I just got 2 female guppies from a female only tank at the store last week and two days ago one of them gave birth to a bunch of fry (unfortunately, only 5 lived). I was not expecting it at all considering that I got only females because I basically don’t have capacity to deal with fish babies. The store said that it’s possible that the fish were pregnant because they could have come like that from the distributor. So I did some researching online and I was shocked to learn that female guppies could get pregnant multiple times from one mating. Now I’m concerned that the other one is also pregnant. I have attached some pictures of the fish to the post. Please help me identify if the fish is pregnant so I can be prepared!!! Thank you so much! And by the way it’s the ORANGE guppy that I’m concerned about. (Just fed them don’t know if that makes a difference)
Is my guppy pregnant
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She looks pregnant to me!
fish48
Fish Gatherer
it is pregnant and will produce more babies
Thanks for the reply! As far as I can tell, the fish looks after the same a few hours after feeding so I take it's pregnant.
In general, how could you tell if the fish is pregnant? (other than the fact that it got bigger). And how do I know how far along it is?
I think @Retired Viking would be a great help here.
Retired Viking
Fish Connoisseur
Yes it does look pregnant, if there is no long white string poop then it is probably pregnant. They can have several batches of fry and can store up packets of sperm up to six months. They are worse than rabbits. My guppies are always having fry but I think my platys may be eating the newborns.
They get very round is the main way you can tell a guppy is gravid
But if they have ever been near a male as yours clearly have, they're nearly always going to be gravid at any time they're not actively birthing fry I'm afraid, the guppy is also known as "the million fish" for a good reason! They can also store packets of sperm for a year or more I'm afraid, so if you really don't want and can't handle a lot of fry, you might want to return them and have only male guppies instead. Can be hard to gauge exactly how far along they are, I'd say yours has a couple of weeks to go. Once they get a squared off, boxy look to them, they'll be due within a few days. Look for her gravid spot;
The gravid spot is often visible even in juveniles and having a spot doesn't always mean she's gravid, but it does get darker and larger when they've gravid, usually, and later in the gestation period, you can even see the eyes of the fry in that spot.
This is one of mine, a few days before she gave birth. She didn't get as huge as most of my females do, perhaps because it was her first batch of fry, and she didn't have many. Only two fry made it, but she probably had more that either didn't survive or were eaten by adults. Since she didn't get huge or square off (get that boxy look) I had to rely on the gravid spot to tell she was due soon, I could see the little eyes really well since her body is quite transparent.
Do you know what you want to do about birthing/fry? Whether you're planning to try to save as many as you can, or let nature take its course and let the adults eat them? Sounds callous, but it is natural.
Oh wow this is the first time that I heard their poop is an indication as well. That's really interesting! Thanks for helping!
They get very round is the main way you can tell a guppy is gravid
Can be hard to gauge exactly how far along they are, I'd say yours has a couple of weeks to go. Once they get a squared off, boxy look to them, they'll be due within a few days. Look for her gravid spot;
View attachment 115159
The gravid spot is often visible even in juveniles and having a spot doesn't always mean she's gravid, but it does get darker and larger when they've gravid, usually, and later in the gestation period, you can even see the eyes of the fry in that spot.
View attachment 115160
This is one of mine, a few days before she gave birth. She didn't get as huge as most of my females do, perhaps because it was her first batch of fry, and she didn't have many. Only two fry made it, but she probably had more that either didn't survive or were eaten by adults. Since she didn't get huge or square off (get that boxy look) I had to rely on the gravid spot to tell she was due soon, I could see the little eyes really well since her body is quite transparent.
Do you know what you want to do about birthing/fry? Whether you're planning to try to save as many as you can, or let nature take its course and let the adults eat them? Sounds callous, but it is natural.
Ah I think I'll have to get better at telling the signs. When the first guppy gave birth I did notice the gravid spot was dark but it was so slim that I didn't think it was pregnant at all. I wonder if it was her first batch too.
There were many dead fish embryos and I genuinely felt bad for them since I saw their eyes and tails in the embryos when they dropped to the gravel. I left them in there and they were eaten by the big fish within minutes. As for the ones that did make it, I was going to just, as you said, let nature take its course. However, they were so adorable and were still swimming around after hours so I took them out into a DIY breeding box.
I thought about getting a plastic breeding box from Amazon for the babies but I couldn't wait for it to arrive. I ended up cutting two holes on a plastic cup for water flow and put a piece of stockings around it to prevent the fish from swimming out. The cup is still in the tank and the babies are doing well.
So if I do end up getting more fry I will most definitely save them the same way I did with the first batch. Beyond that I haven't given much thoughts. A couple of my friends asked for the fish and I would be more than glad to give some to them. My only concern is that they won't be as invested in keeping a healthy tank as I am and I think I would be pretty sad if they die from lack of care.
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