Where Would Fry Go?

[fishn00b]

I had two pregnant guppies and I have one pregnant Pineapple Swordtail. The other day I noticed that the guppies' stomachs got considerably smaller, leading me to believe that they had their babies. The only problem was that I could not find them in the tank. I know that the other fish in the tank would have eaten them, but I would have though that maybe a few would have survived being that it was only a few hours I was gone. Is there any place that the fry like to hide when they are first born? I would like to prevent this problem with the swordtail so pretty soon when she starts to seclude herself I will put her in the breeding pen I have, but I was just curious as to what happened to my other babies. Thanks for your help.

[sbsociety]

They can hide in your substrate leading you to believe that there may be no survivors, and can pop right up one day when you're looking. lol. Stare pretty hard at your tank rocks... you may see one squiggle between rocks. It's also possible she aborted and all fry were dead and sitting between rocks too. Let us know if you find any. BTW, guppy babies are pretty tiny, so i'm sure there's some in the rocks somewhere!

[Damon]

They could have been eaten also. Or she aborted them. Many different posibilities.

[fishn00b]

What do you mean by aborting them? Are you guys suggesting that she could have decided not to have the babies and just "pushed" them out of her body before they were ready?

[sbsociety]

Yes. That actually isn't rare at all. Happens to me sometimes. Or sometimes, only a few develop, and the rest are aborted. Matter of fact, all my livebearer births has a few undeveloped eggs in every batch. Depending on the age of the fish, or situation (water quality, food being fed, etc) they can abort for millions of reasons.

[fishn00b]

So in a guppy, she'll just release a whole bunch of unused eggs, or are they actually fish, but just too under-developed to live out in the aquarium.

[sbsociety]

Both do happen, depending how early they abort. If she aborts early, then they can still be just eggs, or if late, they'll be underdeveloped fry. Depends on what stage the fry are at in development. Did you see any yet? I'm thinking you also could maybe have thought they were pregnant since they look pregnant after eating, and maybe they just pooped and lost weight? That's also a possibility. If she really was pregnant, I'm betting on at least one or two surviving... Kinda odd that she'd eat every single one... Although once I did find only two red mickey mouse platy survivors in a batch. (didn't know she was due and I didn't get to put her in a breeder darnit) Sucks cause she was the only red MM platy I have, one of the fry died, so I'm left with only one red MM... that ones a keeper. lol. So ya, stare reeeeaaaally hard at your gravel. Find one yet?

[fishn00b]

I cleaned my gravel today and mixed it up a bit but there were no signs of fry. They were definatly pregnant, both of them. I've been watching them for the past two weeks and their belly's were enormous and I was making sure I wasn't just over feeding them, because they stayed about the same after they pooped as well. I don't know what happened but I couldn't find any of their fry from either of them, but I will continue to keep my eyes peeled for them, I would definatly love to try and raise them. It's a shame I can't find them though, like you said, I'm pretty mad I didn't put her in a breeder in time.