Female Guppy ready to drop?

[anasfire23]

I have 3 pregnant guppys at the moment and one of them is alot bigger than the other 2. Her body has squared up and her gravid spot as well as her colour in general has darkened, she hasn't been eating and is really anti-social. She is mainly hanging around the bottom of the tank and ignoring her tank mates rather than swimming around with them as usual. I noticed she stopped eating 2 days ago, anti-social behaviour last night and her colour darkening just today.

Can anyone give me an opinion as to when they think she might drop?

[rcomeau]

I never quite figured that out myself when I kept guppys. I had moms in isolation for too long. Instead, I would move the mom and catch the fry when I saw them. My kids would help keep and eye out. My daughter once said, "Hey Dad, there is a baby! Quick swim, swim, swim! Arg, too late for that one Dad."

[anasfire23]

LOL!!! That's cute. I've been periodically sitting infront of the tank just to observe her and see what's she's doing. She's just sitting arond not moving much, even when one of the males comes up to harrass her. He actually nipped playfully at her before she would move away from him! I think It's going to be in the next few days. I can't imagine her getting much bigger, there's just no room for that!! I hope I get a chance to watch it happen though.

[anasfire23]

Ok that female dropped and I've no idea what happened to the fry! Probably eaten! But the other 2 are still pregnant. I took some pictures of the biggest one so If anyone can tell me when they think she might drop it would be appreciated. I almost got a guppy iscolation tank thing that attaches to the side of the tank today but I didn't end up having enough money for it .

[Christine]

I can't see it myself but my son can look closely at the black spot and see eyes right before they drop. Unfortunately it really irritates him when I ask him to look LOL.

[anasfire23]

LOL, She's looked that big for about 2 weeks now so I'm patiently waiting. I hope this lot don't get eaten too!!

[SmotMon]

Originally Posted by anasfire23

Can anyone give me an opinion as to when they think she might drop?

Hi,

When did she last drop? If she resides in a tank with males and everything is er... "working properly" then 30 days (give or take a few days) since her last drop might be a good date to go by.

Best,

[rcomeau]

I used to buy guppys from a guy that had a fish room full of them. He mentioned the same advise about looking to see the eyes of the fry as an indication that mom is close to dropping. The gravid spot is dark for a long time so I never understood if that is what he meant. Maybe there is a difference between dark and dark with visible fry eyes.

The gravid spot in the pictures above doesn't seem dark at all.

[Christine]

Yes there is a difference! Unfortunately, it takes good eyes to see the difference I can't see it, but my kid can.

[anasfire23]

Originally Posted by SmotMon

Hi,

When did she last drop? If she resides in a tank with males and everything is er... "working properly" then 30 days (give or take a few days) since her last drop might be a good date to go by.

Best,

She hasn't had fry before that I'm aware of. Well not since I've had her at least. The gravid spot is really dark on both of them. She wouldn't stay still long enough for me to take a decent picture. It seems to be taking forever for them to drop!!!

[cryptofishlover]

yeah im still waiting for my little guppy to give birth she does have a big gravid spot

[SmotMon]

Originally Posted by anasfire23

She hasn't had fry before that I'm aware of. Well not since I've had her at least. The gravid spot is really dark on both of them. She wouldn't stay still long enough for me to take a decent picture. It seems to be taking forever for them to drop!!!

Hi again,

I have had fish that have behaved similarly, and I attributed it to stress or having no "safe haven" to drop the fry. I believe - and this is only a theory borne out by my own observation of my own fish - that in an open tank where there is little cover and possible danger to the offspring (predatory males), the female does not feel sufficiently at ease to drop the fry. Placing floating plastic weed in the tank immediately led to a fry drop (possibly coincidence.)

Water conditions may also influence the timing and regularity of fry drops - I have read others who've said that daily water changes of 30% or more, and/or raising the tank temperature very slightly (1-2 deg.) have also encouraged overdue females to drop, although I have not tested these actions.

Good luck and keep us posted

Best,

[anasfire23]

Ok one of them has started dropping tonight. I got home from the movies and threw a quick glance at the tank, noticed one of them kinda hovering really still towards the top of the tank and 1 solitary fry near her. So I grabbed my fry net and started to scoop as many as i found out, along with her (assuming she was the mother), and ended up finding 11 fry throught the tank. I had my friend watch her to see if she dropped anymore as I went to dissolve some frozen BBS for them to eat (I had no idea what to feed them, but bbs made sense) they began to eat the bbs and the adult ate one of the fry so I removed her and put the other pregnant female in with the fry, and she didn't seem interested in the fry at all so I then figured she must be the mother. She then started stressing out and swimming up and down and around constantly and frantically so I eventually took her out because she wasn't settling down. Now I'm just waiting to see if either of them drop anymore so I can iscolate her and the fry but I think I might have to wait till morning and figure it out by seeing which one is no longer fat!

I'm not sure if the possibility of them both dropping at the same time is logical but they both seem to have the back part of them (near their anus) kinda not hanging out but pretruding and making it appear at a 90deg angle. So your guess is as good as mine.

[PlatyLady]

I don't know about guppies, but with platies it's not that hard to see the eyes if you can sit down patiently and wait for the pregnant female to go by. I usually spot them on the underside of the belly nearer the anus, most often when they're bored and scavenging for stuff on the bottom face-down.

[anasfire23]

Both of them dropped within 12hours of each other so now I'm up to my eyeballs in guppy fry. I haven't counted them all but I'd say there would be close to 25-30. I'm considering using them as food for my bettas because with a total of 71 fish (not including the guppy fry) in my house at the moment it's getting a little ridiculous here. I put the first lot that were dropped in with my 5 week old betta fry for a few hours before I realised that the bettas, whilst not a heap bigger than the guppys but still larger, might possibly eat the guppys so I seperated them again. Now I'm stuck with trying to work out what to do with the guppy fry. I could put them back into the community tank and let them fend for themselves but I'm not sure if they'd be able to find food sufficiantly if I'm not feeding them bbs.
Anyone got any ideas?

I can jar my 5 week old betta fry and put the guppys in their grow out tub but I still think my bettas are too small for that (they're not growing at the rate they shoud) so I'm perplexed as to what else i can do. The tank their in at the moment is way too small for them all to grow in and I don't have a spare heater or the funds to buy another one till maybe thursday.