guppy given birth to blobs of jelly!

[Joby]

Hi all first post here so forgive me if this has been covered before but I checked and couldn't find anything about it.

My yellow guppy finally gave birth this morning after a 4 week pregnancy but there are only blobs of yellow jelly like stuff in the trap with no signs of eyes or anything. Are these unfertilized eggs and is this normal? She's still straining a little now 24 hours on but no more have come away. Will she be ok going back into the tank with the male? Is this a problem with the female or was it the male being sterile?

thanks in anticipation.

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

I think your about right, i have a few of those when ive had fry...

I wouldn't put her in the tank just yet, leave her for another 24hours then put her back in the tank. Im not sure really why you got all unfertilized eggs, maybe it you could buy another female to put with your other guppies and test to see if you male is indeed sterlie .

 

[Joby]

Thanks!

Quick history of tank

Set up 5 weeks ago

Bought 2 male and 4 female guppies to start it off

one female gave birth 2 days later!! managed to save 9 of the fry and put them into a small tank

fish start dying due to new tank syndrome (according to fish shop) and was left with my yellow female and a male. so she could be pregnant by either of the males so fingers crossed it was the one that died if he was sterile!

Have now introduced babies back into the tank and 5 neons ( no female guppies available anywhere!) on advice by the fish shop. All seem to be happily thriving and then the birth of the blobs this morning

Bought 3 new females and a male on Thursday but have put them into the small tank to quarantine as I don't want any possibility of disease to be passed on. so that means that the poor guppy will be harassed by the male as the fry are only 4 weeks old on Monday and not really of any interest to him. Hope the female is recovered enough as I don't have any tanks left now (apart from the goldfish one ) to separate her and she's been in the breeding trap for over a day now

 

[Wisperian]

Hey! Congrats!

 

[David]

Just a bit of advice: if you want your fry to grow to full size I would advise against keeping them in the main tank. They rarely fully develop in this situation, apparently because of a hormone that the adult guppies release into the water that stunts their growth. I have done this, and it took me 3 generations of midget fry to realize that I was doing something wrong. After this I raised them in a growout tank and they grew normally.

 

[Joby]

Thanks for that info David

Had kept the babies in their own little tank for 3 weeks, but guess they needed longer. What age should they move into the main tank then?

It seems that I need to go shopping for some more tanks

What size is best to use as a growout tank for guppies?

Yellow female back in main tank but sitting on top of filter not moving much like before she had the blobs. She's eating though so fingers crossed she'll be ok

 

[David]

For a growout tank, depending on the number of fry, I would suggest at least 10 gallons, more if possible. You can move them back as soon as their tail and gonopodium hos fully developped for the males, and you can faintly see the females gravid spot. (In other words, as soon as they're mature. This can take a whil, so If you want to put 'em back sooner go ahead, you might have better luck than I did.

EDIT: for 9 fry a 10 gallon will usually suffice. Feed 'em livefood to enrich their diet and they will grow wonderfully.

 

[guppymonkey]

I can tell you why your fish gave birth to "jelly" instead of live babies. You mentioned keeping her in a breeding trap. Breeding traps are basically death traps. Imagine if when a person was almost ready to give birth the hospital put them in a cardboard box. It would be amazingly stressful and most likely would lead to death for the mother and child. Its the same with guppies and other livebearers, they get stressed out by breeding traps most of the time. This can lead to giving birth to undeveloped young as seems to have happened in your case.

The best and most humane method of breeding guppies is to give them their own tank to give birth in. Then after they are born that tank can be used to raise the fry in. If thats not a possibility then leave the female in her main tank and make sure there are lots of plants for the fry to hide in.

Just a bit of advice: if you want your fry to grow to full size I would advise against keeping them in the main tank. They rarely fully develop in this situation, apparently because of a hormone that the adult guppies release into the water that stunts their growth. I have done this, and it took me 3 generations of midget fry to realize that I was doing something wrong. After this I raised them in a growout tank and they grew normally.

If a grow out tank isn't possible (ie no room for more tanks) then water changes can help alleviate the hormone problem that stunts fry growth. I usually change 20% of the water 2 or 3 times a week in the tanks with fry in them. Since fry are sensitive to water conditions this makes them grow substantially faster.

 

[Joby]

Have been window shopping for a growout tank today and think I've found the perfect one. Its half the size of the ones we have now so should be fine.

I can see sense in what you say David as we did have one of the fry in the main tank from the start and it is a lot smaller and darker than the other 8 that were in a small tank for 3 weeks. They are all doing ok in the main tank and the gravid spots are showing very darkly already on the females which are 4 weeks old tomorrow.

I have decided to bin the breeding trap after advice on here!

The female guppy is very happy today and swimming round nicely but still straining and I can now see darkness in her gravid spot which I haven't seen before as she is a yellow guppy (she's in the pic) so maybe she just discarded some eggs and she's gonna have some fry soon

Put the quarantined male and 2 females in the main tank today also after 4 days and its calmed down the male in there so the yellow female is being left alone. Also got new female guppy today which is a black and quite fat so reckon she is pregnant.

Better get that growout tank soooooon