Why do babies keep appearing?

[SparkysBois]

Hi, its my first time owning fish and I recently got 3 female guppies.

After the first week, there were around 7 babies in the tank. Each week, new babies would arrive, around 2-3 at a time. I cleared out everything from the tank to make sure that they were new ones and not just hiding. The first batch are about 5 weeks old now. There have been no new babies for around 3 weeks now, so I assumed that they were all done. Today I cleaned the tank out, took everything out, and once everything was back in for about 20 mins, I noticed that there were three new babies.

Why do so many babies keep appearing?

 

[Essjay]

If your guppies have ever been in a tank with a male guppy (at the fish store for example) they will be carrying packets of sperm. They use these sperm packets to fertilise their eggs, and can continue to have fry every month for a year even in a tank with no male guppy. Your females will continue to have fry every month for some time yet.

If any male fry escape notice, as soon as they mature they will impregnate the females you bought and any female fry in the tank, leading to yet more fry.

They are called 'millions fish' for a reason........

 

[SparkysBois]

Uh oh . Its my first time owning fish so I never found any information on that sort of thing when researching before I bought them! it was totally a surprise when I found them in my tank, the pet store had not told me they had been with male fish. I don't have any male fish, so hopefully they run out of sperm soon and stop having babies.

 

[SparkysBois]

Also thanks for the info - I went to a whole load of websites and couldn't find anything online so this was really helpful.

 

[Essjay]

Does your pet store keep male and female guppies in different tanks? Most stores keep mixed tanks. Though all it needs is one male to accidentally be put in a female tank and every female in there will soon be carrying sperm packets.


If you ever decide to branch out with platies, mollies, swordtails, endlers, the females of these species also store sperm packets.

 

[Essjay]

The best website for fish research is Seriously Fish.

Knowledge Base — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

They do mention guppies storing sperm but it is one sentence in a profile, which could easily be missed.

 

[Colin_T]

LOL, with titles like this, I am going to have fun with this.

Why do babies keep appearing?

Well first there a boys and girls. When a boy fish sees a girl fish he likes, he goes over to her and says "hi baby, wanna hang out?" She might say yes or she might tell him to nick off. Being a boy guppy he probably won't take no for an answer and will harass her and her friends until she gives in. After this happens he will swim off and brag to his mates about how he scored with this easy fish over there. His mates will tell him they also scored with her. Meanwhile she will be telling her friends she was harassed and pestered into rudies.

A month later and out come the babies

 

[SparkysBois]

Yea, they had seperate tanks for the females and the males so that's why I was confused as to how they got pregnant!

 

[Slaphppy7]

LOL, with titles like this, I am going to have fun with this.

Why do babies keep appearing?

Well first there a boys and girls. When a boy fish sees a girl fish he likes, he goes over to her and says "hi baby, wanna hang out?" She might say yes or she might tell him to nick off. Being a boy guppy he probably won't take no for an answer and will harass her and her friends until she gives in. After this happens he will swim off and brag to his mates about how he scored with this easy fish over there. His mates will tell him they also scored with her. Meanwhile she will be telling her friends she was harassed and pestered into rudies.

A month later and out come the babies

 

[Slaphppy7]

Question:

Why do babies keep appearing?​

Answer: Livebearers

 

[Essjay]

Yea, they had seperate tanks for the females and the males so that's why I was confused as to how they got pregnant!

A few possibilites:

There was a male in the tank but they sold it before you went there or spotted it and removed it before you went.
There was a male in the tank which did not have a long tail and was mistaken for a female.
The wholesaler kept them together and the store sorted them into different tanks when they arrived.


I've never been in a store where they keep males and females in separate tanks.

 

[Colin_T]

I've never been in a store where they keep males and females in separate tanks.

In Australia guppies are imported as males or females and most shops have tanks for males and tanks for females. We do it so customers can see the price difference between males and females, with males being more expensive than females due to their colours and fins.

This doesn't stop customers buying gravid (pregnant) females because the females get knocked up at the breeders.

 

[Essjay]

The OP's location is New Zealand - is it the same there?

The breeder keeping them together is one I missed on my list.

 

[Slaphppy7]

A few possibilites:

There was a male in the tank but they sold it before you went there or spotted it and removed it before you went.
There was a male in the tank which did not have a long tail and was mistaken for a female.
The wholesaler kept them together and the store sorted them into different tanks when they arrived.


I've never been in a store where they keep males and females in separate tanks.

"I've never been in a store where they keep males and females in separate tanks."

Neither have I...most of them can't even tell the difference, IME

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Strange...I've only known shops that keep 'em seperate and that now includes my two new closest.