How long does it take guppies to give birth? If you have a pregnant guppy, you should know that these fish are livebearers, so they give birth to their young fry instead of laying eggs, like most other fishes.
Giving birth is an important and sensitive time for a guppy, so it is best to know everything that will happen beforehand. This is the perfect article for you if you are a guppy owner and have both male and female guppies in the tank.
Contents
How Long Can It Take for a Guppy to Give Birth to Fry?
How long it can take for a guppy to give birth to fry can vary from one female to another, but normally, it takes up to 28 days for the eggs to develop and then a few hours, up to a day, for the live fry to be born.
– How Long Will the Guppy Stay Pregnant?
The guppy will stay pregnant for 22 days to 28 days. The gestation period can depend on the tank’s temperature, the health of the guppy, as well as how clean the tank is. If the conditions are not favorable, the guppy fish will stay pregnant for a longer time.
How to know when guppy is finished giving birth? Just like any other live delivery, the process is hard and exhausting for the guppy, and it will take some time. On average, this process takes around 12 hours.
How many babies does a guppy have the first time? During the birthing process, the guppy will release anywhere from two to 100 guppy fries, one after the other.
Why is my guppy taking so long to give birth? It takes this long because the guppy will take a break in between, usually for a few minutes, but it can also be a longer break of a couple of hours.
This delivery process can be longer if the water parameters, such as water temperature, are lower. Do guppies give birth at night? Yes, as a live-bearing fish, guppies can usually give birth at any time.
– How Often Does the Guppy Get Pregnant?
How often the guppy gets pregnant depends on the ratio between male guppies and female guppies. The female can get pregnant every month, so you will have a new batch of guppies quite often! This is especially true if the female-to-male ratio is ideal.
In an ideal tank, there should be at least three female guppies for one male guppy. The female guppy can also store sperms for over a year. So how soon can guppies get pregnant after giving birth? It can happen in as little as a month.
The male guppy will chase and harass the female guppy every month. It does not matter if the female fish is already pregnant.
This will stress the fish and hinder her ability to properly deliver babies (remember that guppies don’t lay eggs). Therefore, you should separate the pregnant guppy into another separate tank so it can get away from the male guppy.
How Can You Tell if a Female Guppy Is Ready To Give Birth?
You can tell if a female guppy is ready to give birth by looking at the gravid spot, which can be found near the anus. This spot will keep getting larger and darker, and when the fish is ready to give birth, it will be very large and black/maroon.
Her belly will also look boxy and square and ready to burst, which is when it will give birth, among other signs. For guppy breeders and other experts, it is very easy to know when the guppy is pregnant.
If you are a new guppy keeper, locating a pregnant guppy fish can be a little harder. However, there are clear signs which you will notice if you look closely:
- The pregnant fish does not swim and stays still in a spot
- She starts looking for a place to hide
- The fish stops eating food or spits the food out all of a sudden
- Some main signs of body contractions like shivering and shuddering
- You will also notice a rapid increase in breaths
- If the male is still in the tank with her, she will get very aggressive toward him.
If you see these pregnant guppy signs of delivery and have not separated the pregnant guppy from the male guppy and put it in a birthing tank, it is time to do that immediately or have a breeder box or guppy breeding tank.
It is also important to separate the mother guppy after she gives birth from the fry. It’s possible that guppies eat their own fry.
If you do not want the guppy fry, they will get eaten in the fish tank easily. Can I put 2 pregnant guppies together? Yes, you may consider two pregnant guppies in a single tank and use a mesh to separate them from the fry.
What To Do After the Guppy Gives Birth?
After the guppy gives birth, your duty is to keep the mother and the newborn guppies alive and healthy. Both of them will be very weak and will need some extra care. You should also separate the mother from her fry, as it’s possible that she could eat them.
– Taking Care of the Mother
The guppy that just gave birth should be allowed to rest in the tank that she already is in. If she was not separated during birth, she should be separated now. The female guppy should be allowed to rest for at least a few hours or a day so that she can get her strength back.
During this time, the fish should also be getting a lot of nutritious food to compensate for all the energy lost.
After a few hours spent alone with a lot of food and a clean tank, the fish can be added back to the community tank with other fishes (but maybe not betta fish, as these are aggressive). Make sure to keep taking care of the fish for a few days so it can recover fully.
– Taking Care of the Fry
In the tank, the fry will be very quick swimmers, so some of them will be able to survive. However, most of the baby guppies could be eaten, so they should be in a separate tank.
If you do not have a tank, a bucket with appropriate water parameters and water temperature will work fine as well for fry care.
If you cannot afford that either, make sure to have a lot of floating plants and other types of plants in the tank.
There should also be caves and other places where the fry can hide from predators. There are also nets that you can buy and place in the tank. This will allow the guppy fry to move in and out of the netted area, but the other guppies cannot enter the area.
The fry should be given enough food during this time. Make sure to only let the fry out with other fish when they are at least half an inch big.
Conclusion
Since guppies give live birth, this article should help you determine what to do when the time does come. Here are more points from the article:
- The pregnancy of a guppy lasts for 22 to 28 days on average, but it can also last for a whole month.
- The delivery can take around 12 hours.
- There are many signs that can indicate that the guppy is ready to give birth, such as a boxy appearance and a darker gravid spot.
- After birth, the mother needs to regain her energy, and the fry needs to be kept safe from cannibalistic parents and other larger fishes.
How long does it take for a guppy to give birth to all her fry? Guppies can take around 12 to 18 hours to give birth. However, with proper care and observation, it is possible to have healthy little guppies that you can raise.
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