Guppy Wont Have Babies!!

[t_h_e_s_a_c_k]

I had two pregnant guppies for about a month and a half. One was more pregnant than the other but one morning I woke up and it was dead. The other one is still pregnant and has had one fry since the last few days. What might of caused the one to die? Is it normal for it to only have one at a time?!?

 

[Rocketman]

Guppies will usually have...at least 20 fry at one time. Minimum. The yield with Feeder Guppies will be considerably less, (with my experience, about 5-10.) If your's only had 1, it either ate the rest or there are more.

Guppies are only pregnant for about 2 weeks, although they can retain 'sperm' from the male for months, and therefore produce fry even after the male is gone.

 

[Serrateeth_2002]

guppies could get diseases when giving birth,it could be one of the causes why it died and yeah,guppies have 15 or more fries at a time

 

[TKOS]

If a guppy is under stress it has the ability to hold its fry in for up to a month or more. However, this can place a lot of stress on the body and may lead to death. This recently happened to a female guppy I bought from the petstore who was already pregnant. I guess all that moving was too stressful for her. The longer they hold them in the better the chance of them dieing.

 

[kvr]

I used to have guppy's too, and experienced the same problem. Some of the females seem (as TKOS said) to hold their fry for some reason for too long. At that point, the fry get to big inside her body and she's not able to give birth to them anymore. At that point, it's just a matter of days/weeks before she dies. I have had that happen two or three times. The second time, I caught the female, probably just minutes after she died and I decided to open up her belly to find out what could have killed her. To my surprise, twenty or more living baby gups came out.

 

[Rocketman]

KVR, I applaud you for your brave effort to save those baby guppies...wow, I seriously couldn't do that. How many lived?

 

[tricksterpup]

SACK,
Do you have any plant cover in the tank? One of the best plants to use in a live bearer tank is Hornwort. If you do not have any in your tank i would suggest to pick some up. This will give the females a place to hide and give birth and somewhere for the fry to hide from the adults. ALso, what are your tank parameters? Do you do regular water changes? These are also important factors to take into consideration. It is kinda hard to figure out what killed your fish with out knowing what is going on in the tank.Your females are stressed and the problem is to figure out what stressed them out. There are no easy answers here.
SO first lets check the water quality. Second, if you do not have plant cover, Pick some up. It is best to make your females comfortable so they can give birth. Once they are comfortable, they are no longer stressed, no longer stressed then they are usually no longer prone to Diseases.

jim

 

[kvr]

Rocketman,

from the ones I could count, there were more then 20 ! Some of them are still alive in a tank of a friend of mine.

t_h_e_s_a_c_k,

Also java moss will give 1) the mother and 2) the little ones a great place to hide. Some caves and/or driftwood are also appreciated.