Help, Fish Giving Birth... Continued - Guppies & Platies

[eldraW]

We have got some Guppies and Platies in our fish tank.. They have been in now for about 2 weeks, we have never really noticed any getting any bigger/fatter but they were quite big, we just thought they were normal as upon searching for pregnant guppies and platies they tend to look so much bigger/fatter than ours.

Anyway, me and the missus were watching the fish today when we saw a little sprog, we jumped straight to it's rescue and put it in a small container, we then found another one. The problem we have is that we have no idea who is giving birth to these little buggers and wondered if anyone could help us with finding out which one it is, we have been watching all the females for some time now and still nothing, we have also put the biggest platy into a container to see if anything comes from her but again nothing.

We are praying that they have not gone into labour and given birth over night and we have not seen them. Any help, advice and suggestions would be grand thanks in advance .

Anthony & Amy

 

[elisew]

We have got some Guppies and Platies in our fish tank.. They have been in now for about 2 weeks, we have never really noticed any getting any bigger/fatter but they were quite big, we just thought they were normal as upon searching for pregnant guppies and platies they tend to look so much bigger/fatter than ours.

Anyway, me and the missus were watching the fish today when we saw a little sprog, we jumped straight to it's rescue and put it in a small container, we then found another one. The problem we have is that we have no idea who is giving birth to these little buggers and wondered if anyone could help us with finding out which one it is, we have been watching all the females for some time now and still nothing, we have also put the biggest platy into a container to see if anything comes from her but again nothing.

We are praying that they have not gone into labour and given birth over night and we have not seen them. Any help, advice and suggestions would be grand thanks in advance .

Anthony & Amy

What size is the tank?

You`ll soon get fed up with 'saving' the fry as guppies and platys are prolific breeders, you`ll likely have a constant stream of fry that you probably won`t be able to cope with. I used to keep guppies, mollies AND platys and in the end I just left the fry to their own devices, if they survived then they survived but if not then it was no real hardship, it`s nature.

Unless you have a photo I don`t think anyone would be able to tell which fry you have but by catching the fish that you think are responsible could cause them to 'implode' with stress so you might want to consider just leaving them alone

 

[eldraW]

It's a 3ft tank... Got 3 female blue platies and 5 female guppies, 2 male guppies and 1 male blue platy

we got 2 other female platys, one is orange and other is black with one male bright yellow platy.

 

[mrscullen5373]

We have got some Guppies and Platies in our fish tank.. They have been in now for about 2 weeks, we have never really noticed any getting any bigger/fatter but they were quite big, we just thought they were normal as upon searching for pregnant guppies and platies they tend to look so much bigger/fatter than ours.

Anyway, me and the missus were watching the fish today when we saw a little sprog, we jumped straight to it's rescue and put it in a small container, we then found another one. The problem we have is that we have no idea who is giving birth to these little buggers and wondered if anyone could help us with finding out which one it is, we have been watching all the females for some time now and still nothing, we have also put the biggest platy into a container to see if anything comes from her but again nothing.

We are praying that they have not gone into labour and given birth over night and we have not seen them. Any help, advice and suggestions would be grand thanks in advance .

Anthony & Amy

Congrats!
First off what do the fry(babies)look like? What colour? Any chance of some pics?

Once you know what the fry looks like that will give you a hint to what type of fish is having the babys.
Then i would look at the fishes stomach, usually when they are in the middle of giving birth (i.e. with platys and guppys) the female will have a little bump near the centre of her belly, this is what i find. http/i.ytimg.com/vi/Tw-e1IsWxOw/0.jpg

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKEHkxNhYZg&NR=1
i usually see alot of the other fish hanging around the female giving birth too. Sadly that is because they think she means food when the fry comes out

Let me know how you get on or if you need any more questions answered x x x

 

[eldraW]

Lol, thanks, they look like tadpoles lol, its really hard by looking at them to tell what they are, i'll try to get a picture now. They are a light orange/brown colour too.

The mother-in-law is off to get us a hatchery so that will be a big help too but we still need to find the mother...

