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Guppies help please!!

9K views 17 replies 5 participants last post by  shaynaglover 
#1 ·
I am new at breeding guppies.

Actually, i have never bred guppies before in my life.

i have been running and maturing my tank for about 2 weeks, i tested the water at the shop and they said it's a go for the guppies. So i bought them today. They seem to be enjoying the tank, just hanging out and swimming around, doing the fishy stuff.

i bought 2 platinum male and 4 fancy females.

the question is how do i tell if the females are pregnant? all four of the females have that "black gravid spot" everyone is talking about. 2 out of 4 have a bigger size belly than the other one. I don't think i could see the frys in the black spot.

do all females have that black gravid spot?

does anybody have a pictures of pregnant female and non-pregnant female guppies?

i don't want the frys to get eaten by the mommies and daddies


if you care about the future generation of guppies please help me. :lol:
 
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#2 ·
rocky00 said:
the question is how do i tell if the females are pregnant? all four of the females have that "black gravid spot" everyone is talking about. 2 out of 4 have a bigger size belly than the other one. I don't think i could see the frys in the black spot.

do all females have that black gravid spot?
Welcome.:wave:

Yes, all females have a gravid spot. The darker the gravid spot, the closer the sign of them dropping the fry. It appears all your females are gravid.

does anybody have a pictures of pregnant female and non-pregnant female guppies?
I wasn't able to obtain pics when I had guppies before.:lol: But it is easy to tell the differences. Gravid females have square shape abdomen when viewed on their side part. And as I mentioned, the darker the gravid spot, the closer the sign of them dropping the fry.
i don't want the frys to get eaten by the mommies and daddies
Provide your tank with plants. Don't use breeding nets, etc which are far too stressful resulting in premature birth. I wouldn't worry about the fry. Well-fed parents do not always try to eat the fry and fry are very agile at hiding and escaping. Furthermore, guppies weren't called 'million fish' for nothing. Guppies are by far one of the most prolific fish so it is easy to overcrowd a tank with guppies. Every batch is resulted with a gap between 2-3 weeks. A female guppy can produce several batches of fry without a male.
 
#4 ·
The top two guppies should be ready to give birth anytime until next week perhaps.:) The right one is quite heavy actually. You'll need plants to make them feel more comfortable.:)

The bottom picture does not show anything more than poop to me.:)
 
#6 ·
I would suggest adding more plants. Try to get some floating plants. Hornworts and riccia in particularly are your best bets.:)
 
#8 ·
rocky00 said:
is it possible that they have dropped and feasted on their frys?
Er..yes.:quiet:
 
#10 ·
I don;t know why they would have eaten them unless they weren't fed for the 4 days. I had guppies before and I never had them eat the babies. Had so many after a month I had to give them to the LFS as feeders. The tank didn't have any plants at the time and more survived than I knew what to do with.

BTW, the one on the left looks like a typical stillborn fry to me. They might not have survived the birthing and that might be why they were eaten.
 
#11 ·
they were overfed too, about 30 snails grew on my plants in the tank.



i fed them 3 times per day, about 2 pinches of dried brine shrimp everytime.
they eat it for about 3-4 minutes until they are no longer hungry.


i have no idea why they aren't making babies, or why they eat them.


BTW, the one on the left looks like a typical stillborn fry to me. They might not have survived the birthing and that might be why they were eaten.
i thought so too, but it looked like a head of a brine shrimp.
 
#12 ·
rocky00 said:
they were overfed too, about 30 snails grew on my plants in the tank.
Try to minimize feeding. Fish that are overfed are prone to constipation and can have adverse effects to their health.
i fed them 3 times per day, about 2 pinches of dried brine shrimp everytime.
Change it to once a day with one day fasting per week. This will also minimize the chances of polluting the water fast.:)
 
#13 ·
Feeding habits vary and are widely debated but one thing always holds true, variety. They need something other than a strict diet of protein. Fish flakes, algae wafers, sometimes some mashed peas if you remember. Just anything to give them a variety of foods to nourish the babies and encourage breeding. The brine shrimp should only be fed once or twice a week. Fasting once a week won't hurt them but a strict diet of shrimp can.
 
#15 ·
rocky00 said:
i got 2 frys!


something must be wrong with my tank, because arent guppies supposed to drop 30-50 frys??
doesnt necessariyl mean theres something wrong with the tank. my molly was masssive and i have found only 4 fry. i am suspicious of my 2 synodontis for that even thoguh i ahve thick plants! it could be that some got eaten. are there any other fish in the tank?
 
#17 ·
there are 4 females and 2 males as well in the tank.

i have 2 - 10 gallon tanks, before i had the males and the females separated. the second tank where i had the females isn't well planted so i moved the girls back to the main tank, because i was afraid the females would eat them right away.

although i have provided plenty of amazon sword plants, some rocks, annacharis, and floating bunches of annacharises.

should i separate the female back into the second tank? or should i leave the girls alone in the main tank???


thanks for all the replies.
 
#18 ·
Hey, I'm kind of new to the whole guppy breeding thing too... I stickly do it for fun because it would break my heart to give any of my babies a way... yeah I know Im pretty bad. I have a 60 gallon tank with lots of plants and stuff for my fry to hide in but I have taken the precaution of buying a ten gallon tank as well. I have about 30 fry in my ten gallon tank. In my 60 gallon I have about 10 female guppies, 3 female mollies, 7 male guppies and 2 male mollies. As of right now I cane tell all my females guppies are pregnant (I just don't know when they will drop) and I cant tell if my mollies are prego or not. I have a tank divider and divided the males and females. As soon as I divided them my female guppies started giving birth and I quickly transferred the fry to my ten gallon tank. But and here is my problem. One of my female guppies has given birth to not fully developed fry. The not fully developed fry are pretty much developed and swim around with all the other fry I have but they still have red pouches on their bellies.... do you think they will survive? has this ever happened to anyone? Ill be sad if they don't make it. My fish are like having a dog lmao I love them to death.
 
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