# The Guppy Gravid Spot



## Pandapop

I have currently 4 female fancy guppies in my large 20gal tank (along with platies, a few mollies, a rosy barb and 5 male guppies -- had more females than males, but sadly lost most of them) and three of them are very large in the stomach area. I'm 100% certain that they're pregnant, as they were already when I bought them.

Now, I've been looking all over online for how to tell when a guppy is about to drop, or the most common signs people have seen just before birth -- and I've never found a solid answer about the gravid spot, even though it is always mentioned.

Here are a few of the things I've picked up from Googling. 

1. The gravid spot of females that are peachy/lighter in color will turn from pink to black when close to dropping. Gravid spot in gray/darker females is the opposite; black to pink when about to drop.

2. The gravid spot will become larger in size, and darker.

3. The female's belly will square-off, similar to how a Molly or Platy would, but the gravid spot does not show any real signs of change.

4. When about to drop, the eyes of the fry can be seen within the gravid spot in lighter colored females.

So which of this is true, and which isn't? I've never heard of the reverse-colored gravid spot bit until just two nights ago, online. Multiple places are giving me different answers. 

One of my females, a yellow-ish colored girl, I observed last night. Her gravid spot is a mixture of black and pink, and I THOUGHT I saw the eyes of some of the fry in there -- and just last night I found a small fry swimming around in my planted tank where all of my pregnant females previously were. But I haven't found any more after that. I'm thinking she began to give birth, and all but one were eaten. If that's the case, she's not done yet...

Can anyone who has been breeding guppies for a while supply me with some solid information about the gravid spot, and when I should be expecting fry? The different signs some of your females have displayed before dropping?

Later tonight I'll upload a few pictures of my females.


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## swordtail1910

first in everything you should try to put the female that is pregnant in a breeder box such as plastic or net, this is easy to find they are cheap and they are selled in you local pet store. try to put the female there and just wait, after the babies or fries are born put some fake or real plants in the plastic box for the fries can feel they are secure, if the fries are born you can feed them with fish flakes normal food, try to rub the flake food into little pieces sp the little fries can be able to eated. well i wish may help you. if you have some questions feel freee to write back


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## hXcChic22

Although breeder boxes and nets are a good idea, they actually aren't the best way to do things. Mama fish can get stressed being confined and not drop their babies. The best thing to do is just put lots of fake plants and some real floating ones (like watersprite) into the tank and just let her roam free. When the babies are born, most of them will have the good sense to hide in the plants from their mothers. There's a chance you will lose some of the babies but it's better than her refusing to have the babies for weeks on end. We've learned this the hard way. We put a guppy in a breeder net because she looked fit to pop, but she stayed that way for almost two weeks and never dropped, so we figured she was stressed and let her loose in the tank. 
We then moved the fry in that tank into a Rubbermaid tote, set up just like an aquarium, using water and gravel from our already established tanks. We bought a heater and used one of our extra filters, so all in all we only spent about $30 to make a fry tank. Put it in a sunny place and you don't even need to buy them a light. 
Mother fish really need to be loose and they need recovery time, stress-free, after they drop their fry. Loha, one of the members on this forum, told me that's why one of females probably died, because we moved her back to a community tank, which stressed her out.


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## Pandapop

I have a mess-load of hornwort and green myrio, both live plants in each of my tanks. I also have many fake silk and plastic plants, so having the fry feel secure is not a problem at all. 

I don't like using breeder traps for anything other than holding the small fry for a short time, until I can move them into a larger area without any adult fish. Currently I have two VERY pregnant platy fish in my 3gal tank with a divider, and I'm expecting babies within the next day or so. But normally my fry would be in there, until they're a little larger... when that happens, they're in the planted 10gal.

When I think my females are close to dropping (within maybe a week to a few days), I remove them from the community 20gal and isolate them in a smaller tank until after they give birth. Then, I let them rest for a while in that same tank while I remove the babies, before re-adding them into the 20gal. Before I moved ALL of my fish (except for those two platies) into the 20gal, I had all pregnant females (mollies, platies, guppies) in the 10gal with lots of hornwort and green myrio. Unfortunately I lost two fish this way... both of which were very close to dropping, and I assumed it was because of stress. Too many pregnant females in one area aren't a good thing. So now, that tank is empty... although there MAY be guppy fry in there, because as mentioned before, I found one hiding in the hornwort last night. So I was going to wait until I could inspect it further tonight when I get home.

I wanted to know about the gravid spot, because I want to remove the females as they're close to dropping to avoid unnecessary stress (from being with so many other fish, especially the males). The rest of my mollies and platies have some time to go, as well as one of my guppies. But three other guppy females look pretty close... I'm just not sure.


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## hXcChic22

Honestly, a female can look like the babies are about to swim out, but there's no way to tell for sure. They are own their own schedule, not yours, as Lohachata told me. 
I'd say when they look about to pop, move them. It might be a hour, it might be a couple weeks. Better early than late.


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## Pandapop

So they really are a lot like platies and mollies. But I've never seen any of my female guppies hang out around the heater on the bottom like my mollies have, before giving birth. Maybe it's more of a personal preference type of thing? 

I guess I'll just wait until my two platies (or at least one) drops, then add one of the guppy females into the 3gal tank after a water change, and remove the fry and mother.


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## Guest

fish like molly and swords are prone to stress and trust me when i say this....they can do really stupid things when stressed. if you think ur fish is ready to pop, your better off leaving them in the tank like hXc says....but if it in the early stages i suggest you keep a birthing tank standby incase u plan on keeping the fry.


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## Pandapop

Yeah, for the most part I plan to just leave them alone and check up every now and then for any changes in their stomach size. Guppy fry are so hard to find! While cleaning out my 10gal last night, I found another one and put it with the first guppy baby in the breeder trap in the 20gal. 

Right now I have three pregnant platies in my 10gal, and four guppy girls in my 3gal. But tonight I'm going to move two of the four into the 10gal... there's just not enough room in there for all of them.


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