Tropical Fish Pregnancies

DarrenEPB · Mar 11, 2011

I moved house a few days ago and until then had never had any problems with my guppies giving birth. Since I moved my two female guppies have both gone into labour but instead of the fry opening from there ball and swimming off nothing has happened and no babies have been born alive? Is this because of the stress of the move? I have an 130 litre tank. I also have a pregnant swordtail which I am keeping a close eye on as I have been wanting baby sword tails for some time but keep missing the birth. I also would like to know how often and how quick my fish can give birth as I have read different things.

I have guppies, 4 Swordtails, 2 platies, 18 neon tetras,6 harlequins, 4 mollies,1 pleco,2 sucking loaches, 4 zebras, 5 silver tip tetras, 1 silver shark.

Thanks

Darren
My area of knowledge

lilfishie · Mar 11, 2011

yes it is possible, chances are the 'balls' that you are seeing are the undeveloped fry caused by early labour or misscarrage as you said, although the mother usually re-absorbs the fry

do i spy an Angel & Gourami too?, if your wanting fry then i'd strongly suggest adding more plants to your tank, Cabomba is good for fry and you can float it too :good:

fluttermoth · Mar 11, 2011

Most livebearers give birth every 30 days or so, but it depends a ittle bit on the temperature the fish are kept at. Between 28 and 31 days is the normal timespan.

DarrenEPB · Mar 11, 2011

Thanks for getting back to me so quick. Yes that is a gourami and my angel fish aka bow ( has a black bow tie lol ) I will take that advise then and go and get some new plants tomorrow. I am really keen to get some swordtail babies, I do really like swordtails, I also find it really satisfying watching the fish grow and then entering them into the tank, I did this with my balloon mollies. Always so much to learn though and I cant get enough of it. So fish that lay eggs, neon tetras say (if I am correct) they are one of my fav fish, what is the likely hood of me getting babies from them? Is it a case of separating them when pregnant? I am not sure if I have ever seen any of my neons pregnant, or noticed at least.

lilfishie · Mar 11, 2011

Neons are egg scatterers in a community setup you have little chance of getting any fry from them :sad:

i know how you feel i keep missing my swords dropping too

DarrenEPB · Mar 11, 2011

I have some freaky addiction to neons lol, I think they are so beautiful when in large amounts. What do you know about neon cardinals? Do they have the same requirements at tetras? I was looking at some the other day and am going to have a read up on them the weekend.