Guppy Fish Gestation Period
- May 16, 2022
- Anshika Mishra
- 831 0 0
How often do guppies have babies? This article will cover an essential subject regarding guppy breeding, the gestation period. You'll learn if you can speed up the guppy gestation period and how many babies guppies have at a time.
Let's find out how long the gestation period is for guppies.
Gestation in Guppies
In most cases, the gestation period for guppies will last anywhere from 25 days up to 35. The female's health and the food supply depend on the water parameters.
On average, 22 to 26 days will be regular for most guppy fish. However, if the female is healthy, it shouldn't take longer than 26 days, especially if you regularly provide healthy food and keep the water parameters in check during the breeding process.
If the female senses danger or is stressed out multiple times during the process, the pregnancy will last longer. Excessive stress can result in spontaneous abortion too.
Now that you know how long it takes for guppies to breed, let's see if you can speed up the gestation period.
Can You Speed Up Gestation in Guppies?
Shortly, the answer is yes, and you can speed up the gestation period for guppies. How though? Here are two of the ideas you can try out:
- Gradually increase the temperature in the tank
- Feed them protein-rich foods
Any of the methods mentioned above will speed up the gestation in guppies. Let’s see what do you need to do in more detail:
First of all, gradually increasing the water temperature is done multiple days. You set the water heater at a higher temperature each day but do it slowly. You only increase the temperature each day by one or at most 2 degrees. Otherwise, the pregnancy could go away.
The second method consists in feeding your guppies with high-protein foods. Such food items could be bloodworms and brine shrimp. To make the most out of these foods, it’s best to use live shrimp and worms, but frozen ones will work too if that is all you have.
Applying these two methods can decrease the gestation period by 6 or 7 days. This is not a rule, though, so don’t expect a sure decrease in this amount.
How to Tell if a Guppy is Pregnant?
To apply the steps I mentioned above, you first need to know if your guppy is pregnant or not. How can you tell if that’s the case?
Firstly, you need to look for physical symptoms, like a big belly bulge. This does not always show pregnancy because it could just be bloating. However, if the belly bulging’s getting more prominent over time, your guppy is most likely pregnant.
Another way to tell your guppy is getting pregnant is to watch its behavior. Usually, the male will chase down the female when mating to the point of exhaustion. Then the female will stop and let the male start mating with her. If you notice this behavior, the female will likely get pregnant soon.
Some other symptoms that could show pregnancy are these:
- Shaking and constant shivering in the aquarium
- If the female is rubbing herself to the tank, like the wall of it and inside decorations or plants
- If the female refuses to eat regularly
These symptoms themselves won’t necessarily show pregnancy, but your guppy is pregnant if you notice them all together, plus a bulging belly.
However, another sign that could occur, it’s not the most common, is for your guppy to regularly swim in the same place. Just like before, if this symptom shows itself together with others, your guppy might be pregnant.
How Many Babies do Guppies Have at a Time?
Usually, guppies will give birth to live fry. How many, though? A guppy female can give birth to anywhere from 2 to 200 fry at a time. This process will take up to 6 hours to finish. However, if the female is stressed out, it can last for 12 hours.
Does this mean that all 200 fries will live? No, not necessarily. That is because guppies have cannibalistic tendencies. So when the female gives birth to all the fry, she could start eating them if you don’t remove her at once.
Why Pregnant Guppy Not Giving Birth?
Sometimes, a pregnant guppy won’t give birth. What could be the cause of this? There are multiple reasons for this to happen:
The first cause can be the water temperature. If the temperature is too low, your guppy won’t give birth in time. That is why many people will increase the water temperature gradually, as I described above. Make sure to keep the temperature at the same level at least.
Another cause for late birth could be stress. If your guppy feels stressed out, it won’t give birth in time. The cause of stress could be other fish that live in the tank. If they don’t leave the female alone in the breeding period, she’ll get stressed out and even abort the pregnancy.
Conclusion
As you can see from above, the guppy gestation period will last for almost a month if everything goes as planned. However, there are certain things you need to take care of to ensure a proper gestation period.
For instance, the water temperature should be kept in check, and you also need to keep a quiet habitat for your female guppy, so she’ll give birth typically.
If you notice any of the signs I mentioned above, your guppy may be pregnant. If that’s the case, prepare a separate breeding tank to ensure a higher survival rate for the fry. This way, the whole breeding period will go down correctly.
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