The Puffer Forum

Hi I was just curious do people get alot of pregnant fish? and how to tell if they are pregnant?.... A couple days ago my guppie had about 45 babies sadly they all survived and waiting till they are big enough to feed my needle nose but just today my balloon mollie had birth more littles ones uggy! the only good part, my red eye was not eating almost looked dying but feed her some baby mollies needless to say she is very plump now.. I was wondering is it common to get pregnant fish, it seems every time I get a community fish they are pregnant or a GSP from my LFS, two have been pregnant. does this happen to a lot?

All half-grown or larger(and some smaller) livebearer females purchased at the pet store are pregnant, it's just a matter of time until they pop.

I have a pair of mollies that I put in with my mudskippers, originally it was 3 mollies, but a mudskipper ate one. Anyway, just 2 days ago one of the mollies had a load of babies. Will be interesting to see if the mudskippers eat the little ones or not. It's common in the wild for them to do so.

FishyFishFish7 -- did you feed baby fish to your redeye puffer? If so, they aren't piscivore puffers, and you really should not feed them fish. What else did you try to get her to eat? Mine respond very well to mussel, pieces of shrimp and sometimes earthworm, plus the old standby, bloodworm.

"Every time you get a community fish, it's pregnant"? Not possible. Only livebearers carry their eggs inside until they hatch.

By the way, even if a female livebearer doesn't LOOK pregnant, it is, like Nick said, a matter of time. After a female mates once, she carries enough sperm for several batches of fry, so she's viable for several months.