Yesterday I purchased a guppy couple (from the same tank) at my local aquatic store. The female is pregnant and I picked her on purpose because I've never had a pregnant female before. I bought a floating guppy breeding tank, but when I put her in there she goes ballistic, won't eat, or do anything but swim along the sides trying to escape! I put her back in the tank with the other fish (the male guppy, 4 white clouds, some ghost shrimp, 2 red eye tetras, 5 serpae tetras,and 4 danios) I don't want her to stress herself out, which is what seems to happen when I isolate her. I was thinking of buying a birthing net but I heard that wasn't a great idea. I can't afford a separate tank right now so my last guess is to just buy some more plants for the fry. I'm just worried because I don't know WHEN she will have her babies and I don't want them to get eaten. PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!:shake: :shake:
Pregnant guppy...help!!!
- Thread starter schotgurrl
- Start date
the fact of life and guppies is- some will get eaten. if they didnt you'd have a 10g tank with 100+ fish in it. not a good situation.
if you dont save this batch, in a month there will be another.
i have one of those hang off the side fry pens but only kept the fry in there. tried keeping a female mollie in it once and she went nuts too.
if you wanted to maybe possibly speed up a birthing, [ i dont know if this always works or if it just happend to work at my house] next time you do a 50 percent or less water change, add slightly warmer water. i wouldn't raise the tank temp over 85 f, but just higher than you usually keep it. i did that last week by accident and guppy fry out the wazoo. could be it speeds up metabolism or is just some signal to the female to drop them.
good luck
if you dont save this batch, in a month there will be another.
i have one of those hang off the side fry pens but only kept the fry in there. tried keeping a female mollie in it once and she went nuts too.
if you wanted to maybe possibly speed up a birthing, [ i dont know if this always works or if it just happend to work at my house] next time you do a 50 percent or less water change, add slightly warmer water. i wouldn't raise the tank temp over 85 f, but just higher than you usually keep it. i did that last week by accident and guppy fry out the wazoo. could be it speeds up metabolism or is just some signal to the female to drop them.
good luck
For now I would keep my worrying to the female and not the babies. Often females that are pregnant and get stressed can hold their babies in. This often leads to death for all involved. So make the female comfy and stress free for now. She will have the babies and probably most will be eaten, but as was mentioned more will follow. Also you should have at least 2 or 3 females per male or the male may kill her with his breeding attempts.
Lots of live plants are the best thing I have had for helping fry survive.
Lots of live plants are the best thing I have had for helping fry survive.
Ok sounds great! Thank you so much for the advice! I was gettting confused w/ what to do b/c there are so many sites w/ all kinds of different info. so I just wanted to hear from the experienced. Today I was thinking of getting a 2.5 or 5 gallon to put the female in and then put her back in the other tank after she gives birth. Is it safe to move her at this stage of her pregnancy and also do i use the same water that's in my ten gallon now and just replace it? I know some fry will get eaten if I keep her in the community tank but I don't want to do anything that will harm herself or her babies.....
If it were my guppy I would leave her be for now. Then when she gets pregnant again and is settled down possibly move her to a separate tank. This will also give you a chance to have a cycled tank ready for her.
I would get a filter and take some filter media from your established tank and use this to cycle a tank when needed.
What do yuo plan on doing with the babies if you save them? There could be anywhere from 10-50 of the guys. And many fish stores will not take them until they grow up. So they will either have to be used as feeders or else you will be needing more tanks.
I would get a filter and take some filter media from your established tank and use this to cycle a tank when needed.
What do yuo plan on doing with the babies if you save them? There could be anywhere from 10-50 of the guys. And many fish stores will not take them until they grow up. So they will either have to be used as feeders or else you will be needing more tanks.