don't think it is really needed if your male to female ratio is 1-2 or 1-more. all my livebearers back up into the plants to give birth in and moving them from the comfort of what they seem to like in my opinion seems wrong. to be honest mate that guppy really don't look that far gone about 50% at a guess. guppies seem to always be pregnant so using the gravid spot is great for knowing if their pregnant but not the best way to tell if their going to drop fry. the squaring off method is best i base this theory on having guppies for 7 months and now i know which one is going to drop. the black ones drop every 35 days. the orange ones drop about a week later. even if one is fatter than the other it don't always mean she's further along more that shes got alot of junk in her trunk, my guppies do like their food. hope this helps.