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Guppy FAQ 1. How do I know if my guppy is pregnant? I get this one a lot. Although I've been tempted to answer this question with: "Is she cravin' anything special and is she prone to wild mood swings?", (now that I've finally got this one out of my system), here is something more substantial. The abdomen swells as with any pregnancy and the gravid spot (dark area at the bottom of the abdomen, near the pelvic and anal fins) gets very dark. This darkness is caused by the guppy babies (fry) being balled up still in their egg cases internally. On larger females, if you look really close, you might even see the eyes of a few of the babies. 2. How long before my guppy has her babies? The gestation period is about 3 weeks, depending upon the temperature of your aquarium. 3. My guppy just had babies, what do I do? If she is in an aquarium, you might try to very carefully net out the fry and put them in another aquarium. Better still, make sure you have plenty of places for them to hide, ideally in a bunch of live plants, either anchored or floating. If you think your guppy is about to give birth and you wish to save as many babies as you can, either put the pregnant female in her own tank, or if you're in a real pinch, a gallon jar with yarn (previously boiled) and loosely put this in the bottom of the jar. As long as the fry have a place to hide, there is less of a chance they'll be eaten by the mother, which she does to deprive any predator she feels threatened may exist. 4. What do I feed my new baby guppies? They'll do well on powdered flake food, which you can do by simply rubbing just a few flakes of food between your thumb and index finger, letting the powder drop into their nursery. Better still, hatch some brine shrimp nauplii and feed these to the babies. Guppy fry are big for fry fish and they are free swimming at birth. They'll get stronger, bigger and faster on the newly hatch brine shrimp nauplii. 5. What do guppies eat? In the wild, guppies eat small aquatic insects, notably mosquito larvae. This should be reflected in the food you feed them. To keep your guppies healthy and colorful, feed a staple flake that is at least 45% protein and do vary the diet with live foods, such as newly hatched brine shrimp, or thawed frozen adult brine shrimp or frozen bloodworms (called this because of their color) you can get at almost every local fish shop. 6. My Guppy is sick or looks like they have a disease, what do I do? First thing, keep an eye on them. Check with the table found at Diseases and see which condition best describes the situation and treat accordingly. Nothing helps better for a first defense in adding some more aquarium salt (treatment dosage), raising the temperature just a little, reducing the light and just keep a watchful eye, in the event mother nature needs a little more help. 7. I want to learn more and maybe breed guppies, how do I do this? Buy a book or two about guppies, read all of the literature that you can, and join a Guppy club or two. Books you can buy about keeping and breeding Guppies can be found at Guppies or at our bookstore. A membership in this site will also prove helpful & valuable and you'll find this far less expensive (financially and otherwise) than losing a lot of fish in the beginning. Then you will have the information, reliable resources and sources for a good genetic stock to begin. You should also start with a very good pair/trio of guppies from a reliable and recognized breeder, if you really want to be serious about breeding good, big, beautiful and strong guppies. This page was last updated on 01/04/09. |
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