Overlapping guppy pregnancies?

[kitty falol]

Hi

One of my female guppies gave birth about 12 days ago to about 20 or so fry, but I noticed afterwards that she wasn't as slim as I expected and her gravid spot was still very black. I assumed that it was just some sort of long labour and that maybe she would give up the rest in the next few hours. It's now nearly 2 weeks later and she's showing no signs of imminent birth in her behaviour, although she is still pretty big.

Now, I know that guppies can store sperm for several months and become pregnant almost immediately after giving birth, but is it possible for pregnancies to overlap each other?

Just curious really!

Kathryn

 

[Joby]

Good question Kathryn. My female Twinkle gave birth to 15 fry about 15 days ago and she's absolutely huge again now and also didn't go very slim after her first lot. Would be intersting to hear if they can actually have different stages of fry being developed at the same time

 

[ferrikins]

I read somewhere that they can have fry at different stage's of defelopment, at one time.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

I'd imagine they could. I know cats can sometimes, but it's risky because some of the babies born might be really early.

 

[kitty falol]

Cool! Thanks for all your replies. (I didn't know that about cats!)

It would make sense that they can be born at different stages of development as I've got some 3 week old fry that have had tiny black markings for nearly a week now, while others are almost half the size of their siblings.

Cute!

 

[guppymonkey]

Guppies carry the sperm in folds inside of them. They do not have differing stages of developing young inside of them. Its a different species of livebearer that does that, I just can't remember the species right now, I think its a Goodeid species. The reason that some fry are smaller then others is that some are runts. They don't recieve enough food to grow at the same rate as the larger fish. Guppies go immediately into their next pregnancy after giving birth. Their eggs are instantly fertilized by the sperm that they have saved so that there is no lapse between pregnancies.