Guppy Signs For Birth?

[Guppyz]

I just had my first successful guppy birth! There are about 20 babies. But I only noticed her going into labour because I had just brought her home and she was still in the pet store bag at the time. But now I have another one that is due soon. Her gravid spots are dark and large and I would like to put her in a breeder trap. I don't want to stress her out by putting her in too early. What sign should I look for that indicate she is ready to give birth?

 

[Sacred]

I just had my first successful guppy birth! There are about 20 babies. But I only noticed her going into labour because I had just brought her home and she was still in the pet store bag at the time. But now I have another one that is due soon. Her gravid spots are dark and large and I would like to put her in a breeder trap. I don't want to stress her out by putting her in too early. What sign should I look for that indicate she is ready to give birth?

You can't always rely on the 'gravid spot' can be misleading. It seems they are ready when they 'sqaure off' they get plumper and their abdoman literally squares up. On some you may even be able to see the opening where the fry will come out become visible. She also will probably try hide out the way abit.

 

[OldMan47]

If you can arrange it, moving your female to a small empty tank is easier on her than using a trap. I know that is not always possible because some people simply don't have the tank space for it. As sacred has said, you can judge the female by shape much as you would any other common livebearer. My thread on a molly's progress gives some example photographs using a molly but the pictures would be equally valid with a guppy. In the case of the molly, the gravid spot is simply not visible so it does not cause the confusion we sometimes see with people trying to judge using color.

 

[Guppyz]

If you can arrange it, moving your female to a small empty tank is easier on her than using a trap. I know that is not always possible because some people simply don't have the tank space for it. As sacred has said, you can judge the female by shape much as you would any other common livebearer. My thread on a molly's progress gives some example photographs using a molly but the pictures would be equally valid with a guppy. In the case of the molly, the gravid spot is simply not visible so it does not cause the confusion we sometimes see with people trying to judge using color.

Thanks! I wish I could post a pic but it keeps saying "too large" or "not valid". And I do have a 2.5 gallon tank that has been cycling for a few weeks now but I don't think it will be ready in time for her drop. I can at least be excited about the 20 babies I have now. The father is beautiful!

I catch her near the plants sometimes but she spends alot of her time swimming with the others too. I think she may have squared off but im doubtful. Does anyone have and pics they could offer?

 

[OldMan47]

The site basically does no allow a very large picture to be posted here. I gave up long ago and keep all of my pictures elsewhere. That also makes them available on whatever forum I am posting. If you sign up with someone like photobucket, you can easily load your pictures there at no charge. In order to post your picture in a typical forum like TFF, you copy the IMG link from the storage location and simply paste the link into your post as so much text. In my case I have lots of pictures on photobucket like this one of a juvenile harbor seal that I spotted on the beach during a vacation trip to Oregon.

If I had simply posted a link it would come out this way instead. http/i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll251/Oldman1947/HarborSeal800.jpg but by adding the [img ] codes before and after the link it became the picture that looks like it is here. (I included a space in that code so that it would not give an error when I placed the code brackets here as text.
If you right click that picture you can look at the "view image info" and see the file location where the picture is really stored. The highlighted line of code is the image location, the rest of the lines of code relate to the skin I am using and the specific thread that we are using to communicate.