I'll post picture up in around 10 minutes providing we get good enough picture

Thanks again.

 

[eldraW]

Here are the pictures that we could get, hard with the size of them like.

Hope we can get an idea from these.

 

[mrscullen5373]

Yeah guppys definatly do they look like this?

Good job so far! have you got any more questions?

 

[eldraW]

Yeah guppys definatly do they look like this?

Good job so far! have you got any more questions?

So you think it could be guppies? if it is then how do we find out who the mother is lol, what can we look at on a guppy to suggest it's in labour? I can't really tell if it looks like that as they are so small...

If only I had a magnifying glass... At times like this being 90 years old would come in handy lol...

 

[mrscullen5373]

Yes i think they are definatly guppys, i have had more than my fair share of breeding guppys (at one point i had over 96 fry from 2 females and 1 male)
Guppy fry usually are born with fat tummys which have a slight yellow sheen to them, there tails are longer than platy fry and they are nearly always clear white or grey in colour.
The only fry they tend to get mistaken for are swordtails because they too have longer tails when born, however they tend to be more colourful - i have never seen a white or grey platy/swordtail fry, they are usually bright yellow or orange.

As i said before i would have a good look at the female guppys tummys. If one of them has a small bump underbelly (like the picture) then she is still giving birth.
Alternativly look for a big black spot this is a gravid spot and usually means that the guppy is heavily pregnant and about to give birth or is giving birth.
here is a gravid female http/www.fishforever.co.uk/images/pregnantguppy.jpg

In my guppy tanks alot of the fellow fish would swim around the female as she had the babys, she would desperatly try to hide near the floor level or between plants, ontop or in cave etc
They usually are gaping a little with their mouth and are trying to hide away on their own somewhere quiet in the tank.

What colour are your female fish? (guppys) Hope this helps x x x

 

[eldraW]

The females are:

like a grey body colour, apart from one which is a light yellow with yellows, black and a little red/orange in their tails.

We have just put all the female guppies into seperate containers for now to see if any more have babies as i've read up that they like to be alone but the males seem to follow 1 or 2 of the female around, I can't see any with that lump that you mention but all 4 of them seem to have the big black spot lol.

Any other advice to give? We are in dire need of a hatchery and all pet shops are closed, we have no way of getting the babies constant filtered water from the tank but they are in a seperate little container floating in the tank, what should we do?

 

[mrscullen5373]

hmmmm tricky one

have you got any pets at home near you? they tend to close at 8pm thy will have some i am sure.

 

[eldraW]

hmmmm tricky one

have you got any pets at home near you? they tend to close at 8pm thy will have some i am sure.

Yeah we do, i'm due to go out soon too. I think were getting to lend a hatchery off the mother-in-law for tonight and then we will have to get one tomorrow

Sorry if we are being pests lol... We weren't exspecting any babies for at least a few weeks, we are both very supprised about this as the guppies when purchasing were seperated sex's.

 

[mrscullen5373]

dont worry all of us have experience the speed of guppy breeding!
All of us were first time breeders once!

Any luck with which fish it is yet?

 

[eldraW]

dont worry all of us have experience the speed of guppy breeding!
All of us were first time breeders once!

Any luck with which fish it is yet?

Nope not yet.

We have literally just sat down to eat our tea and then Amy said, baby! so we jumped up and sure enough we seen another baby in the main tank... We turned the filter off to let the water settle whilst we tried to find this little fish and then sure enough we found another two... Maybe the fish has already given birth but the fry has hidden in the pebbles as when we tried to catch one of them it dug right in deep so we going to keep a close eye on the tank.

How long could we leave the filter off for whilst doing this to make the search easier?

Can't beleive we now have 5 of the little buggers which seemed to have survived which in my book is a miracle as I know how quick they can be eaten. One of the little critters was having a swin around with the other platies and guppies without a care in the world and not one of them went for the poor thing.

 

[eldraW]

As i just posted the last post another little critter has come to light but we can't find it... They like playing games like, the birth has already been and gone by looks of it.