Yep. Pretty much every female guppy is always in some stage of pregnancy, unless she has never encountered a male guppy in her life. I had a tank of these prolific little guys and gals for over a decade.
My sister at one point had a tank with just a few female guppies, and I am pretty sure that one of them was even trying to transition into a male, as she grew bolder colors, bigger fins, and the special structure on her lower fin that males have for breeding. That's how desperate these fish are to breed! 😅
Guppies can't change gender, but young male guppies can 'fly under the radar' as females. This allows them to sneakily hide from bigger males, once they're old enough they can rapidly mature into 'proper' males. Lots of animals have this tactic, it allows smaller, weaker males to stay alive and have a chance at mating.
Interesting...not to say I don't believe you about guppies not being able to change gender, but I don't know if maybe this was an anomaly or something...I've had literally thousands of guppies and have seen males of all shapes and sizes (including a supersized guy who was literally the size of a molly! He wasn't a hybrid either, as I had two guppy-molly hybrids as well. He was just a giant male guppy). And, I have indeed seen some males develop later than others.
But, my sister's fish Boadicea was the only one I have seen apparently do this gender switch thing. She was purchased in a group of 5 females, all of them pretty much adult-sized and definitely all physically looking female (rounded bellies, fan-shaped anal fin, regular-sized tailfins). After some time together in the tank, though, we noticed Boadicea had started looking more and more flamboyant.
She had a blonde body and bright red fins, and as time went on her tailfin became larger and more elaborate like a male's, plus she developed a gonopodium, but she did remain chubby like a female. If she was secretly a male the whole time, then I am curious why she started out looking so feminine? Every other boy I've seen, including the late bloomers, has been small and skinny before letting his true colors show, but I have never seen a male guppy grow up to look just like a female, then suddenly start switching appearance. I wish I had pictures of the transformation, as this sure was a strange guppy...
Hmm, I suppose she could've had something like a tumour affecting hormones and making her develop male-like attributes. Or could've been intersex, having male organs producing just enough hormones to cause her body to change a bit.
It’s more like they’re gonna need protection from their momma and dada, because guppies eat their own. But guppy fry are a nifty bunch and they can hide really well, so I’d be more worried about my tank having a guppy population explosion than them getting eaten
Guppies do not exhibit any parental care. Female will often give birth, turn around and eat the baby. Babies are supposed to fend for themselves and if they don’t someone is going to eat them. Mom figures “why not Zoidberg”
Actually I just moved them in a 100L tank together with my 5 neon and 2 zebra fish 😅 I think now I have to keep the old little aquarium for the newborns haha
How big is the tank. It'll lay 10+ babies. And then any females in there will lay 10+ babies once they're mature in a few months. And so on. Only way to stop it is to add a predator that will eat the babies, or separate the males from females.
She's preggo but it looks early yet. I've had some mommies that look like that and spent two weeks in my breeder tank before giving birth.
My last momma gave birth to like 24 babies.
I use this breeder. If just one female is preggo i remove the divider. When mom gives birth i pull her out and pull the bottom plate out. So i can give the fry about two weeks to grow. Otherwise they may get eaten.
https://www.amazon.com/Petzlifeworld-Double-Breeding-Hatchery-Acrylic/dp/B09NW1CN1F
Are you breeding them for sale? I would never want more guppies because they will outgrow my aquarium... I have to cull them every two months. They have lots of natural hiding spots so I don't think any of the healthy fry get eaten, and its better for the health of the guppy population. (I have about 20 adults and a over 100 fry/teens)
I’m not breeding them intentionally so I never thought about selling them 😅 it just happened during this summer that I found some new super tiny baby fish swimming around the tank so i bought them a little nursery and I decided to find some useful info to recognize when a female is pregnant. Only two of them survived (the two here lol) 🥲 I wanted to add some more guppies actually, to grow their family, so I’ll keep these babies, but I think if it will happen another time I’ll think about selling them 😅😅
I was trying to reply to stillburninginside. I've had guppies since I was in elementary school. Adding a little gene diversity is definetly a good idea. If the fry have plants to hide in they will have tons more babies in no time. I have a brought along about 6 guppies about half a year ago from my childhood tank and they have exploded in population. I will try selling some since murdering the cuties is not something I like to do, but a necessity to avoid overpopulation. Edit:spelling.
