Egg bound guppy? Getting big but no babies??

[jkh772]

Greeting Fish friends,

My female guppies have been getting big for a LONG time. These ladies dropped some babies at the beginning of summer, but have been really big for over a month.  They are otherwise acting very healthy and normal with a good appetite and lots of poop.  I've heard people talking about "egg bound" fish but I'm not sure what that is or what can be done about it.   To my understanding, guppies should hold for about 1 mo, but they have been this big for at least that long.  

Any tips?

20G planted tank- guppies, shrimp, snails

zero Nitrate/nitrate. pH 6.8, temp 76-78F

feeding tropical flake + brine shrimp 1-2/week

Thanks!

[Guppysnail]

Egg bound is when a fish that drops eggs instead of live birthing cannot pass their eggs.  Guppies do not suffer this however on rare occasions a baby can have a defect and get stuck causing them not to be able to birth fry.

Guppies can birth when they choose or they can absorb the embryo if conditions are not good. Guppies do need hardness in the water. What is your kh/gh  your ph is a bit low guppies prefer higher ph. 

Your girls look healthy. Try changing up their diet and offering more variety. 30 days is just a rough number  28-45 days is the actual range I’ve seen in guppies  

 

[jkh772]

Thanks for the reassurance.  My water is super hard (GH 300). My group of guppies have been breeding decently since i got them a year ago, but they seem to be holding them alot longer than what I'm reading online (seeing fry every 3-4 months).  I'm not trying to overwork them, but just wanted to make sure i'm not missing something. 

Thanks!

[Guppysnail]

On 9/9/2024 at 11:09 PM, jkh772 said:

Thanks for the reassurance.  My water is super hard (GH 300). My group of guppies have been breeding decently since i got them a year ago, but they seem to be holding them alot longer than what I'm reading online (seeing fry every 3-4 months).  I'm not trying to overwork them, but just wanted to make sure i'm not missing something. 

Thanks!

In my experience guppies do not breed indefinitely.  They have a time where they produce lots and as they get older they slow down.  My guppies had long lifespans and would eventually stop producing fry all together.  
 

[Zac P]

Very cool I had picked up a hitchhiker guppy when I got some new floating plants someone told me it was a silver guppy? Not too sure but about a month or so later there was guppy fry swimming around I have now about 6-8 fry all various sizes the bigger ones are starting to get color patterns with I thought was super cool two of them have blue and orange on their bodies one also has a white stripe on the top of its tail fin some others have symmetrical black dots on each side of body and back of tail right before the tail fin! There are two like these pictures except only one of the two have that streak of color on the top of tail fin … some of the others only have the black dots 

Edited September 12 by Zac P