http://forum.aqua-fish.net/ A forum devoted to aquarium fish, plants, techniques and fish keeping as a whole. en http://forum.aqua-fish.net/?topic=how-do-i-tell-when-my-livebearers-are-ready-to-give-birth-#1 I have several livebearers in a 33 gallon aquarium, and have a 10 gal. aquarium underneath it for the females to give birth in. I will be raising the fry in the 10 gal. and then selling them to a local pet store. I need to know exactly what to look for come time to move the pregnant females. I have fish such as Guppies, Swordtails, and Mollies. original post: June 8, 2007, 11:33 pm anonymous 2008-05-03 http://forum.aqua-fish.net/?topic=how-do-i-tell-when-my-livebearers-are-ready-to-give-birth-#2 These species have big bellies when they are ready to give birth. Guppies can do it every 28-30 days in my experience. Since they are not very demanding, you should await newborns too often . Especially Guppies breed like rabbits . jan 2008-05-03 http://forum.aqua-fish.net/?topic=how-do-i-tell-when-my-livebearers-are-ready-to-give-birth-#3 To me it just came by a feeling you get a sort of a shot going it is going to have babies this week and it happens on the day! Puffy 2008-05-03 http://forum.aqua-fish.net/?topic=how-do-i-tell-when-my-livebearers-are-ready-to-give-birth-#4 One of my mollies is no problem, I can mark it on the calendar, another, well, she just drops when she’s ready and to hell with anything like dates! Usually there are large bellies and from the back they are almost square when ready. Other signs mine give me are aggressive feeding and floating close to the bottom in one corner for long periods. Guppies and mollies tend to behave very similarly this way, the swordtails and platties on the other hand give little or no warning and many times I have woken in the morning to find 60 - 80 little pairs of eyes looking at me through the glass! Then the fun starts, trying to catch them and move them to a fry tank. My adults tank is quite heavily planted, and by the time I’m finished, I often have to re-plant half of the tank! One other thing to bear in mind: Once they start, there is no stopping them. If you have more than one female, you will very soon need more growing tanks, as producing every 4 weeks on average, they take at least 8 weeks before they are big enough to move on, meaning that the second batch will arrive well before the tank is ready for them! Mixing batches will cause terrific problems when trying to net the larger ones, or the big ones will just eat the small ones. You would be well advised to get at least one more 10 gallon to be sure, and maybe even a 15 gallon with a center divider. The other thing is that these little critters can store sperm for up to six months, which means that one copulation with the male equals 6 batches of fry! timgautrey 2008-05-03 http://forum.aqua-fish.net/?topic=how-do-i-tell-when-my-livebearers-are-ready-to-give-birth-#5 With my guppy, I could see the little eyes peeking at me from insider her yesterday morning, so I put her in the breeder, and came home today at noon to find 26 little guys swimming around in there. Amber 2009-02-16 http://forum.aqua-fish.net/?topic=how-do-i-tell-when-my-livebearers-are-ready-to-give-birth-#6 Guppies, Mollies and Swordtails breed every 28 to 35 days. One way to know that the fish will give birth is to check the belly, which will be fuller and darker that normal times. It is best to keep the female seperate in a smaller tank a couple of days before you feel she will give birth in order to protect the young ones from being eaten up by the other fish in the main tank. Alternatively, you can ensure that there are enough plants for the young ones to take protection from. miltonserrao 2009-03-27