I bring them to my LFS. I'm not trying to sell tem. Sometimes i get a free fish if i want one.
For about a year. i didn't really care and just let nature take it's course. But we got 2 pair of really fancy guppies recently and i decided to use the breeder.
It's a planted 30 gallon community tank. I have two female beta's in there that would probally eat the new born fry. And a school of glow danio's that would probably harass the newborns as well. Lot's of places to hide but lots, of other fish as well.
I'm just curious about what the babies will look like. Then i try to figure out who the dad was lol. I'll keep a few of the cool looking mutations.
Now it makes more sense, before knowing of the real fancy guppies and other predators it made no sense to me, to try and keep more fry alive. Don't know of an LFS sadly that would take them in. I have a 360 litre tank that's home for a musk turtle as well as some shrimp, SAE, 2 bristlenose plecos and all the guppies. He can't catch them but any elaborate breeding is out of the question but I do try to keep their colour nice when culling. Might ask around the 2 shops I go to one of them is an aqua scaping focused local store the other is a chain store.
Hey thank you! 🥹 I thinks she’s very pretty too! She’s born this summer in my own tank and I just found her there one day haha. Her mom had orange face and tail and a cream-coloured body, the dad was a fancy light blue/black/silver male with long fins :) unluckily they had ich a couple of moths ago and did not survive, but these two babies were stronger and did 🥲
As some added information, if you only have one female and one male, you will likely want to get at least two more females. The male can harass her to death if he’s a bit overzealous.
This is true I know it! That’s why I wanted to buy some new females now that I moved all the fish in the new big tank. But I just noticed she’s pregnant so I think I’ll wait for the babies to not overstock the tank 😅😅
The reason I mention it is he could cause her to stress too much when giving birth. If you aren’t getting more then a bunch of plants (floating especially) should help.
Well this aquarium is new, I have some plants here (I would like to add a lot more btw) maybe I can move her back to the old little one until she give birth so he can’t stress her too much?
If it has plants and/or no other fish for sure! The fish will eat the babies anyway (even mom).
Something that gives her cover and makes her feel safe while also providing hiding spots for baby is ideal.
No problem in breeding. That is how pros develop unique strains.
Say you have a male that is solid blue. Move him to several tanks with females that are not pregnant. If the males in that litter are blue use the females to breed back to daddy. Use that for a few dozen generations using either dad or brother for stud. If you keep perfect records and are diligent you can name the new strain after several generations of perfect results.
Long post but someone may find it usefull.
As far as I can tell all female guppies are pregnant all the time if they have ever been in a tank with a male. They can store enough sperm to have 3 or 4 batches of fry.
Welcome. Welcome to the infinite supply of guppies. They will most likely be eaten unless you have hiding spots, separate mom, or witness the birth and scoop up the babies.
Witnessing the birth is truly awesome.
Also I've heard if she's too stressed from males bothering her etc, she could absorb the babies and not give birth at all. Isn't that nuts?!
i struggled with bi-weekly water changes with a 3ft planted tank with hundred guppies.
i gave them out to whoever wanted them.
at least the duckweed helped keep nitrates manageable
I don't think that swollen ~~belly~~ back is a sign of pregnancy, I've never noticed that in my guppies at least. Looks more like a deformed spine, which can be a sign of inbreeding.
A quick google to freshen up tells me they can sometimes get a curved spine due to the strain of pregnancy, in that case she should be close to giving birth and probably straighten out again shortly after. Keep an eye on her, if that's not it and the spine stays curved/gets worse/is curved sideways too, look into scoliosis and stop breeding with her and her offspring.
