Without A Male Guppy, What Is The Max Time For A Female To Give Birth

[cindaaayyy]

Hi, my female guppy just gave birth to her second batch of guppy fry on friday 13 and prior to that she had given birth on june 4 and after a month from the first birth she looked big to me so i put her in a small breeder so she could give birth but she never did and i read online that they can't give birth after 28 days so i put her back and after a week i looked in the big tank and sure enough there were guppy fry so i fished them all out and put them in my baby tank where all the guppy fry are. My question how much time after giving birth can a guppy show the signs of it's pregnancy? I wanna be prepared for the next birth and dun wanna make the same mistake of having to fish out the babies and put stress on them when their baby tank was all ready for their arrival. ALSO i do not have a adult male guppy, i bought my female pregnant which makes me so curious on when she might give birth again!

 

[Akasha72]

Hi!

Female guppies (as with the rest of the live bearer species) can hold sperm for up to 6 months so even without a male she could effectively have more fry and they can drop fry every 4-6 weeks.

With regards to stress, it is better to leave mummy fish in her normal enviroment and net out fry than to stress mum by trying to catch her and get her in a breeder box. If you can provide a heavily planted area in your tank and possibly some bog wood or similar the fry will have somewhere to hide until you spot them

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Cindaaayyy.
A gestation for a guppy is about 28 days but it need not start as soon as the last drop has happened. In my case, I actually timed only one molly, which has the same gestation period. She was at exactly 42 days every time.I think you will find that your female will continue to drop at intervals of about 37 days. Each individual female seems to be rather consistent.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

For mine, subsequent births tend to be 2-4 days after the date they last gave birth... ok makes no sense... example... if they gave birth on June 22, they are likely to give birth between July 24-28. Anyhow, that's the pattern most common with my females.

 

[kuri33]

I got into keeping fish only this year, but I am learning a lot. One of my female guppies, Rainha, gave birth on June 29th and right after she looked super pregnant again. When my other female was giving birth on July 15th (16 days later)Rainha begins giving birth the same time as my other female.

I never put either one back in with my male guppy and they look pregnant again. So i might be getting babies for a while even though there are no males in the same tank.

But anyway I do think that guppies have their fry whenever they feel like it. It doesn't need to make sense.

 

[zain611]

I would say every 5-6 weeks

 

[OldMan47]

PrairieSunFlower has given us another period a bit shorter than I experienced at 33 to 35 days compared to my 42 days. Regardless of each of our experiences, each female is her own rule. If you see fry at 5 weeks, then that is the interval for your particular female. Any particular female may be at anything from about 4 to 7 weeks and needs to have you figure out her interval so that you will know what it is for your own fish. There is no rule that can be applied to all fish.

 

[cindaaayyy]

Wow thanks for all the replies!! i'm glad to knoe that there are ppl out there that can answer my questions cuz i've been getting blank answers from ppl at the pet stores so i will track the time of her pregnancies and try to time accordingly! Haha also what is the best way to identify the males from the females i've heard to look for a gravid spot for females and a certain fin for males but the guppy fry swim so fast and is hard for me to tell, should i bring them somewhere like a vet to get them sexed? I enjoyed this whole experience but dun want to keep having more and more fry since i have a limited amount of room/money to support more guppy fry, so wanna just seperate the males/female babies whenever i am able to.

 

[zain611]

You have to wait about 2 months for them to develop. males will develop a stick like fin near were it diposes of its waste and females will have a fan like fin in the same place

Im currently raising 5 fry which are 6 weeks old and are getting their colour on their tails which is amazing and 2 days ago i saw one of them showing of to another which may indicate its a male and must be looking at its suspected dad showing of and trying to sex the female. Also i female gave out a bach of fry 6 days ago and ive seen 2 still alive today and one of them are hiding under my moss ball

 

[OldMan47]

Glad we could help Cindaaayyy. Each individual fish is her own "rule" when it comes to drop intervals but I suspect you will soon know the value for your own female.

 

[cindaaayyy]

i think my female guppy has successfuly given birth to all her fry and i've been watching them over the past month and noticed that their tails are all fanned out like the mothers, but as they grow more i noticed that their tails are beginning to change and are not fanned but are pointy now. Is that normal? Or am i doing something wrong? I feel like the pointyness of their tail is making it more difficult for them to swim? What does that mean?

 

[PrairieSunflower]

Sounds like they are unhappy or ill. How is your water quality? If most of them are like that I'd be checking water for ammonia and such.

In my current batch of fry I have only one like that and I've separated it from the others who are fine... not sure what is wrong with mine as the water is fine.

 

[Lanrae]

i think my female guppy has successfuly given birth to all her fry and i've been watching them over the past month and noticed that their tails are all fanned out like the mothers, but as they grow more i noticed that their tails are beginning to change and are not fanned but are pointy now. Is that normal? Or am i doing something wrong? I feel like the pointyness of their tail is making it more difficult for them to swim? What does that mean?

Same is happening to my guppy fry. They've been like this for weeks, but none have died yet.

 

[FishGuest5123]

This an old post. Please start a new one if you need help.