kati_v123

I have had my 3 original female guppies for around 3 months, and when i bought them they were "boxy, squared off" and had a gravid spot. They looked like they were about to pop. And they still look like that. One of my females gave birth to 4 fully developed guppy fry about 2wks ago, only two made it and the rest were bits n pieces or undeveloped fry.

Are they pregnant or just fat i have read alot online and they look just like the guppy pics that are about to give birth.. but they still havent..

I have now got another female (now 4) and 6 males. I know that i need more female ratio to males but they arent breeding and i really want them to.

Please help.

thanks

Kati

Shawnie

welcome to fishlore!!!

guppies will breed full developed fry ..they are livebearers ...and they will also eat their fry as fast as they spawn them..so that could have been whats going on....you deffinately need more fems or return some males or they will hound the fems to death..literally....every 28 days or so, guppies will spawn..and they can carry sperm without a male present for months....goodluck!

Llama

To summerize: Be careful what you wish for

kati_v123

i know they are livebearers but some of the dead fry were half incased in what looked like eggs. She never ate any of her fry as i had her in a breeding trap and was checkin in on her.
So do you think my other two original females are pregnant? as they have their darkened gravid spot etc..?

also the female that gave birth didnt slim down, she stayed fat and still has her gravid spot...

Jonah

If a guppy, or any other livebearer, is stressed she can hold on to the fry, or abort them early.. Simply putting her in the breeder trap too early could stress her, and she can hold on for up to 42 days if it takes her fancy.

You can see gravid spots on female guppys even if they are not pregnant by the way, i have quite a few at 2 -3 month old in my fry tanks which clearly show gravid spots but they are in all female tanks.

having said that once they have been with a male they can hold sperm and keep breeding for up to 6 months !

i also meant to add that the problem with guppys is not getting them to breed, but stoping them! If your find that they are holding on to fry something is upsetting them, it may be the tankmates or it may be the tank, the water params may be wrong or they just may not feel secure, provide a sheltered quite area in one part of the tank where the current is lowest and they will always use that spot i have found.

kati_v123

well i only put them into the breeding trap for a day and then released them again since there were no fry and didnt want to stress them. Nw ive just gave up with moving them as its like they're all sterile lol

Jonah

Oh I also meant to say Hi and welcome

Added a bit more for you above

kati_v123

they have a sheltered area near the heater and above the filter so there is hardly any current. where two of the "pregnant?" guppies sit. They seem happy enough don't know what would be upsetting them, i did have a siamese fighter at the beginning but got rid of it wihin a few days as one of my male guppies had lost part of a tail, but that was weeks and weeks ago.

and thanks for the welcome

kati_v123

the views are high but yet only 7 replies.. please any ideas or opinions would be appreciated

Shawnie

im not sure how anyone can tell you if your guppies are pregnant or not...thats something you would have to know yourself or wait and see..jonah gave you great advice and his breeding guppies are amazing so im sure he has awesome experience that he shared most wont comment after you already got advice..no need repeating information over and over

catfishlover123

Livebeares babies will come out, one by one till you have a whole lot of them.

COBettaCouple

Welcome to Fishlore!

It might be that they were running out of steam and had the last batch of fry from the pregnancy that started before you got them and they could also be chubby guppies.. we had some platys that definitely fit that description. Fry like that could also result from poor tank conditions at the store and/or in-store inbreeding.