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September 15th, 2008
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| PLATY'S & GUPPYS: are they pregnant
Hi There,
I am new to Tropical fish and have only had my tank running for almost a month.
However: I have lots of guppys, there are 2 males to the 1 female (ratio), and 2 different types of platys.
My probl;em is I cant quite tell if they have been have extra curricular avtivities, and are pregnant! can anyone please help.. as the red platys look fit to burst!
thank you.... | 
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September 15th, 2008
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| | Fish Master
| They all look knocked up to me lol | |
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September 15th, 2008
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Hiya..
I thought they all looked a bit pregnant, but none of them appear to have a gravid spot  ? | |
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September 15th, 2008
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| | Fish Mentor
| The one in the third picture is definately pregnant... the others might be, but I cant see their anal fin to check for the gravid spot. | |
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September 15th, 2008
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| | King of Curt
| The third pic is definately pregnant, as the others said. I believe the rest of them are also, and would lay odds of 99.9% on that belief. 
Most platies and guppies will eat their fry, as will other fish that may be in the aquarium with them. Each female will drop every 28-32 days as long as she doesn't abort the batch of fry for some reason. (Reasons could include stress, lack of proper nutrition, etc.) They store sperm for upwards of 6 months and can continue to drop fry for that entire period of time (every 28-32 days for that 6 month period or a bit more) even after being seperated from males. | |
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September 16th, 2008
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Hi There,
Thanks for that.. I have a birthing hatch witha floating floor! I'm just not sure when the best time to put her in is? it's difficult lookig out for signs, as i have 2 that are identical, and lots of fish in a very big tank! | |
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September 16th, 2008
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| | King of Curt
| Yeah, it is quite difficult with some of the platies to tell when they drop their fry.
Guppies begin to get a square-ish shape to their chest about 24-48 hours before dropping fry. With the platies I would try to look atleast once or twice a day, every day, for fry until you spot some and then try to figure out which female shows the signs of the stress of giving birth. Those signs would include appearing to hyperventilate, very fast pectoral fin movement, staying near the very top or very bottom of the tank (not in the middle), and hiding in plants/caves/etc. Once you identify which one is dropping fry you will know that she will go again in 28-32 days and you could isolate her in 27 days.
I know that sounds like a lot of work, but that's what we do with some of our more endangered/expensive swordtails, and it tends to work pretty well. (And it is only a lot of work the first time, then it is just marking the calendar.) | |
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September 28th, 2008
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| | Fish Addict
| all of them look prego, have fun with the fry | |
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September 29th, 2008
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| None of them have dropped yet, despite us putting them in the floating box for 24 hours, so i dont quite know whats going on. we have jhad them for about 6-7 weeks now, so surley if they were they would have had them by now. | |
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September 29th, 2008
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| | King of Curt
| I just noticed in the first post you said 2 males per 1 female... that is the opposite ratio that almost everyone accepts as a general rule of thumb. Most livebearers are best kept, if breeding, in 1 male per 2, or more, females.
They probably did drop and ate the fry. Sometimes you'll even get the other fish chase the female around as she is dropping the fry, so that they can eat them fresh.  | |
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September 29th, 2008
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Thats what I thought, (about them dropping and then eating the fry) but my two yellow guppies are still huge and still have the gravid spot with quite visible black pin pricks,
One was constantly floating at the top of the tank so she is now in the floating box, another of my female guppies died, im sure she was pregnant, and it looked like her intestines had spilled out... (nice) | |
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September 29th, 2008
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| | Fish Addict
| that's discusting, though sorry for the loss of your fish! You still will have a lot of fry. | |
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September 30th, 2008
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| So after my thread yesterday,
I decided to give it another go with the hatching tank, i popped in a yellow and a black guppie, On of the little buggers had 10 BABY FRY, which are now in there own nursary tank and doing well so far, however they still look big,So im just alternating the ones that i know are defiantly pregnant, the catch yesterday was just a fluke i reckon. | |
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September 30th, 2008
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| | Fish Addict
| well, goood luck!!! | |
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October 18th, 2008
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Hi There,
UPDATE!!
So to date, all of my 4 female guppies have given birth!
I think if my maths are right i have 70 + babies. I did top just over 100 but, some died, and some were dead when coming out, the bloody angels sucked the rest out of the hatchery! I'm now down to diary dates with the guppys, and thats just so much easier.
I'm now working on the Platys.. Not as easy, any Advice on the platy's would be greatly recieved.
I'm now up to 5 tropical tanks,so having been quite new at this Im now loving it.
I have just bought my fith setup today, off of ebay, and it came with fish included..
One of them.. a male siamese fighter, and this got me thinking, does anyone out there have any tips on breeding him I dont have a clue, and would love to give it a go!
I will psot some picturesof the babies but its letting me this evening.
Any advice greatly recieved as always.
Regards,
Jamie | |
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