How long is a guppy fish pregnant?
The guppy’s pregnancy time depends on several reasons. Tank space, high nutrition feeds, and good oxygen levels are the few main things you should provide.
How long is a guppy fish pregnant? Guppies gestation period or the pregnancy period is the range between 21 to 31 days. Long duration allows them to prepare for carrying a large number of the guppy fry. Once the period is over, the guppies will start delivering healthy babies.
Table of Contents
- When to separate pregnant guppy?
- What to feed when pregnant guppy?
- Pregnant guppy signs of delivery?
- Do guppies change color when pregnant?
- Do pregnant female guppies need more oxygen?
When to separate pregnant guppy?
You should wait for at least 20 days after noticing the female guppy had developed the dark black spot near the fins. The stomach of the fish also becomes large. You even will notice the change in the behavior of the guppy. It will start swim slowly, eat less and try to stay close to the heater.
These are the signs that the guppy is ready to deliver the fry in few days.
You should gently remove the pregnant guppy from the tank and keep it in isolation where it can comfortably deliver the babies.
Feed the guppy on time and provide it sufficient amount of oxygen through the filtration process.
Remember, you need separate tanks to manage the pregnancy period.
Once the guppy has delivered all the fry in the tank, then move the guppy to the isolation tank to recover from the pregnancy period.
Keep the guppy 2 to 3 days in the isolation before you move it in the community.
It is vital to remove the mother’s guppy from the tank after she has delivered the babies. Else, the mother guppy would eat the babies.
Also, it becomes easy to take care of the guppy that came out of the pregnancy. As soon as you see the guppy is pregnant, you have around a month to prepare for the delivery.
Use the plants in the tank to create a hiding place for the babies. When the guppy delivers the babies, they tank to the bottom, where they slowly get ready for the swim.
It may take them few minutes to hours to get them fully prepared to swim. During this process, you have to keep the mother guppy away from the babies.
What to feed when pregnant guppy?
Pregnant guppy would need more nutritious food for her development as well as the fry. During the pregnancy, guppy would reduce the food intact. Do not worry if the guppy is avoiding the food. It is their natural health condition, and they will eat only they can consume.
Much of the space would be taken up by the fry, which causes the guppy to eat less.
To compensate for the daily meal, you should feed them three or four times a day so they can have sufficient time to digest and eat again when they are hungry.
How to feed when guppy pregnant?
Divide the full-day meal into a small portion and feed throughout the day at a specific time. Guppy would adopt the new feeding time and eat when the food is available.
Do not overload the food. Please give them a small pinch every time when you feed them. Guppy would not eat all the food.
The leftover will tank at the bottom, which would turn the water dirty. The diluted food would move in the water during the filtration process, making it hard to breathe to guppies.
Mix the fish food with the live and frozen brine shrimp. The varieties would provide the required nutrition during the pregnancy.
High-quality flake food, spirulina flake, and freeze-dried bloodworms are some of the options available in the fish food that you can try during the pregnancy period of guppies.
Pregnant guppy signs of delivery?
Female guppies get pregnant at an early age when they mate with the male guppies. Even a few weeks old guppies can also get pregnant. It would take one month to deliver fry. Therefore, the guppies can deliver the babies several times a year.
Guppy breeders easily detect the sign of the pregnant guppy.
The fish gain weight during their pregnancy period, making them larger than the male guppies. The dark spot near the anus under the tail would be easily recognizable.
All the breed of guppies has the gestation period around 21 to 30 days.
Between this period, any time, you can expect the babies of the guppy. The delivery date would be depending on various factors.
Such as the temperature of the water, cleanliness, and health of the female guppy. Guppy is sensitive fish that shows the sign of the impending birth.
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Symptoms of pregnant guppy fish
Symptoms would be varied depending on the fish type and the various other factors. The following guide will assist you in recognizing when the guppy is ready to deliver the fry.
- Female guppies gain weight during their pregnancy. However, the guppies that fed heavily also gain weight, so do not mistake the guppies because they look larger than other guppies. Use other signs to confirm the pregnancy of guppy.
- Look for the gravid spot of the fish. It becomes darker over time due to fry in the stomach. You will also notice that the spot changes the shape. It happens when fry is moving inside.
- When guppy is pregnant, it slows downs its routine activities. You will see it swim slowly, stay at one place for a long period, try to stay near the warm water, reside in the corner of the fish tank, hide behind the plant, etc.
- Pregnant guppy tries to stay in the isolation area. It will try to hide from other fish.
- Pregnant guppy also tries to flex her spine. It may seem like she is shivering or swimming in one place.
- Guppy may develop aggressive behavior when other male fish try to come close to her.
Do guppies change color when pregnant?
Pregnant guppy also fades color during the pregnancy. However, the color change effect would not be significant, but you can see the difference compare to the usual health condition.
Females would stop eating. The change of eating habit is a normal condition when guppy is pregnant.
Some guppy would develop a symptom of rapid breathing during the pregnancy period.
Do pregnant female guppies need more oxygen?
Proper oxygen level in the water is vital for the pregnant guppy to stay in good health. There is no need for more oxygen. Create the normal condition in the water where the guppy can comfortably swim and breathe in the water.
Related article:–
https://www.tinyfishtank.com/can-guppy-live-without-an-eye/
Can guppies live in a bowl without oxygen?
https://www.tinyfishtank.com/why-do-guppies-keep-dying/
https://www.tinyfishtank.com/why-are-my-pond-fish-hiding-all-of-a-sudden/
