How guppies give birth

As a result of their vivid colors and energetic personalities, guppies are among the most common fish kept in home aquariums. If you own guppies, you may be interested in learning about their reproductive process. By being aware of the procedure, you can ensure a healthy batch of fries by providing your pregnant guppies with a safe and comfortable environment.

Guppies are fascinating animals because they are livebearers, which means that instead of laying eggs, they give birth to young that swim freely. For anyone who enjoys aquariums, this makes witnessing a guppy give birth an exciting experience. But it also means that you should be aware of the particular needs guppies have both during pregnancy and delivery.

Knowing what to anticipate when your guppy is about to give birth can make the process easier for both you and your fish, regardless of how experienced you are with keeping guppies. The health and survival of the baby guppies can be greatly affected by following a few easy steps, such as identifying the pregnancy signs and setting up a birthing tank.

Stage of Birth Description
Pregnancy The female guppy develops a rounded belly as the fry grow inside her.
Pre-Birth She may become less active and seek a quiet spot in the tank.
Giving Birth The female releases live fry, which are fully formed and swim immediately.
Post-Birth The fry hide among plants to avoid being eaten, even by their mother.

Mating

If the aquarium’s conditions are favorable, guppy mating happens frequently. These fish take three to four months to reach sexual maturity. By now, even a novice can see that guppies exhibit clear signs of sexual dimorphism. Additionally, locating the male and female won’t be too difficult.

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The male injects milt directly into the female’s body because the pointed, tubular anal fin gonopodium has been converted into a sexual organ.

It’s fascinating that the female can self-fertilize multiple times using the male’s semen after they’ve mated.

Pregnancy

The female carries the eggs inside her body after fertilization. The gestation period of guppys is one month; it is rarely longer.

The aquarium’s water temperature has a significant impact on how long a pregnancy lasts, so fry hatch more quickly in warm weather than in cold weather. which has no detrimental impact on the development of fries.

On occasion, the fry can be seen through the abdomen of a female if her color is light. This guppy is obviously going to give birth soon!

During the later stages, when the fry have formed and are ready to be born, signs of pregnancy become evident. The female will soon give birth, based on the following signs:

  • A significant increase in the size of the abdomen;
  • A dark spot around the anus appears and increases as the birth approaches;
  • The fish behaves secretively and seeks privacy.

Guppies are fascinating and simple to maintain in a home aquarium because they give birth to live young. Guppies are livebearers, which means that the female carries her fry inside her body until they are fully developed and ready to be born, in contrast to many other fish that lay eggs. Guppies are a popular choice for both novice and seasoned aquarists because of this simple and quick process. Gaining knowledge about guppies’ birthing process will enable you to give them the best care possible during this unique period.

Birth

If you plan to raise fry, the female needs to be kept apart from the other fish in a spawning tank prior to giving birth. If not, only the strongest and smartest members of the litter will survive!

A small aquarium that has been specifically designed for mating, spawning, or, in this case, giving birth and raising fry, is called a spawning tank.

You can purchase tiny spawning tanks that attach to the main aquarium at a pet store. This is a good replacement for a spawning tank, provided your aquarium’s volume permits installation.

The water in the spawning tank should have the same temperature as in the general aquarium, as well as similar parameters. To do this, fill ½ of the tank with water from the living aquarium, and use fresh water in the second half. There should be no soil at the bottom, because.. this will make it difficult to clean the aquarium. However, for the safety of the young, you need to place floating plants in their home, partially securing them to the bottom. Hornwort or Elodea are good choices, both are best combined with duckweed. Guppies are cannibals. The mother, without a twinge of conscience and without waiting for the end of labor, can start hunting for babies, in an aquarium with plants they have a better chance of surviving.

Ten to fifty fry can be produced at a time by a guppy. The number of children a female can raise in her womb increases with age. However, as fry get older, they reproduce less frequently.

The labor of guppy takes one to twelve hours. The process of assisting a female who is unable to give birth will proceed more quickly if the aquarium’s water temperature is gradually raised. And give the mother as much peace as possible.

The female starts giving birth in a public aquarium, but when the owner moves her to a spawning tank, the labor ceases. Rest assured, this is a side effect of stress; the mother will regain consciousness in a few hours and the labor will proceed. It is preferable to transfer the female in advance rather than waiting until she is ready to give birth.

Premature birth of fry can be caused by stress, illness, and unfavorable conditions of detention. These children will have a poor chance of survival, be ill, and frequently be crooked.

Once guppy fry reach a size of 1-1.5 cm, you can move them to a regular aquarium. Some of the babies will reach this size sooner than others due to uneven growth.

Other livebearers

The phenomenon of live-bearing fish was long thought to be limited to guppies. Naturalists were plagued by this mystery. However, a wide variety of other species of live fish, such as the following, can be found in aquariums today:

  • Swordtail
  • Pecilia
  • Mollies
  • Formosa
  • Girardinus
  • Xenotoca
  • Limia
  • Poluryl
  • Iliodon
  • Ameka.

Fish in a Jar hope you have success raising guppies and maybe even produce a breed of your own!

This is a succinct way to wrap up the piece:

Keeping guppies is made more enjoyable by knowing how they give birth, which makes them fascinating animals. For any aquarist, seeing a pregnant guppy grow and eventually give birth is a rewarding experience.

Birthing can go more smoothly if you provide a stress-free environment with ideal water conditions, a healthy diet, and a secure area for the fry. Their chances of surviving will be improved if you watch over the pregnant guppy and give the fry their own area.

When given the proper care and attention, guppies can bring new life into your aquarium and enhance the vibrancy of the underwater world. This is an amazing process to watch.

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Olga Vishnevskaya

Biologist by education, aquarist by vocation. Specialization — breeding and care of freshwater aquarium plants. Since childhood I have been fond of aquariums, constantly experimenting with creating biotopes and selecting flora for various types of aquariums. I am sure that green aquariums can transform any interior and improve the quality of life.

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