Female guppies

[strangeworld2002]

I bought 3x female guppies last night, 2x koi variety and 1x blue who is larger than the others considerably. Anyway put them in last night after acclimatizing them and I noticed straight away that the 2x koi ones were not swimming with the blue one in fact when they went near she would chase them off now and again, the aquarium is planted so they had somewhere to hide. I waited a while and tried a tiny bit of food, they didn't seem massively into it but it still got eaten but one of the koi ones didn't touch anything. Got up this morning and one of the koi ones is at the bottom lying on its side, I thought it was dead so moved it it swam a little and fell back down. PH is 7, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 10.

The two koi ones look very young and I'm not 100% certain the blue female isn't pregnant so have attached a photo.

1. Is this blue one pregnant? could that explain her aggression towards the others?
2. Have I just got a bad batch?

The filter outlet was pointed at the surface last night but they didn't seem to like it so I moved it down, I am using an air stone with an output of 100lp/h so I don't think oxygen is a problem.

They have only been in for 12 hours? 2 seem fine.

 

[strangeworld2002]

Update - One has passed away now but the others seem happy now and are swimming together when they were not before, I'm guessing it is just one of those things we all go through when one dies fairly soon after bringing it home without any obvious signs of why.

 

[Ichthys]

What’s the hardness? KH and GH? Guppies need hard water. Also what was the hardness of the water in the bag?

 

[GaryE]

It sounds to me like "guppy from the store attrition". You lose some of the poor things upon arrival.

 

[strangeworld2002]

What do you think about the blue one, is she pregnant?

 

[Ichthys]

More than likely. They can store batches of sperm, so once they’re sexually mature, most female guppies are always gravid (the fish equivalent of pregnant). As soon as they drop a batch of fry they’ll impregnate themselves with stored sperm if there are no males present.

 

[emeraldking]

1. Is this blue one pregnant? could that explain her aggression towards the others?
2. Have I just got a bad batch?

The tuxedo blue female is pregnant but not close at all to birth. So, that can still take a while.
Don't forget that all commercial guppies are bred in mass reproduction and hardly no culling (selecting in quality) will take place. And if they came from an asian fish farm, they use more salt as a prevention. And the trip from fish farm to wholesaler to retail and then to the customer won't do those fish good. So, the chance on a bad batch of fish is surely present.

As soon as they drop a batch of fry they’ll impregnate themselves with stored sperm

Doesn't have to be right away after a female has dropped her fry that she'll let go of sperm packets to fertilize her new eggs. It can even have larger intervals before a female releases sperm packets from the folds of her fallopian tube. It's the female herself which decides when she releases sperm packets.
The mistake that a lot of people make is that they state that female guppies will deliver fry every 4 weeks (approx.). But that's because it's misinterpreted. The average gestation period of a guppy is about 4 weeks. But it doesn't mean that a female will deliver fry every 4 weeks. But it is "technically possible" to drop fry every 4 weeks if a female would use sperm packets right after she's done with delivering newborns. That's the right way to say it...

 

[Ichthys]

The tuxedo blue female is pregnant but not close at all to birth. So, that can still take a while.
Don't forget that all commercial guppies are bred in mass reproduction and hardly no culling (selecting in quality) will take place. And if they came from an asian fish farm, they use more salt as a prevention. And the trip from fish farm to wholesaler to retail and then to the customer won't do those fish good. So, the chance on a bad batch of fish is surely present.

Doesn't have to be right away after a female has dropped her fry that she'll let go of sperm packets to fertilize her new eggs. It can even have larger intervals before a female releases sperm packets from the folds of her fallopian tube. It's the female herself which decides when she releases sperm packets.
The mistake that a lot of people make is that they state that female guppies will deliver fry every 4 weeks (approx.). But that's because it's misinterpreted. The average gestation period of a guppy is about 4 weeks. But it doesn't mean that a female will deliver fry every 4 weeks. But it is "technically possible" to drop fry every 4 weeks if a female would use sperm packets right after she's done with delivering newborns. That's the right way to say it...

That’s the right way to say it, is it? Deary me. Apologies for being so very wrong.

 

[emeraldking]

That’s the right way to say it, is it? Deary me. Apologies for being so very wrong.

No worries. You meant well. But I needed to clear this for I do read quite often that people start a topic on a forum why a female guppy, platy, swordtail, molly or another kind of livebearer isn't delivering any babies. For it's already been 4-5 weeks ago that they had their last batch of fry. And they start worrying about those females. What is going on? Is there something wrong with my water parameters? Aren't the males doing their best anymore? While there's really nothing to be worried about when they don't deliver newborns every month.