Is My Guppy Pregnant? Please Help!

[Crazy for Chickens!]

What are you using for a filter, and are you keeping the filter clean?

I am using the filter that came with the tank. It is good and working. I just changed the filter cartridge, and it gets washed out when I clean the tank weekly.

 

[AlleysChicks]

Ok these are google images of male vs female since your pics didn’t show up.

Male on top and female on bottom.

This pic shows you where to look for babies on a female. Easy to tell at a glance that they are pregnant.

 

[Robin R]

A while back, I bought some male Guppies from PetSmart. Everything has been going fine, until a few days ago. I was looking in my tank, and noticed that 1 Guppy was very large around, and bloated. It was just swimming in place in the corner of the tank, and would every now and then push its tail upward, and go almost upside down.

I started looking up about it, and was looking at male and female differences. It said the males had a long flowing dorsal fin, and the females had a short rounded one. So I was comparing my other boys to this one, and I'm pretty sure it's a female. My boys have really long, flowy ones, and hers is just short and rounded. She isn't really very much larger than the others, but isn't small.

So then I started looking at what they do when they are pregnant or giving birth, and my fish seemed to have all the symptoms. So I waited, and waited, and it has been a few days. Nothing has happened, but she still acts weird. She hides out in a big jug, or in a corner, and acts like shes having contractions.

Im a little worried, because if she is pregnant, shouldnt she be done by now? The other thing was maybe she was bloated. But I haven't ever noticed it before.
I will attach some pics I attempted to take later. (the lighting was awful, and when I got the phone close, everything went blurry.)

Thanks in advance.

The

 

[AlleysChicks]

According to google it takes 26-31 days to produce babies

 

[BrindleFinch]

I'm not an expert, but it sounds like your tank isn't actually cycled thoroughly. While debris should be wiped out, you should never "clean" filter media. Good bacteria that eats the bad stuff like ammonia builds up in the filter of a cycled tank.

http://injaf.org/articles-guides/beginners-guides/beginners-guide-to-filter-maintenance/

I doubt it's the ISSUE that's causing her to be sick, but it could very well be; some fish are worse at handling variables in their water than others.

If you changed the filter cartridge, and then she began to get sick, it's likely something in your water is off balance and she's just the first to feel its effects.

 

[Robin R]

The way I tell if a female is pregnant look at her belly is there a black spot inside ? The bigger the black spot the father long she is when belly full she has them soon. If she's upside down sometimes she's sick. I used to bread guppys

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

See, my males for sure have a inch long at least dorsal fin on the top. Really long and flowing. The one in question doesn't have that. But, it doesnt have that extra fin at the bottoms, either. So....maybe still male?

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

The way I tell if a female is pregnant look at her belly is there a black spot inside ? The bigger the black spot the father long she is when belly full she has them soon. If she's upside down sometimes she's sick. I used to bread guppys

It doesn't have a black spot. I looked, but then I read it could be lighter colored if the fish was orange or yellow. Mine is yellow with black dots all over. I think it's a Lyretail.

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

I'm not an expert, but it sounds like your tank isn't actually cycled thoroughly. While debris should be wiped out, you should never "clean" filter media. Good bacteria that eats the bad stuff like ammonia builds up in the filter of a cycled tank.

http://injaf.org/articles-guides/beginners-guides/beginners-guide-to-filter-maintenance/

I doubt it's the ISSUE that's causing her to be sick, but it could very well be; some fish are worse at handling variables in their water than others.

If you changed the filter cartridge, and then she began to get sick, it's likely something in your water is off balance and she's just the first to feel its effects.

The stuff (I've always assumed it was algae) grows inside the filter, so I clean it out about once a month. The filter gets all filled up with gunky green stuff, so I took it out and wash it off. I figured I was just cleaning off the gunk it had caught.

 

[LightningRidgeF]

Thank you.
How long did it take yours to birth?

I never really knew when they were going to give birth so I really don't know exactly but it was several hours between the first few we spotted and the last ones arriving. I wasn't really paying that much attention since I had a 3yr old and a newborn at the time! lol My attention was kind of divided!