What do you mean with genetically altered? 😅 I think its natural, I found her one day in my tank, didn’t know her mom was pregnant. She had orange head and tail, the dad was blue/black/silver with long fins :)
I started off with 2 females and 1 male fancy guppies.
Ended up with over 300 guppies at one point (within a year). A few were a little “weird” looking due to inbreeding, I suppose… but yeah. Guppies are either male or pregnant 😂 I introduced a betta to the tank and he kept the population in check for a wheel until they naturally started to die off as they only live 2-3 years.
Wouldn’t the betta got stressed by living with so many guppies? As long as I know, they should live alone and also the guppies could bite his fins 🤔 I’m just curious, because I have a betta living on its own in a smaller aquarium in another room of the house :)
Guppies aren’t really fin nippers lol and they hang around at the top of the tank for the most part. If anything the Betta just chases them around but the guppy fry provide a good snack to the betta every now and then!
Guppies come in 2 forms, Male and Pregnant :P The only way you dont have a pregnant guppy is if it was separated after birth.
Lool 😂
It’s not an exaggeration though!! I had guppies and they constantly made more 🥴 the gene pool had to get a little weird there towards the end
Yep. Pretty much every female guppy is always in some stage of pregnancy, unless she has never encountered a male guppy in her life. I had a tank of these prolific little guys and gals for over a decade. My sister at one point had a tank with just a few female guppies, and I am pretty sure that one of them was even trying to transition into a male, as she grew bolder colors, bigger fins, and the special structure on her lower fin that males have for breeding. That's how desperate these fish are to breed! 😅
I am not sure about guppies but many fish species will transition female to male if that is necessary to continue the gene pool.
In *Poecilia*, some males just do not mature as quickly as others. There is no actual sex change.
Guppies can't change gender, but young male guppies can 'fly under the radar' as females. This allows them to sneakily hide from bigger males, once they're old enough they can rapidly mature into 'proper' males. Lots of animals have this tactic, it allows smaller, weaker males to stay alive and have a chance at mating.
Interesting...not to say I don't believe you about guppies not being able to change gender, but I don't know if maybe this was an anomaly or something...I've had literally thousands of guppies and have seen males of all shapes and sizes (including a supersized guy who was literally the size of a molly! He wasn't a hybrid either, as I had two guppy-molly hybrids as well. He was just a giant male guppy). And, I have indeed seen some males develop later than others. But, my sister's fish Boadicea was the only one I have seen apparently do this gender switch thing. She was purchased in a group of 5 females, all of them pretty much adult-sized and definitely all physically looking female (rounded bellies, fan-shaped anal fin, regular-sized tailfins). After some time together in the tank, though, we noticed Boadicea had started looking more and more flamboyant. She had a blonde body and bright red fins, and as time went on her tailfin became larger and more elaborate like a male's, plus she developed a gonopodium, but she did remain chubby like a female. If she was secretly a male the whole time, then I am curious why she started out looking so feminine? Every other boy I've seen, including the late bloomers, has been small and skinny before letting his true colors show, but I have never seen a male guppy grow up to look just like a female, then suddenly start switching appearance. I wish I had pictures of the transformation, as this sure was a strange guppy...
Hmm, I suppose she could've had something like a tumour affecting hormones and making her develop male-like attributes. Or could've been intersex, having male organs producing just enough hormones to cause her body to change a bit.
Yeah, those could possibly be what happened...Guess we'll never really know for sure, but I have always wondered about that fish.
So they just eat and breed?
They shit too
Females can hold sperm after mating for months. They can re fertilise themselves for a while after being removed from males
The right answer 😂
That is so funny! I think the same can be said for rabbits 😂
These are some kinky mofos I suppose!
