I Think My Guppy Just Died In Childbirth.

[- Jez -]

My girl Baby Momma (so named for her prolific fry-producing abilities) was swimming happily around the tank yesterday with a belly the size of a bus. I assumed she was pregnant (she gets knocked up more times than I get hot dinners) and kept my eye on her for a few hours because I never get to see her actually give birth (I'm usually delegated to the role of trying to get miniscule baby guppies into breeding nets afterwards). The only thing I noticed was that her belly seemed to be bulging out to one side more than the other, but she seemed happy enough, if swimming a little more frantically than usual (I thought this was because she was trying to squeeze out something the size of a full grown Oscar by the looks of her). Anyway, I went out, came back about 2 AM, no idea whether she was still with us at that stage because frankly I was a bit drunk and when we woke up this morning, she was dead on the bottom of the tank.
There's no real point to this post, other than to mark her passing because I had her for quite a while, and to wonder aloud if it was a pregnancy gone horribly wrong, or maybe she had some other kind of bloaty disease and should I start waiting for her tankmates to start swelling up like balloons...

(Goodbye Baby Momma. Thanks for all the many fry you provided me with. I have no idea where I'm going to put them all but cheers. )

 

[theotheragentm]

Sorry to hear about your loss. It is never expected, but it's common enough for fish to die during birthing. Stress exists for fish just like with humans.

 

[helterskelter]

Hi there good to see a nother local here.

There are many problems but do u feed any live foods as it dose sound like you got an internal problem.
Sorry for the loss but I'm sure from the sound od it you got plenty to replace her with though.

Keep breeding
Helter

 

[- Jez -]

Yay, hi fellow Dorsetshire person!

I feed them all frozen live stuff, bloodworms, brine shrimp and daphnia. (Although whenever I feed the last one, they all collectively look at it in disgust and avoid it, fussy buggers). I guess it's just a shame she went before she dropped the fry, I bet she'd have made enough to keep me in store credit for weeks!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Yeah it happens...Its more common with older females though, it seems to be a pretty common cause of death in old female guppys. I recently lost two of my older female guppys due to birthing complications- the first one simply gave birth to about 40 odd fry and never recovered afterwards, while the second died during giving birth.
Its a shame it happens but it can happen with any livebearing animal, including us. Having the female in a separate tank when she gives birth can help a lot as they are less likely to having birthing complications if they are in a peaceful tank all on their own with no males around to harrass them.

 

[helterskelter]

I'm in Bournemouth as well, and i have to say it's the best place to be apart from the rain to day, But summer's on it's way

So u don't feed ant live live food just frozen, their gammer radiated to kill any parasites so it's not likely to be any nasty bugs.
If she 's an old fish of course it's likely to be a tumour, i say that as you said it's was more to one side.