When Does My Guppy Give Birth & How Long Will It Last?

When keeping pet guppies, it is very important to be aware of their breeding habits. Guppies can breed very quickly and produce many offspring. If you do not want upwards of thirty baby guppies swimming in your tank, you should place the male and female fish into separate tanks. However, if you want to breed your guppies or the female is already pregnant, you may be wondering what to expect.

  1. Gestation

    • The average gestation period for a guppy is 28 days. However, some guppies can deliver as early as 20 or as late as 40 days. If you did not witness or schedule the impregnation of your guppy, it may be difficult to determine how far along she is. Her abdomen will swell as the pregnancy progresses, but this is not a reliable indicator of how close she is to giving birth.

    Birthing

    • The birthing process can last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, depending on how large the drop is. You may notice that the female seems listless and moves around very little due to her large abdomen. Right before giving birth, her vent will dilate. You will know she has finished giving birth when she stops dropping baby guppies and she is close to her normal size.

    Drop Size

    • Baby guppies are born in groups called "drops." Although a drop can range from two to 200 guppies, most consist of 30 to 60. In every drop, a number of guppies are born with defects and die quickly. Others fail to grow at the normal rate and may be eaten by their brothers and sisters in the first days or weeks. As such, even a large drop can quickly be reduced to only a fraction of its original size.

    Guppy Development

    • After birth, baby guppies are basically independent. However, they do not yet know how to find or hunt food. Placing them in a small tank and feeding them non-living food will help ensure that more of them survive. By six weeks of age, the males will become sexually mature. Shortly after, right around three months, the females will reach sexual maturity.