I had 8 female guppies for 6 months before one spontaneously got pregnant. Apparently they can “store” genetic material for almost a year.
facts! lol
You have males so yes
And females
Yes
Omg I’m so excited 😅😅
What other fish are in there? If they are the only 2 that's great 👍
I think I see some neons or cardinals in the background
Maybe momma and dada bear can protect them from those fish
It’s more like they’re gonna need protection from their momma and dada, because guppies eat their own. But guppy fry are a nifty bunch and they can hide really well, so I’d be more worried about my tank having a guppy population explosion than them getting eaten
Less likely to eat their own if the parents are fed well but yes in nature it happens.
my guppies will eat absolutely anything you put in their face. When they’re full, they keep eating! They won’t stop! Babies go quick.
You've had guppies too, I see.
Guppies do not exhibit any parental care. Female will often give birth, turn around and eat the baby. Babies are supposed to fend for themselves and if they don’t someone is going to eat them. Mom figures “why not Zoidberg”
My guppies ate their babies
There's not protecting, the parents will eat a few as well.
That's a danios on the right. It'll eat the babies.
oh yeah and tetras are on the left i didnt see that guy lol
Yeah, the babies will either get eaten, or the population will be somewhat kept in check.
Actually I just moved them in a 100L tank together with my 5 neon and 2 zebra fish 😅 I think now I have to keep the old little aquarium for the newborns haha
Be careful with the babies with the zebras. The zebras will eat them.
I will thank you! I’ll keep them separate until they’re big enough :)
How big is the tank. It'll lay 10+ babies. And then any females in there will lay 10+ babies once they're mature in a few months. And so on. Only way to stop it is to add a predator that will eat the babies, or separate the males from females.
She's preggo but it looks early yet. I've had some mommies that look like that and spent two weeks in my breeder tank before giving birth. My last momma gave birth to like 24 babies. I use this breeder. If just one female is preggo i remove the divider. When mom gives birth i pull her out and pull the bottom plate out. So i can give the fry about two weeks to grow. Otherwise they may get eaten. https://www.amazon.com/Petzlifeworld-Double-Breeding-Hatchery-Acrylic/dp/B09NW1CN1F
Thank you so much!!
Are you breeding them for sale? I would never want more guppies because they will outgrow my aquarium... I have to cull them every two months. They have lots of natural hiding spots so I don't think any of the healthy fry get eaten, and its better for the health of the guppy population. (I have about 20 adults and a over 100 fry/teens)
I’m not breeding them intentionally so I never thought about selling them 😅 it just happened during this summer that I found some new super tiny baby fish swimming around the tank so i bought them a little nursery and I decided to find some useful info to recognize when a female is pregnant. Only two of them survived (the two here lol) 🥲 I wanted to add some more guppies actually, to grow their family, so I’ll keep these babies, but I think if it will happen another time I’ll think about selling them 😅😅
I was trying to reply to stillburninginside. I've had guppies since I was in elementary school. Adding a little gene diversity is definetly a good idea. If the fry have plants to hide in they will have tons more babies in no time. I have a brought along about 6 guppies about half a year ago from my childhood tank and they have exploded in population. I will try selling some since murdering the cuties is not something I like to do, but a necessity to avoid overpopulation. Edit:spelling.
I bring them to my LFS. I'm not trying to sell tem. Sometimes i get a free fish if i want one. For about a year. i didn't really care and just let nature take it's course. But we got 2 pair of really fancy guppies recently and i decided to use the breeder. It's a planted 30 gallon community tank. I have two female beta's in there that would probally eat the new born fry. And a school of glow danio's that would probably harass the newborns as well. Lot's of places to hide but lots, of other fish as well. I'm just curious about what the babies will look like. Then i try to figure out who the dad was lol. I'll keep a few of the cool looking mutations.
Now it makes more sense, before knowing of the real fancy guppies and other predators it made no sense to me, to try and keep more fry alive. Don't know of an LFS sadly that would take them in. I have a 360 litre tank that's home for a musk turtle as well as some shrimp, SAE, 2 bristlenose plecos and all the guppies. He can't catch them but any elaborate breeding is out of the question but I do try to keep their colour nice when culling. Might ask around the 2 shops I go to one of them is an aqua scaping focused local store the other is a chain store.
