Guppies and Endlers - Best at Hiding a Pregnancy

So, I have a little bit of a conundrum. Well perhaps it's the fish. How do you tell whether they're gravid or not? I wouldn't know since everything I've read online says the same thing "look at the gravid spot". I do, and, unless my fish are sleeping, there is always a gravid spot. In the past I've had guppies, and I can never tell when they've been gravid, unless they are heavily gravid. They are either fat or they aren't. With my current endlers, they show no signs of being gravid until I wake up to 1 new, adorable baby. I have two female endlers and one male who have been quarantining for much longer than necessary, since they are unable to go to their new home. Gerald(male guppy) has recently been moved out to another aquarium in my house so that the quarantine doesn't get to crowded. I'm confused as to why the two endlers (Joan & Jenny) have not been having more babies than they have, which I was hoping would make it more obvious when they are gravid. But no. The first time, there were 4 babies, the second 1, and yesterday - guess what - 1. I've come to the conclusion that you can't tell when a live bearer is gravid because they are masters of disguise. But if anyone out there has any tips or tricks to getting them to spill the beans, I'd love to hear.


P.S - I've had more success with telling when guppies are gravid because they mostly got a little more fat then normal. They are also not as stealthy.

 

It is sometimes hard to tell with them!
They will get slightly bigger and squared off. They also normally go into a hiding spot, so they can deliver there fry alone. Also fry can be eaten and hard to find, so there probably was more than 1.

 

Works that way with our platies a lot too...some you can almost never tell, cuz some of our girls get HUGE and some barely change then one day you walk out to the tank and "oh, we got a boxy one here!"

 

Well, not all pregnant female livebearers will square off when they're due. A squared off female, means only that she stook her max gestation period before dropping any fry. And yes, the other female gets bigger than another female. Size when pregnant only tells if the number of fry will be high or low. Or that she will have smaller or bigger newborns. So, you just can not compare every livebearer female with another eventhough they're from the same species.
Then the "gravid spot"... noticing a gravid spot itself, doesn't say anything about a pregnancy itself. Also a non pregnant female can show a gravid spot. The gravid spot is only a piece of translucent skin. Nothing more! What's inside of the female (intestines, eggs or embryos) will shine through that piece of translucent skin. That's why it seems darker in comparison to the rest of the skin.
I know that a lot of people claim that when you see a gravid spot, that such a female must be pregnant. Not to be disrespectful, but that would be nonsense if someone claims that. To repeat myself, a non pregnant female shows also a gravid spot.
But note this... there are also ovoviviparous livebearer species where a female never shows a gravid spot. You just need to know what kind of livebearer species we're talking about to know wether a gravid spot will be present or not.

 

Oh yes, real endlers don't tend to eat their offspring. So, you can keep the newborns with the adults. Which also means that no hiding spots are needed for the fry.

 

I just operate under the assumption that the answer is always “yes”. Unless it’s been separated from males pretty much since birth, I just assume the baby factory is running.

“I know that a lot of people claim that when you see a gravid spot, that such a female must be pregnant. Not to be disrespectful, but that would be nonsense if someone claims that. To repeat myself, a non pregnant female shows also a gravid spot”

OMG THANK YOU!!! That is all over the place “if it’s dark, it’s pregnant” to the point that it’s truth. Yet my reality aligns with your post.