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First Pregnant Guppy


Cinnebuns
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My guppy has been pregnant for almost a month now. I have researched and prepared a lot for this but I think I messed something up. She was looking boxy and hiding and showing almost all the signs of giving birth soon for about 2 or 3 days so I decided to put her in my 5-gallon to give birth. I used the same water from the tank she's in so the parameters were the same. She freaked out and after 30 min I put her back in my main tank. I immediately noticed her belly was smaller. I wonder if she absorbed the fry. It has been 2 days since then and she's been constantly grazing on all the decor and has grown slightly but isn't as large as she was when I initially put her in the 5-gallon. 

What do you think happened?  Should I now leave her alone until she gives birth and not relocate her ever again?  I really wanna raise the fry in the 5-gallon so ideally she would give birth there but idk if it will work. 

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Could you post a few pictures? 

From the way you described it, it sounds like the fish did in fact give birth, so I would double check the tank for fry. If there are no hiding places for the fry(plants, decorations, .etc) then the female most likely ate all of them. Don’t feel bad about it, it is just a part of nature, and the female will probably be dropping more within a month.

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Different things. Tropical flakes, blood worms, bug bites, vibra bites and blanched cucumber. I've been advised to do frozen brine for both adults and fry and will eventually add that in. Will for fry first cause I have so much adult food right now. 

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1 male 1 female. Originally I had 2 "females" until I realized 1 was actually a male and I rehomed it. My male doesn't seem to harass the female tho so I left it be. Parameters today are decent but not perfect. I have been battling a crashed cycle. Today was close to perfect but the past week or 2 hasn't been. 

I have been regularly dosing prime to reduce stress during the crashed cycle. 

I got some more filter media that just came in the mail to prevent the mistake I made that crashed the cycle too. But that's def a source of stress for her the past 2 weeks. She had some red gills for a few days at one point. 

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For anything cycling related, I rely on Dr. Tims one and only. It is a little pricey, but it fully cycles the tank within 48 hours. It also neutralizes all the ammonia and nitrites for 48 hours, so by that time, the bacteria in the bottle will have converted all of it into nitrates, which plants and water changes will remove. The link is for 120 gallons, so get a smaller size. Just note that it can’t be overdosed.

The crash is probably what caused the issue, but there is a chance that is was the male. With my fish, whenever I’m in the room, they are all crazy, so I set up a camera to see what they do when I’m not around, and low and behold, all the males harass the females.

My rule of thumb is for every 1 male in the tank, have at least 3 females. That is so that the male can’t harass all of them at once, so the females end up getting a break.

The red gills mean ammonia burn, so I really recommend Dr. Tims for that. Also, on top of the head, there is usually a brownish or pinkish spot. If that spot turns reddish-brown, you had better check your water parameters.

The best part about guppies is their hardiness, so I expect a full recovery. As long as the tank is cycled, and the water parameters are at least decent, they will breed like crazy.

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Ok ty so much for that. Sounds like its likely she did lose them to stress via water parameters from crashed cycle and possibly the male. My ultimate plan would have the male and female seperate most of the time, maybe I should start that now. The male would stay where they both are now and the female would go into a 10-gallon with an ember tetra school and either nerite or mystery snails, yet to be determined. 

It makes me curious about her pregnancy status now. She's def gotten a lot bigger the last 2 days and her gravid spot is pronounced and dark. She constantly grazes and I rarely see her not munching off of the decor and such. I hesitate to move her when she seems close to giving birth again since that 30 min in the 5 gallon is when her belly size changed.   

Let me know if you think this makes sense. Keep her with the male in the current tank until she gives birth. After that move her to the 10 gallon. Leave the fry to hide in the floating plants for about a week then try to move them to the 5 gallon. 

I'm hoping to not have to have her give birth in her "home" tank every time so I don't have to move fry but if that's what best I will do it.  Unless maybe you think with stable, healthy water parameters that the stress of moving her to give birth would be fine. That could be what happened. Like 1 stressor is enough but both combined was too much.  

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Sometimes female guppies can abort the fry due to stress. I'm guessing when you moved her to the 5 gallon she must of done that. Next time just leave her in the regular tank that she was in and add floating plants. I have done that and have found myself with more guppies then I can handle. Good luck with her next time. 

On 1/7/2022 at 4:22 PM, Guppy Guy said:

You are doing great. The fish looks very healthy, and the male is gorgeous!

This sound awkward, but look at the females gravid spot. If it is reddish or a light gray, it will be awhile before she drops more fry. If it is a dark black, she will drop them within a few days.

True but lighter colored guppies like this one have a lighter colored gravid spot. So it's harder to tell.

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Your girl will be fine whether she absorbed some/all birthed a few or she may have dropped undeveloped eggs which is more probable since the size decrease occurred so quickly. I never move females especially pregnant close to term. In my experience moving them before or even after causes stress and either a hard time delivering, a hard time recovering or stress will cause them to eat as many fry as possible even more so than normal. Float some plants. Fry have strong flight reflex and are stronger swimmers due to short tail and are much faster than adults. 
Guppy fry need light for straight spines because they go still in dark to keep away from predators instinctually. The light keeps them moving developing the muscles around the spine. Same as humans who are extremely sedentary they have weak backs and often poor posture that long term causes spine deformation. Low light is fine but I keep my guppies in light whether it’s tank lights on or off with room light on/sunlight from windows for 12 hours a day. Except for 2 guppies that were stuck in a birth canal and finally popped out when mom passed away trying to birth them I have never had spinal issues but this may be because I do not allow inbreeding with parent or siblings 🤷‍♀️  
sit back and enjoy your tank. I promise you will find fry to move to your grow out and before you know it you will have more than you ever imagined. Best of luck baby pics when you get fry please 😁

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On 1/7/2022 at 8:08 PM, Cinnebuns said:

@Guppy Guy @Taco Playz another random question. I was told yesterday that fry need a decent amount of light to prevent crooked spines. That seems odd to me. Is that true?  If so I will need to take some different steps if they go in the 5 gallon because the lights are above the hood not under it. 

Never heard of that before. I have TopFin starter kit lights on my guppy fry tank and they are perfectly fine with no bad spines.

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On 1/7/2022 at 9:10 PM, Levi_Aquatics said:

I rarely have issues with bent spines and I do not have any strong lights over my guppy aquariums. I’d guess this is probably just a myth. 

It is a myth they need light but it does not need to be strong at all just enough they stay swimming and don’t go still. 

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