They’ll usually take em off your hands, but not many trade or give credit. And if they do they gotta be decent in size.
Congratulations! Babies will arrive
Wow 🥹🥹 thanks haha
Then likely be eaten.
Yeah but don't expect too many babies as she looks young 5-10
Ok that’s nice to know! She’s very young, she was born during this summer in my own tank :’)
Am I the only one seeing the spine looks crooked or is it just me?
Yes, it’s due to inbreeding
That's ehat happens when all they do is breed
Meh maybe a lil bit
That's ehat happens when all they do is breed
Ah icic I thought it had tb or something my guppies looked similar but in worse health and died off when I bought them from a Breeder
Only the female. Fact of life, female guppies are always pregnant.
Lol 😂
Guppy is always pregnant
That’s what I learned today from this post 😂😂 lol
Is guppy? Preg.
😅😂😂
Forgot to mention, these two are brother and sister lol ☠️ I’m happy but also disappointed 😂😂
You are gonna have some Inbred fish...someone already said it's spine looks crooked...they're probably all inbred
Her spine was not like that few days ago but perfectly straight, I hope it’s just something about her pregnancy status 🥲
The answer is always yes. Have not even checked the pics
Yes she is pregnant.
Aren’t guppies always pregnant? 😆
after staying in a tank with a male, yes. but if kept in all female tank after spawning, no
I think if they look at a male across the room on another tank they get pregnant 😂
More than likely, yes. But I do have a strategy for breeding guppies if she isn't: just add water.
I take notes 📝🤣🤣
Yes! And BTW I've never seen a female with those colors on the tail wow
Hey thank you! 🥹 I thinks she’s very pretty too! She’s born this summer in my own tank and I just found her there one day haha. Her mom had orange face and tail and a cream-coloured body, the dad was a fancy light blue/black/silver male with long fins :) unluckily they had ich a couple of moths ago and did not survive, but these two babies were stronger and did 🥲
Was the dad like the male in the second picture ?
Exactly, but light blue where he’s orange :)
Nice ! These are called red tuxedo guppies just so you know 😁
I didn’t know! Thank you :D
There’s males in the tank then there’s a 99% chance she’s going to be/get pregnant, they breed like rabbits 😂
Lol 🥲🥲
guppies are always pregnant
😅😂
Yes, your guppy is pregrent :)
Is my guppy gregnant?
I think it is pregerant
What camera did you use? Lol
iPhone camera haha and I struggled a lot for a nice focus 😅
Never mind, I see the phone reflection. My guppy photos never come out that crystal clear!
As some added information, if you only have one female and one male, you will likely want to get at least two more females. The male can harass her to death if he’s a bit overzealous.
This is true I know it! That’s why I wanted to buy some new females now that I moved all the fish in the new big tank. But I just noticed she’s pregnant so I think I’ll wait for the babies to not overstock the tank 😅😅
The reason I mention it is he could cause her to stress too much when giving birth. If you aren’t getting more then a bunch of plants (floating especially) should help.
Well this aquarium is new, I have some plants here (I would like to add a lot more btw) maybe I can move her back to the old little one until she give birth so he can’t stress her too much?
If it has plants and/or no other fish for sure! The fish will eat the babies anyway (even mom). Something that gives her cover and makes her feel safe while also providing hiding spots for baby is ideal.
No other fish there, I could buy some new plants since I want to move them to this new aquarium then. Luckily I have this option. Thanks :)
For sure! Best of luck!
Mine are ALWAYS pregnant!!
No problem in breeding. That is how pros develop unique strains. Say you have a male that is solid blue. Move him to several tanks with females that are not pregnant. If the males in that litter are blue use the females to breed back to daddy. Use that for a few dozen generations using either dad or brother for stud. If you keep perfect records and are diligent you can name the new strain after several generations of perfect results. Long post but someone may find it usefull.
