Pregnant Guppies - save fry or let nature do it's thing?

Some of my female guppies are showing early stages of pregnancy and I was wondering if I should either isolate the mother and attempt to save all (or most) of the fry or let natural selection do its thing? I read online that guppy fry that survive in a tank filled with adults will be better in terms of survivability but my tank isn't that heavily planted to provide enough cover (I'll include a picture of my tank so you can see for yourself) so I'm worried that not a lot will survive anyway. If I were to go with the isolation way, when should I move my pregnant guppy? I have a 0.5 gallon bowl that I can put her in but I also made a DIY breeder trap out of a plastic bottle so which one would be a better choice? (Note: I have a 13 gallon tank). In the end, I am fine with either option it's just that I want to know which one will be a better choice. Thanks for answering (if you do answer)!

Picture of my tank:

 

Beautiful tank!

What you do depends on how many fry you can or want to support. Female guppies can have many, many babies in one pregnancy. I've had anywhere from 4 to 40 healthy little kiddos swimming around, depending on the female. You have some good ground cover in your tank, but there is a chance many would be eaten. How many fish total are in the tank and of what type? Do you have any male guppies in the same tank?

 

So far I only have 4 guppies (one male and three females) and no other fish species (I'm planning on doing a guppy only tank). Aww the poor guys Well what do you think of this tactic; I won't do a thing to the tank when a guppy gives birth and see how many survive. If none survive then I'm going try the isolation way but even if only one survives, I'll be happy with the results because I don't want my tank to be overcrowded. I'm thinking of buying a Java Fern as more cover and maybe a couple of more fake plants. What do you think?

 

Honestly I have Platy mixed with Guppies and I have not had a problem. I have about 4-5 clumps of Hornwort off in a corner of my tank and as soon as the fry come out, their instinct is to swim up and into cover. I have found that I have retained approx. 75-80%. I have almost no ground cover. The fry really enjoyed the Hornwort. As far as isolating the mom, I would absolutely recommend against this. Every time I isolated my preggo fish, they had a miscarriage of some sort and I got to be honest, I felt really bad about the whole ordeal. I will never, ever isolate a fish again. I hope the info helps. Good luck..

-Cam

 

It sure did! I'll see to it that I get more plants such as a Hornwort and I'll see what happens, thanks for everything!

 

More or less, the Hornwort is approximately $3.50 at my LFS and this stuff grows super quick. Get some and maybe some Java Moss to get a little bit of a nature touch on the rocks.. Please post some pics as you get further along I would love to see them.

-Cam

 

Sounds like you're on the right track! Those females will be constantly getting pregnant if they are around a male. They are busy little fish! I think nature's course is your best bet if you don't want only one gender

 

Floating plants will greatly increase the survival rate for guppies, since the fry mostly hang out at the top. Anacharis also makes good floating fry cover, and it's super easy. Good luck!

 

Sounds like you're on the right track! Those females will be constantly getting pregnant if they are around a male. They are busy little fish! I think nature's course is your best bet if you don't want only one gender

While this is correct, The female can become pregnant three times from one encounter with a male... You can separate them and still have to worry about fry. This is where the floating, bushy, plants come in

 

True, though I would not provide too much extra cover if you don't necessarily have space for all of the grown fry, or at least a good home to send fry if the tank becomes overcrowded

 

My LFS said that they are willing to take in some guppies when the time comes

 

Wonderful news!!

 

Great news. An LFS may not give you money or in-store credit for the fry but they can definitely make sure that your tank is not over crowded. My LFS told me that they would give me in-store credit for my fry, offering more for the rare, hybrid breed of platy that I made but they have to get to a certain size first. At least that is what they told me.