Are My Guppies Pregnant?

Neptune54 said:

Welcome to the forum, Dannyboi91!

The first one is pregnant, and rather close, too. You should expect fry within the week. It's harder to tell because of the second one (if it is indeed a different fish from the first) because of the angle, but she looks pregnant; I can't tell when, though. I can't tell at all on the third one. If she's pregnant, she's got awhile to go.

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Akasha72 said:

Hi dannyboi, the first one is definitely pregnant. As you say you can see an obvious gravid spot but if you look at her belly it's flat along the bottom giving her a square appearance. This is often a better way to determine pregnancy than looking for a gravid spot - with some fish the dark gravid spot isn't so visable.

It's really not a good idea to keep them in the breeding trap very long as they can become really stressed and abort the babies.
The best advice I can give you is to keep an eye on her anal area. When she's ready you will be able to see what looks like a tube sticking out slightly - this is her birthing tube opening. Once you can see this birth isn't far away.

Please be aware though that guppies can, and will, drop masses of fry. I had one that dropped loads on me a few weeks back. Some got eaten by mum, some escaped the trap and got eaten by other tank mates and a couple were born dead but I counted the survivors ... there was 78!


Do you have a spare tank in which to keep the fry?

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Akasha72 said:

my guppy gave birth again last week. She had about 40ish this time (I've not counted them!). It took her about 4 hours to drop them. If you spot the birthing tube opening and can catch her and she's not stressed in the trap then go ahead and put her in. I know a lot on here say never leave her in the trap more than 48 hours but if you time it right she shouldn't need to be in the trap more than 12 hours.

I had to keep my 78 in a large storage tub with a spare heater in there and a bubble stone. It wasn't ideal but my spare 26 litre tank simply wasn't big enough for that amount of fry - it also had about 20 platy fry in it at the time.

Raising fry is hard work. They need constant water changes and constant feeding. If your not ready for that just yet it may be a better idea to let her give birth in the tank this time and just let any fry clever enough to survive grow up.

The other alternative would be to find out if an lfs nearby will take newly born fry. Most won't but it never harms to ask.

I'm just saying this as I want you to know what you could be in for. I was shocked by the 78 and the sheer panic of what to do with them all was really stressful. Thankfully my lfs took them off my hands at around 2 weeks old as I couldn't cope any longer.

Good luck with the impending fry though and keep us posted with it all

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Akasha72 said:

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I like having a spare tank - it gives me options. ie: my main tank has whitespot at the moment but I have 2 snails - the meds can kill them so they've had to go into my spare tank. No spare tank would've meant a big headache lol

It's worth looking at argos online. They have some good deals at the mo. I got a 100 watt heater for £10 for the 78 fry! Worked fine aswell.

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