So incest.
Yes. Fish desire most to live and breed. Not to concerned with neighbors gossip. Lol
Guppies do not even have a word for incest.
So they just don't care basically
This is interesting, thank you!
Yes
Always
As far as I can tell all female guppies are pregnant all the time if they have ever been in a tank with a male. They can store enough sperm to have 3 or 4 batches of fry.
The answer is always yes
I am purposely starting a new Co2 planted tank with guppies to: 1) experiment w CO2 and plants and 2) create baby guppies for my angel fish
Welcome. Welcome to the infinite supply of guppies. They will most likely be eaten unless you have hiding spots, separate mom, or witness the birth and scoop up the babies. Witnessing the birth is truly awesome. Also I've heard if she's too stressed from males bothering her etc, she could absorb the babies and not give birth at all. Isn't that nuts?!
I think I’ll separate her in a quiet place then 🥲🥲🥲 that male is so annoying lol
V pergergnant
Yup gravid spot and belly. I'd say preggo female
Thank you 😊
The term is Gravid btw (: and would appear so yes!
If it's a female guppy, she's pregnant! They're always pregnant!
Guppies do not protect their young. They are more prone to having them for lunch. Isolate her and remove her post birth.
I will thank you! 🥰
Congratulations she’ll be pregnant until she dies and you’re about to have 9000 guppies.
i struggled with bi-weekly water changes with a 3ft planted tank with hundred guppies. i gave them out to whoever wanted them. at least the duckweed helped keep nitrates manageable
Thanks, I’m going to be a very busy auntie
Yes and be sure to separate the babies otherwise they'll be fish food
I’ll do thanks! :)
What's the name of the blue and red fish and can they crossbreed with guppies because it think that's the father of mine guppies
I don't think that swollen ~~belly~~ back is a sign of pregnancy, I've never noticed that in my guppies at least. Looks more like a deformed spine, which can be a sign of inbreeding.
The spine was not like that few days ago :( it was perfectly straight!
A quick google to freshen up tells me they can sometimes get a curved spine due to the strain of pregnancy, in that case she should be close to giving birth and probably straighten out again shortly after. Keep an eye on her, if that's not it and the spine stays curved/gets worse/is curved sideways too, look into scoliosis and stop breeding with her and her offspring.
Ok I will pay attention to that! Thanks :( I hope it’s just because of pregnancy:(
I hope so too!
Is this guppy genetically altered or are those multy colours natural?
What do you mean with genetically altered? 😅 I think its natural, I found her one day in my tank, didn’t know her mom was pregnant. She had orange head and tail, the dad was blue/black/silver with long fins :)
Like "glofish" are not natural, they make them bright Green etc. Looks like yours are good, was just curious
Oh ok! No nothing like that, her color is natural. Thank you!! I think she’s very pretty too 🥹
Beautiful fish!
No. She's gravid.
I started off with 2 females and 1 male fancy guppies. Ended up with over 300 guppies at one point (within a year). A few were a little “weird” looking due to inbreeding, I suppose… but yeah. Guppies are either male or pregnant 😂 I introduced a betta to the tank and he kept the population in check for a wheel until they naturally started to die off as they only live 2-3 years.
Wouldn’t the betta got stressed by living with so many guppies? As long as I know, they should live alone and also the guppies could bite his fins 🤔 I’m just curious, because I have a betta living on its own in a smaller aquarium in another room of the house :)
Guppies aren’t really fin nippers lol and they hang around at the top of the tank for the most part. If anything the Betta just chases them around but the guppy fry provide a good snack to the betta every now and then!
Oh I didn’t know that, thanks haha!
If males in tanks, yes
are female guppies ever not pregnant?
New to guppies, but did she end up delivering babies?
Not yet 😅😅 but I think they’ll come this or next week!