Mumsnet Talk

My guppy has been pregnant fro what seems like forever , she's now become very restless, the males are really anoying her so i have stuck her in my breeding net (which is very large so plenty of room to swim around) but still no sign of fry, i let her out for a short time last night but the males started on her and she's too big to swim away from them, so she's now back in the net, she's breathing fast and not very active now, i'm worried if she doesnt give birth soon she will die , she's still eating (which is a good sign), she must have a lot of fry in her but its worrying that she has been like this for so long (has been squared off for a month).

Please send good birthing vibes to Mrs. Gupppy I'm sat here with the lights of, TV turned down in hope she will drop her fry.

Good luck, Mrs Guppy- puuuuuush! Have you got some java moss or something you can put in there make her feel more secure? Tiny little birthing ball? Entonox?

Have put a small plant in with here, she looks quite chilled out but still no sign of fry, she seems to have a dark spot on her side, not sure what this is? hope she's ok.

Does it look like this? That's a gravid spot, it means she's getting close!

Is this the first live fish birth thread?

She's twice as big as that guppy, her gravid spot is huge, have been able to see fishy eyes for a few weeks now but now she has a darker spot on her side (almost like a bruise). I lost my favorite guppy last week, i thought she was close to having fry as she was acting oddly, i put her in the net and she died withing a few minutes so she must have been poorly i just hope this one isn't poorly. I think she is what they call a 'giant guppy' she is bigger than my others and should have quite a lot of fry if she ever decided to drop them. I will try and put a picture on my profile but its hard to see her as she's in the net.

Have put 2 pic's up but they were taken yesterday before the black spot apeared on her side. How long cam i leave her in the net? trouble is if i let her out she just gets bullied , i dont want her to die of stress from either.

If the males are bothering her too much then potentially you have too high a ratio of males to females in your tank.

Also, you do know that the majority of fry will be eaten don't you?

Leave her in there until the fry are born if she's getting bullied. How many males and females do you have? THe ratio should be at least 2 females to every male.

Wannabe- i am hoping most will get eaten , i am over run with fry from the other females, would be happy if no more than 10 survive. I do have too many males (probably 4 or 5 and 5 females) i also have some younger females in the tank (my larger fry) but they are not sexualy mature yet. The females were in my other tank but their fry kept getting eaten by my danios (or the female betta), i seems to save more fry in my big tank as there are lots of hiding places. I have never had a guppy have her fry in the net, have not been able to catch them in time, i must have around 50 fry at the moment (mainly guppies and a few mollys) which is why i was going to let her give birth in the tank in hope they would get eaten but i cant if the males keep picking on her.

Just noticed she has not eaten the flakes i gave her this morning so hopfully thats a sign that she is close and not a sign she is poorly.

Still no fry

Maybe she'll pop overnight. If there's a light in the tank, try turning it off.

Light has been off most of the day (had it turned on for a couple hours this afternoon). They do tend to give birth in the night or early morning so maybe she would have popped by the morning.

One of my other guppies is now dying, he's my eldest guppy (have had him sinse the start) so maybe just dying of old age, also have another female who is squared off but isn't realy due until next week (was around 3 weeks ago she had the last lot).

Blimey, I don't think I'll ever keep guppies- sounds stressful!

Any news? Hope you've come down this morning to some fry!
I've never, ever been able to keep guppies successfuly!

Nothing , sadly i dont think she will ever give birth, she has been pregnant for months (sinse i bought her), maybe she cant physicly give birth?, i might have to kick her out into the other tank (if the danios dont chase her) as i think the other guppy will give birth before her.

Guppys are a pain, i love having fry but they do seem to be harder to keep then some fish, my old guppy died last night (he was my pretty yellow snake skin with a huge tail), they always seem to be giving birth or dying, i'm tempted to replace them with platy.

She would have died already if it'd been the same batch of fry the whole time. They can sometimes get one stuck and die during birth. I wouldn't move her, the stress during labour can really mess things up. Fingers crossed that she'll pop them out soon!

The problem with guppies is that they are so very inbred- they've been line bred entirely for looks and as a result their health has really suffered. Same with fancy goldfish. There aren't any restrictions about breeding fish like there are with dogs so you end up with some real mutants

Could you try a water change? Can stimulate fish to spawn sometimes, maybe it will have a similar effect on livebearers?

I found guppies were a bit hit and miss but then I only had a few males in a pretty large tank. A few of them lived a couple of years, that was the top end. They tended to get sick and / or die whenever I went on holiday and trusted someone else to look after the tanks! So obviously very fragile when it comes to water quality varying.

Platys were a lot more robust.

She deffently hasn't had any fry for at least 2 months, last time i had fry she was in the net (3 weeks ago) and 2 others had fry in the tank (around 30 fry), she has been in and out of the net and hasnt changed size, gravid spot has not change and no sign of any fry

Have tried water cahnges but nothing. Maybe she's just bloated, should i give her a few peas? she seems to be pooing ok. Maybe she needs a c-section .

Why have you put her in the net if you don't want to raise the fry?

Give her a bit more time. I had long labours and hated being rushed

Because i'm worried the other guppies would kill her (or stress her out so much she dies), if i do get fry i will probably still save them from getting eaten because i'm too soft, will just mean my other fry will have to go to their new home a bit early (i would have liked to have kept them longer to see their colours).

She still seems happy in the net (well happier then she would be in the tank) but keeps looking at me as if to say 'dont rush me' , will leave her in their for now, the males are swimming around the net as if they are waiting to eat her fry (i think they are getting fed up of waiting too).

You mentioned keeping platys instead of guppys. Until now, I've had platys in every single tank I've kept and I think the only one that died was one that came to me in a very poor state from pets at home. They are sooo easy to keep, and although they aren't as stunning as guppies can be, they can be very vibrant.
I would love some in my current tank but not sure my angel and rams would like them?

Hope she's still doing ok!

She's doing ok, she keeps going to the bottom of the net and lying quite still like she's going to give birth and then she has a burst of energy and starts swimming around again.

I think i will look into platy's after christmas (when i have sold some fry and have the room).

Endlers are another option, they are smaller than platys and have fantastic colours. Some shops are a bit confusing because they are sometimes labelled as wild guppies, but they're a different species, although they can interbreed so shouldn't be kept together.

Endlers seem to be hard to find here, i looked for some a while ago but only one shop had them and they only had 2 left , there is a man who advertises sometimes on fb who breeds them (they always sell fast).

Well, still no sign of fry but was looking in my other tank and have found a couple baby snails (red spotted snails) which was a shock as one of my snails died a couple of weeks ago leaving me with just one, they must have mated before he passed away .