Pregnant guppy or just ill?

[Tiara]

Hello all. After I returned the female Dwarf Gourami to the 75l tank, I decided to buy some Guppies. I bought 4 females, but I think one of them is pregnant. Could you please tell me if she is indeed pregnant or just ill?

P. S The pics are bit blurry, but she is moving a lot.

 

[emeraldking]

She seems pregnant (not heavily, btw). And she doesn't look sick at all.

 

[Tiara]

Ohh, poor thing! She is so fat now, can imagine what she'll look like I am glad, that she is OK, not ill.

 

[Colin_T]

Normally if the fish is ill, it won't eat, might breathe heavily, might hang out by the surface or hide in a plant, and it might do a stringy white poop.

If the fish is swimming normally and eating well, then it's usually healthy.

 

[Tiara]

Ye, she seems fine. But I bought them 2 days ago and was not sure If she is ill. I have never had Guppies before.
BTW a friend of mine came this afternoon and he is sure that one of the fishes is male.... I asked specifically all to be females, cause of the reproduction. Bad luck, I suppose.

 

[Essjay]

I'm afraid buying all females won't guarantee no babies. Female guppies can store sperm, and if they've ever been in a tank with a male at the store or the wholesaler they'll be carrying sperm. They can use this sperm to fertilise batches of eggs for several months.


To tell is a guppy is male, look at the anal fin - that's the one under the body in front of the tail. If that fin is fan shaped it's a female; if it's a rod shape it's a male.

 

[Tiara]

This is not good at all.. A 30 liter will be to small if they start giving birth.
I've made a picture of the supposed male.

 

[Essjay]

The anal fin is not very clear in that photo, I'm afraid, so it's hard to say which gender it is.

 

[Tiara]

Well let's hope she is a female Don't have space for a lot of fish.. Thanks for the answer!

 

[Colin_T]

This is not good at all.. A 30 liter will be to small if they start giving birth.
I've made a picture of the supposed male.

Looks like a male with an external protozoan or bacterial infection on its back in front of the dorsal fin. It also appears bent, not sure if that's the picture.

Post more pictures and add some salt.

-------------------

SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), swimming pool salt, or any non iodised salt (sodium chloride) to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres (5 gallons) of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for 2 weeks.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.

 

[Tiara]

Hey, ye I noticed that he is more bent than the other fish, but I thought that this is maybe a different kind of Guppy, but it seems not.
Thank you very much for the salt guide, I will try to follow the instructions.
Sad, that in "reputable" fish stores they sell sick fish, especially when the client is not familiar with the fish. The store I bought the fish from is one of the largest in my city. They should be ashamed.
By the way he can live bent like that, can't he? Or is he suffering? Gosh, I even haven't any idea if this is a young or old fish. Every guppy that I got from the store seems different from the other. One has very long body, 1 is small, 1 is medium and the bent one By the way the guy chose them for me, except the smallest one, which I felt sorry for.

 

[emeraldking]

This is not good at all.. A 30 liter will be to small if they start giving birth.
I've made a picture of the supposed male.

Definitely a male. A tuxedo ivory guppy in this case.
And yes, he's bend. There are multiple reasons why a guppy will develop a bend spine. Which is not a healthy situation for such a guppy. Depending on the cause of the bend spine, it can live longer or even shorter.

 

[Colin_T]

It depends on what causes the bend. Sometimes they get growths/ tumors inside them that puts pressure on the spine and causes bends. Other times it's a genetic deformity and other times it's caused by a disease like a bacterial or protozoan infection. You can't do anything about growths and tumors or genetic issues. External bacterial and protozoan infections can usually be treated with salt or other medications.

Male guppies are generally around 6 months of age when sold at shops but sometimes they might be younger (3 months) or older (12 months).

Guppies are riddled with health issues due to inbreeding and massive production lines whereby 1000s of fish are kept in filthy ponds while growing up at the fish farms. Salt is one of the things that treats a lot of guppy issues. You can also look into deworming them. Section 3 of the following link has info on deworming fish.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

 

[Jinx_]

They're always gonna be pregnant if store or anywhere else mixed them with males. As it was already mentioned, they also store sperm.

 

[Tiara]

Thank you very much for the help, advises and information, guys. You are great!
I guess salt, treatment and time will show what is going to happen.
I don't think I will buy guppies again. Now that I think of it, buying a Betta was way better.
Not to mention that I don't have any space for additional babies, if the fish is pregnant and one of the "females" is male..... Just a nightmare. The other tank is already at max capacity, also the current from the filter there will be too strong for guppies. On other hand I can put the male there (he is not too big), but I don't think he will feel comfortable. Guess I have to figure things out, given the situation.