pregnant guppies?

Question

OK so i have 2 female guppies. V vv pregnant
What do i need to do to help them along with giving birth??
Salt in the water? what else?

Answer 1

Here's a little info on breeding guppies that might help you. This system has always worke for me.

Breeding guppies really is just as simple as most people say it is but if you really want to be serious about it there are a few considerations.

Tank requirements: You need to have two tanks at least 10 gallons in size. The first one should be cycled and all settled ready for your new guppies. The second should be filled with water and have a sponge filter running. It should also gave a heater and lots of hiding places for the babies. Set up both tanks and keep the temperature in both about 74-78 F, guppies will do well in that range. pH, hardness and other water conditions are not very important to guppies. They tolerant a very wide range of parameters.

Feeding: For the adults you need to feed a good basic flake food as well as the occasional treat of frozen foods. Buy a couple of them to swap between, blood wroms, mosquito larvae, brine shrimp are all good. For the babies you need baby brine shrimo to feed for the first few days and some cruches flake to start mixing in after that. Yes, you can just crush the flake you use for the adults.

The Fish: Get 1 male for every 2-3 females. No need to get many, after all you expect to breed plenty! Most you find at pet stores will already be pregnant so if you are really serious about getting just the right color you will need to by from a serious breeder or be prepared to work at it a while.

The mating: Just put them together and they will do the rest.

Once the female is very gravid (pregnant) move her to the empty tank and leave her there until she has the babies. Once she has them you can more her back to the main tank. Feed the babies fairly often, 4-5 times a day isn't too often and change 40 - 50% of the tank water every 2-3 days. The larger the babies get the more often you will have to change water until the babies are adults.

Raising the babies: Feed the babies fairly often, 4-5 times a day isn't too often and change 40 - 50% of the tank water every 2-3 days. The larger the babies get the more often you will have to change water until the babies are adults. Install a tank divider in the baby tank as soon as possible and once you can tell males from females start to seperate them. Most serious breeders end up using two tanks, so you might want to plan on that in the future. Seperate them as soon as possible! Also do not give up on the water changes! They are critical for proper growth! I cannot stress this enough!

Culling: Culling is removing undesirable fish from your stock. Remove any deformed fish you see as soon as you see them. It's not uncommon to have a few deformed fish. Humanely kill these as you certainly don't want them breeding. Once the babies are nearly grown you will be able to pick out the best looking male and best lookig females. This is where color choice comes in. You will most likely have fish of two or three different colors. Return you original fish and the extra babies to the pet store or donate them to another fish keeper, to a school, whatever. Place your best male and three best females in the now empty main tank. and let them do what come naturally. Then you will start the whole process over.

While you are raising the babies, you will have babies from one of the other females too if not both of them. You will have to choose, set up another tank for them or leave them with the adults to do as well as they can. Your call. As you can see, you could end up with tanks all over the house in no time at all, so be aware you can't keep them all! LOL

After a few generations you will need to add fresh breeding stock to your line. Try to find a really good looking male that fits your colors and breed him to some of your females for fresh genes in the line. Doing this every so often will improve your fish and prevent problems from too much inbreeding. Inbreeding fixes traits in the line, both good traits and bad traits, so bring in new stock from time to time.

If you really fall in love with guppy breeding you will really want to be a member of the IFGA (International Fancy Guppy Association). They can teach you so much more than this basic over view and the members are a great source of really superior breeding stock. You can find their website online.

Hope this helps a little and good luck with your breeding efforts!

MM

Answer 2

I don't remember guppies being salt water fish. I've had tropical (guppies etc, warm water); salt and plain old goldfish tanks. The tropical were the most fun and more affordable than the salt water tanks.

No, you don't help them give birth like a cat or dog.

But I do know that with many fish you need to keep the eggs/babies away from the "parents" - you can get special little containers to keep in the aquarium, just for them, until they grow.

Answer 3

Best thing you can do is let them do their own thing. If you are planning to be a breeder that is a different story but if you just happen to have pregnant fish in your tank than you should let nature take it's course. The strong ones will survive and before you know it you'll see them swimmin around in the substrate and around plants. They grow fairly quick. Most fun part is watching everyday to see what color they will turn and if it's a male or female!!!

Answer 4

A little salt is OK,but not necessary,lots of floating plants to provide hiding places for the fry would be a big help. Plastic plants are OK but I like live ones better. The bunch plants that they sell at the big box stores would be fine,I've never been able to keep them alive over a month or two,but the fry will be big enough then to survive without them. ----Good luck,PeeTee

Answer 5

if you aren't going to provide a birthing net, put in lots of leafy plants for the babies to hide in...and watch the fun.
I personally don't provide birthing nets unless I have a seperate tank to put the babies in away from all the fish that will eat them. When you empty the net in with the adults they often get rushed at and eaten before they know what has happened, so if you are using a net, be sure you have a seperate tank for them. (Raising them in the net is difficult and doensn't provide enough room for the babies to grow rapidly, they grow faster in a larger environment.

Answer 6

well, maybe keep the water a little bit warm, besides adding a little salt. make sure that there isn't anything sharp on the bottom of the tank, the babies are kinda fragile, so remove of any pointy rocks that can cut them, thats about it.

Answer 7

Of course you feed her, unless you want to starve her to death you will notice however, that she will either eat less or nothing just before she gives birth though Hope that helps Good luck EB

Answer 8

They should do fine all by their selves. I have had many births that I don't find out untill several days later.

Answer 9

my female just had her babies today..She only had 8, but i took her out of the breeder before she would have eaten them...My daughter couldn't believe her eyes watching the fish lay her babies....

Answer 10

squeeze the f-ing fish so the babies come out.