Content

• To step
• Part 1 of 3: Noticing physical symptoms
• Part 2 of 3: Watch out for there behavioral indicators
• Part 3 of 3: Grooming a pregnant guppy
• Tips
• Warnings

Guppies are beautiful, interesting fish. It is one of the few fish species that can reproduce through internal fertilization, rather than the external fertilization of the eggs by the males. If you have both male and female guppies, you will eventually have pregnant females. Since this will happen anyway, it is good to study their activities and appearance when you have some free time to determine if you have pregnant guppies.

To step

Part 1 of 3: Noticing physical symptoms

1. Notice a bulging belly. As with humans, a female gup will swell when pregnant, as if she is slightly bloated. Sometimes this is just swelling, not a pregnancy, but if you keep an eye on your guppy's belly for a few weeks and it continues to grow, then your guppy is probably pregnant.
   • Your female guppy is almost ready to give birth when she is very large and square in appearance. It takes about a month for the paw to be ready for birth.
2. Check out the pregnancy spot. It takes several weeks for the pregnancy spot (the spot near your guppy's anus) to darken. When it eventually darkens, that's definitive proof that your guppy is pregnant. It may look orange or dark at the beginning, but during pregnancy, the spot can switch between the two colors.
   • You can tell that your guppy is almost ready to give birth when you can see small spots (the baby guppy's eyes) in the pregnancy spot.
3. Keep an eye on contractions. Another clear sign that your guppy is about to give birth is the presence of contractions. This will look like the muscles on the surface of your guppy's body contracting, which will then loosen up.
   • This process can repeat itself several times during labor - muscle contractions, which then become more relaxed.

Part 2 of 3: Watch out for there behavioral indicators

1. Recognize when a guppy is mating. During mating, the male swims after the female until she is exhausted or surprises her. The male then pulls up his anal fin and inserts it into the female's lower abdomen to inject his sperm. This injection can already be done when the male bumps into the female and then swims away again.
   • Mating can go very quickly and often happens without the owner noticing.
2. Watch for other symptoms. While a pregnant guppy won't show all of these symptoms, they are a good starting point for determining if your guppy is pregnant. Some additional symptoms of pregnancy in guppies are:
   • Shaking or shaking
   • Rub against things in the aquarium - the wall, leaves, decorations
   • Don't want to eat
3. Notice if your guppy seems to keep swimming in the same spot. This is one of the most common behavioral characteristics of a guppy about to give birth. Your pregnant guppy will look like she's swimming while staying in the same location in the aquarium.
   • A guppy in labor may also hide or display aggressive behavior, such as biting its fins.

Part 3 of 3: Grooming a pregnant guppy

1. Minimize stress. Remember to take good care of your pregnant fish and not cause stress. If the fish becomes stressed during pregnancy, it may absorb the babies / miscarry. This means that the babies will not be born.
   • A stressful environment can harm unborn baby guppies and destroy their chances of survival.
2. Buy a breeding box. Using a breeding box is a good way to protect the pregnant guppy and ensure the well-being of the mother and her leg. Be careful though, as breeding boxes can also cause stress for pregnant guppies. The less time she spends in it, the less stress it causes.
   • Breeding boxes, or nets, are small rooms that hang inside the aquarium to isolate sick, aggressive and pregnant fish and their babies.
   • They are inexpensive and can usually be used for a long time. It's a good investment for something that can save the life of your guppy and her paw.
   • Place the pregnant guppy in the breeding box for as short a time as possible to minimize stress. So watch for the symptoms of labor and set her aside when she's about to give birth.
   • If your guppy has been isolated for 24 hours and has not yet given birth, return her to the normal tank section. Try to increase the temperature of the water slightly, this can make labor easier.
   • To place the guppy in the breeding box, use a fishing net to gently transfer her.
3. Feed the pregnant guppy. If your guppy is pregnant, you should feed her a well-balanced diet to ensure she doesn't develop nutritional deficiencies. This means that you have to give her different foods during the period of pregnancy.
   • Try to switch between regular fish flakes, small fish pellets, algae slices, krill, bloodworms, or brine shrimp every other day.
4. Return the guppies. Once the babies are grown in their breeding box / net, or rather a baby tank of 38 liters or more, you can place them in the regular tank where you first placed the breeding box to protect the leg as they grow. This process can take up to 4 months. You can also choose to keep them in a separate aquarium.
   • Having a lot of babies means that eventually a larger tank is needed, as each baby will grow to about 5 cm and an aquarium should not overfill.
   • When an aquarium is too full, it creates a lot of stress. This can even cause the adult guppies to eat their babies.
5. Clean the aquarium regularly. The guppies and their babies should of course not live in a dirty aquarium full of bacteria, which can lead to many diseases and the death of your fish. The water may look clear, but bacteria are growing all over the place. If the water is too warm, bacteria will grow faster.
   • Many fish can get "ich," which is rot that grows on the tail, body and mouth. It can kill small fish if within 24 hours it may take several days to affect larger fish.
   • To help kill bacteria that cause illnesses such as IC, you can add an IC / disease treatment to the water. To prevent parasites, you can use aquarium salt, applied as the instructions indicate.

Tips

• Endler guppies do not eat their young and are therefore easier to care for. You do not have to use a breeding box.
• If an unintentional paw is born or you are preparing for the birth of a new paw, you can place live plants to serve as a hiding place and food. For example, place java fern and anubias.

Warnings

• Don't stress them pregnant gup, or other fish, by tapping the glass, poking the fish, or doing anything else that upsets them.
• Some say moving your guppy to a breeding box causes stress enough to kill both the mother and the leg. Provide her with a space large enough to swim around in, clean water, and try to speed the transfer to minimize stress.