baby guppies.

this morning i woke up to new guppy babies, only to look closer and most of them are dead. most likely because the mom was so sick before. i've counted 38 so far, but im guessing around 25-30 are dead.

but i have a question about them.

they all have HUGE yellow belles, about twice as big as their heads and were there heart should be, it looks like blood, is the heart showing through? and is the yellow stomachs the yolk still inside their stomachs? most of the live ones cant even swim because of the weight of their stomachs.

thanks.

Sometimes live bearing fish like guppies are born prematurely, before their yolk sacks are used up and before they are fully developed. That's probably what you have, especially because the mother was sick. It would account for the large tummies and your ability to see their hearts. Don't feed the guppy fry until the yolk sacks are consumed. The ones that did not survive were probably less developed than the survivors. I hope you manage to save a few.

well so far i have saved 5, but when i went to dispose of the dead ones, i realized some of them arent dead, they are just unable to swim even a little, so i don't know what to do, because im scared to get the dead ones out of the tank, but what if they are still alive?

Since the fry are so small, I would not worry about removing the dead ones for a few days. Once the living fry are free swimming, you can carefully syphon all the dead fry and waste materials off the bottom of the aquarium. How large is the aquarium? A large water volume does not get polluted as fast as a small water volume. If you're dealing with only a gallon or two, you need to start the cleanup sooner than if you were dealing with ten or more gallons.

Female guppies can carry sperm for quite a long time and will produce fry for several months from one spawning. Usually, they don't drop large numbers of fry at a single time. Since the female in your aquarium was sick, she dropped all of her fry at once.

my tank is only 15 gallons. and the babies are in a breeder trap.

but i was gone today, and i when i came home, all of the dead babies were gone! and there were only live ones.

what had happened was the current from the filter pushed all of the dead babies against the side of the breeder trap, and i guess the adult fish ate them through the slots in the trap. its kind of gross, but it made the job easier for me! there are seven live in total.

the dead babies aren't bad for the adult fish, right?


thanks for all the advice! i'm really grateful i can have all my questions answered here!

Are you sure the filter is not too big for your aquarium?

yes i'm sure.

the breeder trap was floating right in the current of the filter.

If the fry hadn't been dead long, they pose no threat to the adult fish.

I'll feed my dead fry to my aquarium fish.

The only thing that makes me nervous is that the female was sick... but it wasn't quarantined, so I don't think it's a big deal.

Good Luck with your fry! And Welcome to the forum! We're glad to have you!

yes they were only dead for an hour or so, maybe a bit longer.


one of the live ones died, but he couldn't even swim, and another just totally disappeared, but the rest are eating and swimming and seem in great shape. yay!


thanks so much!

Be sure to keep up all the aquarium maintenance chores. I understand that Detroit is getting really cold, so maybe you should make sure your aquarium heater is in good working order.

Have you ever gone to the big Detroit car show in August? I wish it was not so far away from Phoenix.

yes it's VERY cold. but i have a great heater and i check it every time i go into my room and it's almost always exactly the same, and it only goes down one degree at night, which isn't bad at all since i have the coldest room in my house. :[
i actually live in Livonia, which is about 15 minutes outside of Detroit.
are you talking about the dream cruise?
best car show EVER!!! :] the atmosphere is amazing there and people come from all over the country for it. the whole county is packed with people on the weekend of the dream cruise and you cant go down any street without seeing some pretty sweet cars.

my best friend's dad is making a '62 falcon and it is almost done, and when i it is done we get to ride in it in the dream cruise!

My sister in law and her husband live in Berkley, which is somewhere near Detroit. At least they sent me a Dream Cruise T-shirt, so I can pretend like i was there. Remember to post a picture of the 62 Falcon when it's completed.

i've never heard of berkley.

i will :]