Mrs Guppy is finaly in labour, 2 fry so far (the 1st fishy birthing thread).

[Marne]

At last she is having fry , put her in the net last night as she was hanging around by the filter, lights are off, lots of floating plants for fry to hide. Just went to check on her and spotted 2 fry (have managed to fish one out as i want a few survivers), perfect timing as my fry tank is now free (moved the others into the big tank this morning and they will be going to new homes soon), so i can keep some fry if they dont get eaten, she's still huge so could be 20-30 fry inside her.

Oh how exciting, a fish labour thread. (I must have missed her fishy POAS thread!)

Good luck to her.

Coincidentally, my cockatiel laid an egg this morning. But I can't start a thread about it because

How exciting.

Does she need a back rub?

Do cockatiels sit on their eggs like ducks?

Probably best to avoid the TENS machine though eh...

She's got a long way to go , i think she needs lots of back rubs, i might give her a birthing ball to bounce on (move things along a bit quicker).

No Bird topic

I love cockateils, i hope you manage to get a baby xx

Ooh, live birth thread! So pleased she's finally gone into labour. You are going to end up with billions of guppies

Just found another but i cant fish it out as i dont want to upset Mrs.Guppy, i hope she doesnt eat them all, do you think if i chuck some food in there she will eat that instead or is live food a lot more interesting for her? .

I hope she did the right thing by opting for a water birth.

No, no baby bird in prospect, only some rather small omelettes, as she is an only cockatiel.

She will start sitting once she has laid two or three, taggie. Which seems a bit daft as it means that the first couple of eggs would presumably stand no chance of hatching. Perhaps she is a Bad Mother like Jemima Puddleduck.

Whats the betting she will eat them all when i'm on the school run? need her to push them out before i go.

Have you got a plastic colander? If you bung that in there upside down with something to weigh it down then the babies can swim inside but Mrs Guppy can't.

Metal colanders are also OK, sieves are no good though

So far she doesn't seem to want to eat them, i have managed to scoop them out before they go to the top. We have around 10 so far and she is still huge, some look yellow and a couple are dark in colour (i know they will change), she's got a yellow spotty tail with a little bit of blue so cant wait to see what colours they will be when they get bigger. I think i'm going to need a bigger tank .

Woke up to lots of fry (25+) but sadly Mrs.Guppy died this morning (whilst i was on the school run). Dd1 said 'i'm not suprised, the thought of bringing up 25 children is enough to make anyone take their own life'

RIP Mrs.Guppy

Poor Mrs Guppy :( At least you have her fry to remember her by. How are they getting on?

Thats true, i hope some of them have her pretty colouring (snakeskin). They are doing well, feeding and swimming around, we had one dead one, not sure if it was born dead or if mum tried to eat it (found it this morning with mum). I only have 2 adult females left, not sure if i should buy anymore of just get platy's instead (when the fry have been sold)?

Oh poor Mrs Guppy. What a sad outcome to MN's first fish birthing thread.

Do you think it was indigestion? Giving birth seemed to have more in common with a slap-up meal for Mrs Guppy than it has for most mums on MN.

I hope the fry survive, to make up for losing her.

I usualy have quite a good survival rate with guppies so will probably end up with 20+ fry. She might have had a lot more, there were quite a few born in the night so she probably ate quite a few. She was huge, maybe too many fry for her to handle?

Oh no, that's sad.

I had an amazingly fertile guppy. She didn't eat her own young, and we put her in a birthing thing, but one of the other fish jumped in and ate all of the young. It was pretty sad.

Why did she die? My veterinary experience with fish is limited (not many people take fish to the vets) but I don't think birth usually kills them. It might be worth testing your water levels? Guppy fry are quite hardy until day 6/7, then if you have disease or imbalanced water you might find they start to suffer too.

Snakeskins are gorgeous, I hope some of them look like her. What did dad look like?

I'm not sure why she died, maybe stress? she had been pregnant for what seems like forever (sinse i bough her) and look bloated so maye the bloating was something else other than pregnany? i am treating my tank anyway as i lost 2 fish last week, the fry will be moved to my fry tank in a few days time. Fingers crossed we get some snakeskin baby's.

Poor Mrs Guppy. Hope her babies are ok.

It's like charlottes web!

Update- babys are doing well (the surviving ones) and are looking yellow like their mum. No more deaths in our tank so not sure why mummy guppy died.