I have 5 pregnant fancy guppies. I have them in a little breeding tank with decorations and plants. I'm wondering a few things:

1. How will I know when they are getting ready to give birth?
2. How will I know that they are still okay? One guppy in particular I noticed that her poop is red. Is she okay? She has also been acting very aggressive for a few days now. Patrolling her territory and nipping at the fins of the other females if they come into it.
3. Any suggestions for keeping them. Like I said, I have the 5 females in their own tank and I have a breeding net. I don't have anyone in the net right now. I'm afraid that if one of the moms gives birth in the net she will be able to get at the fry easier and none of them will survive because there is no cover in there. I was hoping to be able to catch her giving birth and then be able to move the fry to the net until the other females are finished giving birth as well. Also, didn't want to stress the moms out by having them in the little net for a long time. So, any suggestions on what I should do to improve the chances of the fry making it without getting eaten?

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10gal fry tank planted with Wisteria, Java Moss, Anuabis and Anacharis
35gal Sponge Bob tank with live bearing tropicals (daughters tank)
15gal planted with Swords, Java Fern, Wisteria and Red Rubin housing 10 fry and 2 bladder snails
55 gal with Oscar (future planted tank with angels and flowerhorns)
55 gal Community tank (platys, mollys, guppys, glass catfish, angels, phantom tetra, red eye tetra and swordtails)

Generally I wouldnt answer this cause I'm not really an expert, but, my guppy just had her fry this morning!

I noticed she stopped eatting for about 2 days and would only hand out by the heater, i have lots of live plants around my heater so she would hide in the plants as well. When she started giving birth she was still by the heater i noticed she was "shiverring", the shivvering was actually her contractions as the fry came out.

In my tank I have lots of java moss and i picked up some "fancy plants" from the LFS and all the fry are still alive and hiding in the fancy plants as of now.

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Byte Size Computer Solutions

Put stuff in the tank for the fry to hide in - top and bottom. Floating stuff will help because usually the fry will go straight to the top initially. They sell breeder grass at your lfs. If the females are not really big (not referring to them being prego), I wouldn't worry too much about them eating them. In fact, in the guppies I've had given birth I've never seen a Guppy make a serious go at any fry. Platies on the other hand....

Platies? Really? I just purchased 3 of them yesterday!! 2 females and a male!!! Thanks for the guppy tips. I'm trying to grow Christmas Moss in the tank but only got it the other day so I don't think that it has attached itself to the decoration yet. I'll get some grass for the top. I have 1 fry in the tank but not sure who dropped it and they all appear to still be pregnant. Think they might all be ready to drop. No one seems to be swimming much and they don't want to eat either.

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10gal fry tank planted with Wisteria, Java Moss, Anuabis and Anacharis
35gal Sponge Bob tank with live bearing tropicals (daughters tank)
15gal planted with Swords, Java Fern, Wisteria and Red Rubin housing 10 fry and 2 bladder snails
55 gal with Oscar (future planted tank with angels and flowerhorns)
55 gal Community tank (platys, mollys, guppys, glass catfish, angels, phantom tetra, red eye tetra and swordtails)

A lot of times when you purchase a pregnant fish they will drop their fry prematurely. This is due to the stress of moving from tank to tank, different ph's, etc... Not to say that is why you see 1 fry in your tank. If you at least have gravel in your tank you probably have more present. They are very small and can hide pretty easy. I usually don't see fry until after about 4-6 days after birth in my tank. Sometimes longer. They can also take a little while to drop them all. And....can abort their own pregnancy.

I didn't at first, but now I make sure I drip acclimate all my fish before putting them in my tank. When getting pregnant fish this helps with dropping them prematurely.

Yes, Platies. I have two of them (out of about 40 total) that love nothing more than chase fry around the tank. Although I have never seen them murder one, I can only assume they have at least once.

In my guppies i have noticed that a blackened rear indicates that the young ones are ready to pop out. Presume the same applies to platies.

Depending on the color of the Platy. Tri-color Platies gravid doesn't look black and the color blend with their natural body color. Not even sure if any of my Platies show a color. Platies you only go by the bulging body. I can usually guess within a couple of days when it is about to give birth

Gravid spot on a Guppy, although seemingly always present, does tend to darken when they are about to give birth.

When guppies are about to drop their fry they "square off" - if you look at them either from the front or from the side they look kind of rectangular, and with lighter fish you'll see eyespots through that dark area (the gravid spot) at the back of their abdomen. when ever one of your females drops write down the date, because in another 28 days that female will drop again, give or take a day or two. If you can't find plants, can't afford plants, or the plants aren't thriving those knitted plastic pot scrubbers you find in grocery stores work well. Just unravel them and bunch them into a ball. You can float them or anchor them. If your java moss is thriving periodically take some chop sticks and open the mat up so the spaces inside the moss aren't so tight, 'cause a quickly growing java moss can get so dense babies can actually get trapped (but you can avoid this by just loosening up the weave on your java with chop sticks or just your fingers - I keep java moss in all my breeding tanks)
Your babies will have a better chance in the breeding net with the mom than out in the main tank, the mom is less likely to eat her own than her sisters. Plus you can put java moss in the net with her. Better still to put her in a tank of her own with some java or a pot scrubber. If you can't afford a drop tank, an empty gallon or two gallon jar will work, or one of those smaller plastic bins, especially if you can afford a small filter to fit. This is where knowing your guppies' due dates will come in handy, 'cause if they only have to spend a day or two in the drop tank it doesn't have to be as fancy.

Good luck!

In my albino guppies the gravid spot is pinkish-orange, just a little darker than the fish's natural color. When one of my girls gave birth recently, I completely missed it because her coloring stayed the same and she didn't act much different. But all around my driftwood and plants, there were babies!

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Niki

4 tanks, all planted:
20 gal tall
10 gal
2 - 5 gal tanks

anubias, java fern, java moss, water sprite, vesuvius, wisteria, red cryptocoryne wendtii
48 Watt T5HO on the 20

many happy guppies
one crabby betta