Female guppies

Hey js wondering if n e body else has experienced this. I had 10 female guppies and 3 male. All fish are healthy and Active and eat alot but the females wen it looks like they might give birth start to breath heavy and then give birth to a few fry and then die or they won't even get the chance to do that they jus die b4 releasing the fry. It's heavily planted 55g tank so they have lots of space to hide n stuff . But so far ive lost 4 and transferred 1 male over to a diff tank to keep te ratio 3 to1

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Robert Jango on May 2, 2012 at 12:24am

Another guppy lover! Thank you Pedro.

My experience has been that when a female guppy dies it is from old age and just after giving birth for the last time. Up until 80 years ago childbirth was (I think) the most common cause of premature death in American women. It doesn't surprise me that live birth can be fatal in other animals as well.

So I guess what I'm asking is, "Are your female guppies just old?" After all, they don't live very long. Or is it, as you seem to indicate, just the females dying?

If this is the case, the only other thing I can come up with is the water. When/if you change the water do you add conditioner? If your water contains chlorine you should be ok. I actually find a 33% (but not more than 66%!!!) water change with chlorine to be beneficial - it helps kill parasites and evaporates within 24 hours. Duckweed also consumes it. But if your water contains chloramine that's probably the problem. It takes months to evaporate and builds up to the point where your fish's burnt gills make it impossible to breathe - ESPECIALLY during a stressful activity like giving birth. Chloramine is tricky because its effects aren't manifested right away (its a gradual build-up) but it will slowly suffocate your fish.

Ammonia makes it difficult to breathe too. But in a heavily planted tank I doubt you have any ammonia.