Pregnant Guppies

[kaitym]

I have four pregnant guppie's in my tank right now, I bought them from a pet store not too long ago. One looks like she's about ready to pop. Should I move her into the net I have and leave her there for a few days or should I just leave her in the tank with the others?

[Michael Milligan]

If you want to keep all the babies then move her. Knowing just when they are going to "pop" is a matter of experience, so she might be stuck in the little net.

The option I prefer would be to have a lot fine leaved plants and other hiding places in the tank. Then you can leave them and some of the babies will have a good chance of surviving. This also puts some pressure on the new fish so that the weak, slow or ones with defects due to inbreeding will get picked off.

[Hanna]

It also depends how dense your tank is planted.

Ours is and the babies got plenty, plenty to hide in.
The female being cought in a breeding net may cause stress and she may die.

[kaitym]

BABIES!! I found 4 of them, she must have dropped them while I was at work today. Came home and she looked much thinner and there was no dark spot. I've got them in a breeder net, now my question is how do I feed them? I have baby shrimp (gammarus) and flake food. Should I just crush them into a powder for now?

[Michael Milligan]

BABIES!! I found 4 of them, she must have dropped them while I was at work today. Came home and she looked much thinner and there was no dark spot. I've got them in a breeder net, now my question is how do I feed them? I have baby shrimp (gammarus) and flake food. Should I just crush them into a powder for now?

good fun!

they will eat anything small. crushed whatever with be great.

[kaitym]

So the four babies I found New Years Eve have grown so quickly. I used to have to search for them, but now they're big enough to see from across the room. Wasn't planning on keeping guppies after all of my adults died, then found them and they're making me rethink that decision. The cories don't seem to mind sharing a tank, and they're all looking forward to the 20 gal I'm saving for =) How long until I can sex and separate them? I love watching my babies, but don't want more!!

[dbosman]

So the four babies I found New Years Eve have grown so quickly. How long until I can sex and separate them? I love watching my babies, but don't want more!!

You have a couple more days to sex and separate them. Maybe a week and a half. After that, you probably won't need to bother.
Live bearers can store sperm for up to a year, by the way. Look for more babies from you existing females for some time to come.

[kaitym]

What I meant was that I dont have any adult guppies left at all. They all seemed to die over a period of a month. The mother of the fry I have passed the day after giving birth. I'm hoping to avoid more babies by separating the ones I have as soon as possible.

[dbosman]

What I meant was that I dont have any adult guppies left at all. They all seemed to die over a period of a month. The mother of the fry I have passed the day after giving birth. I'm hoping to avoid more babies by separating the ones I have as soon as possible.

In some cases adult fish never make a full adjustment to water chemistry, but their fry, born into it thrive.

[Michael Milligan]

Is there any change you have been overfeeding or something? Guppies aren't known for their strict requirements. 4 out of 4 dead in a month leads me to thing that something might be up...

[kaitym]

I had been feeding them once a day and only a few flakes. The food would be gone in less than a minute. I did a water change once a week and always treated it with a conditioner. I'm thinking that maybe they were just from poor stock to begin with. The babies however are doing really well. A couple of them are beginning to have a little bit of color on their tails already. It's nothing bright and showy but still exciting. They might be about half an inch long already, it's hard to tell with them swimming everywhere and out of sight.