Phantom Pregnancy

[BettaCrazy7]

I bought three female guppies. All where large and had dark gravid spots. I thought they were going to give birth, but they haven't. They are well over the normal gestation period of 28-35 days. I've had them for about 3 months. They are still fat and have gravid spots. Why is this? Can older guppies have phantom pregnancies? Are they even pregnant although they have dark gravid spots?

Here are some pictures.

 

[OldMan47]

The one in the last picture may be as close as 2 weeks to her next drop but not much closer. The color of the fish can be very misleading and a female should instead be judged by her shape. If you place the females into a tank with no other residents and lots of plant cover, you will discover fry in the tank quite often. If you leave them in a community tank with light or no cover, you will never see fry. This molly spent a year in a community tank and I never saw her produce fry. After I put her in a little 10 gallon of her own, I found this scene 3 weeks later.

All that happened is that I put her where her fry would not be considered dinner by lots of other fish.

 

[BettaCrazy7]

So if I were to move the 3 girls to a different tank they would give birth?

 

[biokid101]

they wouldnt give birth cause u moved them to a lone tank. they would give birth when they want to.

 

[BettaCrazy7]

they wouldnt give birth cause u moved them to a lone tank. they would give birth when they want to.

I've never had trouble with my fish, but these ones just don't want to give birth.

 

[biokid101]

ive had my female guppy for a month and 3 days and she doesnt even look pregnant. she is definetly old enough to breed because she is bigger than my males.idk what the problem is.and she has two males in with her.

 

[GuppyGoddess]

ive had my female guppy for a month and 3 days and she doesnt even look pregnant. she is definetly old enough to breed because she is bigger than my males.idk what the problem is.and she has two males in with her.

Mine are the same way. Twice now, I've discovered two fry in the tank, so I guess they're giving birth to only a few babies and those are being eaten. Also, the female tummies haven't gotten big. They swell a bit and then shrink back up. Unfortunetly one of them died this morning. I don't know what happened.

 

[biokid101]

aweee im so sorry.
i want to get another female but i dont want to end up with alot of babies because my fry are 3 weeks old and soon they will be able to breed. but i might end up getting one this week if we dont get pounded by this snowstorm!! about 7 inches is gonna fall here. NO SCHOOL WOOO!! sorry i went on lol

 

[BettaCrazy7]

I'm getting 3 more females once I get my new tank only this time I'm buying from my LFS. Their guppies always seem to give birth for me.

 

[GuppyGoddess]

aweee im so sorry.
i want to get another female but i dont want to end up with alot of babies because my fry are 3 weeks old and soon they will be able to breed. but i might end up getting one this week if we dont get pounded by this snowstorm!! about 7 inches is gonna fall here. NO SCHOOL WOOO!! sorry i went on lol

Originally, I thought I was going to have too many fry, but now we sit here with none. My son is horribly disappointed! (lol!) I told him as soon as babies came, we'd move everyone to a larger tank. . .guess that's not going to happen any time soon. Maybe I should go get a SUPER pregnant female and just be done with it. lol

 

[5teady_2012]

Dont worry about it, they will give birth eventually, they may have done and the fry got eaten, never go by gravids spots, its very misleading, when it comes to guppys and endlers u do tend to find they always have dark gravid spots.

Like old man said, plenty of cover (heavily plant tank) and u will soon see lots of fry about

 

[OldMan47]

Your livebearers will "give birth", drop fry, at regular intervals. The real thing that we are looking for is evidence of each of those fry drops. A fry drop happens quite often in environments where the fry cannot be found. If we set up the right environment for a female to give birth, we can often find fry that would otherwise not be found in a community tank.

 

[biokid101]

well said. something strange just happened...i was doing my hw at my desk(ugh math)and i looked over and everything was fine, 2 minutes later i look up and my female was on the babies side. it was so scary she was chasing all the babies but idk if she ate any or not cause they all seem to be there.

yea im just gonna get a female tomorrow maybe before the storm cause i do want more fry and im going to move my adults to my 36 gal. i love the feeling of new fry being found. its amazing!!

it will soon happen for ya. if u want fry really bad just do what i did and go to the lfs and see which female is the biggest and i got fry in less than a week.

 

[GuppyGoddess]

Dont worry about it, they will give birth eventually, they may have done and the fry got eaten, never go by gravids spots, its very misleading, when it comes to guppys and endlers u do tend to find they always have dark gravid spots.

Like old man said, plenty of cover (heavily plant tank) and u will soon see lots of fry about

Oh, this reminds me. I have two males with gravid spots. One is an endler and the other is just a little male I picked up as a baby and before I knew the gender. The latter one's spot comes and goes.

 

[biokid101]

that is really wierd!?