Pregnant fish?

[longdistanceclaraclara]

Husband has just set up a tank, well it's taken three weeks to get the water ready but came home today with six fish including three guppies. I know nothing about fish and have no interest in the set up. However one of them has a really swollen belly. Looks pregnant. Google images confirm.

What on earth do you do you do if your fish procreate?! The tank is big but not enough for 'babies'.

I'm pissed off because I think this is going to be a problem that I have to solve.

Guppies are constantly having babies!

In your position I'd just let nature take its course. The fry will get eaten.

The only way to stop this is setting up a separate nursery tank and selling them on when they have grown.

Who eats them, the mother or others in the tank?! This is a whole world I need to learn. Or husband needs to learn...

Guppies are notorious for breeding prolifically.

Do you know how many males / females you have?

My suggestion would be to keep the males (as they are nicer looking fish) and return or rehome the females. Alternatively set up a second tank for the females if you want to keep them.

If you don't separate them they will continue to breed and your tank will be over populated in no time.

Three weeks is also very quick to have a tank cycled for fish. If it’s not fully cycled and there’s still ammonia about then the fry may not survive anyway. How many litres is the tank?

I'm out of my depth (pun not intended!), how do you tell male : female? I did ask husband when he brought them home and he said don't worry about it. Fish were from a reputable aquarium. No idea how many litres but it's big. The aquarium tested the water sample today and said it was good.

I knew this was going to end up with me dealing with it 🤦🏻‍♀️

The aquarium tested the water sample today and said it was good.

That rings all kinds of alarm bells. If he were properly cycling the tank using a source of ammonia it’d take 5-6 weeks and he’d be testing it himself. My guess is that he’s been poorly advised by this shop which is sadly all to common.

Do ask him how many litres, he’s now doing a fish-in cycle and needs to be testing daily (use a liquid test kit, the strips are notoriously poor) and carrying out a 50% water change at the first sign of ammonia (using dechlorinated tap water). This will be less of an issue if we’re talking about 6 guppies in a 300l tank vs a 65l tank.