What Is Your Guys' Average Fry Numbers Per Drop?

[TheShrimpGirl]

My fish are very healthy, but I never get more than about 15-20 fry in one drop. The average being 10 fry.

"50-60 or more fry in one drop every six weeks! meaning 100's of fry!" is generally the advice and warning I see passed around here.

I am just wondering what you guys average as far as fry numbers.

I know that 60 is the most they can have, but what is the everyday number of fry per drop and thus, the expected outcome from a pregnant live bearer.

 

[Neptune54]

My average for platies is 17 (but I've only had one drop)!

 

[snazy]

I depends on the age as well. The older they get the more fry they give birth to at once.
What type of livebearer are we talking about?

 

[OldMan47]

A lot depends on the species and the maturity of the fish. A quite mature goodeid is going to go about 10 to 15 fry. A mature platy, molly or swordtail will be over 30 fry. A mature domestic guppy will drop around 20 to 30 fry but a wild one will only drop about 3 or 4 fry, based on surveys done in the wild using small creeks that can be accurately counted.

 

[LucyB]

I usually get about 18/19

 

[Ny82]

I got my first fry a month ago and there was only 1. A week ago I found a newborn fry-again just 1 but it died. I am hoping I get more with the next one!

 

[TheShrimpGirl]

I am just talking live bearers in general and comparisons of species, age, etc. as a bit of reference for newcomers.

I am mainly attempting to shed a bit of light on the subject and avoid the misconception of 60 fry per drop and hundreds of fry over running your tank.

Seems to me that the average to expect with a guppy is 15 and average to expect with a sword tail/platy is 25. Give or take.

 

[snazy]

In relation to livebearers any number of fry per birth is going to overstock your tank pretty quick regarldess. Most people keep livebearers like guppies and platies in 10 or 20G, max 30G tanks if the fish are lucky. It will be pretty quickly overstocked unless the fry keep dying for other reasons. So the number is irrelevant considering some live bearers can give birth every 3 weeks(one of my guppies was like a clockwork)

 

[Joanne_]

For me with guppies, on average 13.

 

[sammy8765]

i had 6 females at one point and the first one that had babies only had 4 then another had 2 and then one of them had over 15, I;ve been told that the more times a guppy has fry the more fry she ends up having

 

[jocie1976]

My platys usually drop about 20-25, my guppies usually drop 30-40, and my endlers usually drop about 20-25. And they all usually drop at least once a month, although my platys are getting old and hardly ever drop anymore.

 

[noor]

20 - 30 guppy fry.

 

[lolobunnz]

When I see fry in my tanks I usuall find about 12ish. I keep platy. Ive seen one of my females get much larger than usual when she was pregnant once. She looked like the many videos you see on youtube of large births. I would have to say with my limited experience that a number in the teens is most common but larger births of near 40ish arent that rare either.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

My guppies used to have 20-30 on average. I had one that averaged 40 and had given birth once to well over 70 (counting went a bit off after I counted 73).

My first (and only) platy to have babies had 25 (took me ages to find the last two who were super hiders).

 

[cpwebsite]

Many of my younger ones get around 20, but the one thats been with me the longest gives birth to around 60 at a time.