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Frustration. | 8 comments (8 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: If there is an airstone or sponge filter in (none / 0) (#4)
by lomelindi on Thu Jul 28, 2005 at 05:12:30 PM PST

Her scales seem perfect. I might be mistaking pregnancy with overly-large tummy, I don't know. Here's a picture, if it helps.. not a great-quality, but it shows both the curving (?) of the spine, and the reddish gravid spot.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v610/lolonque/decker.jpg

She's not actually spending time on the gravel at all.. when I took that shot, she was scrounging for fallen flakes. She actually seems happier than she has been for a while, with the exception of sullen clamp-finned sojurns to the top of the tank, an occasional oddness in the way she swims, and that darned flashing they're both doing. I even caught a fry or two doing it.

As I type this, she's nibbling on a bit of cucumber I have in there.

For the life of me, I can't see anything wrong with her physically. The male seems to be chasing her from time to time.. not in mating behavior, but as if he's going to nibble at her or so. I see no scale problems, no whiteness, no little worms... nothing GL usually warns one to look for. And the male looks fine.

And yes, the fry setup is just as you described. Thank you for reassuring me on that count that I'm not doing them harm. I do so enjoy watching them there on my desk, and I'm relieved that at least they aren't sick.

[ Parent ]

Re: If there is an airstone or sponge filter in (none / 0) (#6)
by miskairal on Fri Jul 29, 2005 at 11:26:31 PM PST

How old is the fish in the photo lomelindi?

I have read that curving of the spine can be associated with age. I don't think she is pregnant - in my experience she would be much darker in the gravid spot.
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[ Parent ]

I may be wrong again, but that female's gravid (none / 0) (#8)
by unclescott on Sat Jul 30, 2005 at 06:48:24 PM PST

area doesn't look so red. It is lighter colored than a lot of female guppies, but she is also displaying some yellow along with the black in her tail.

If you look at other photos of lighter colored females, their gravid spot may not be so dark. Albinos obviously aren't. Perhaps overall pigmentation, as well as health, tank decore (certainly gravel hue), mood and age are all factors in the mix.

As miskairal suggested, she does seem to be aging. Guppies are not long lived fishes. One to two years is about it. The higher the temperature, the shorter the life span.

Another way to check her relative health and potential for parenthood would be to gently herd that female into a jar. Hold the jar and shine a flashlight through her from the back. This "candling" can show if she has fry in her. That is also a good way of sexing egglayers or to determine how ready a female egglayer is for breeding.

Sometimes it is just fun looking at Guppy photos. Of course your official reason is to compare others with your female. ;)

I was frustrated in that this site's search function gave a lot of hits for guppy photo, guppy image, guppy photos. There wasn't much in most of the hits on photos though. Google wasn't much better. I know that a couple of guys (Parttimer? PeterW? everb?) recommended some great visual sites and I can't find their post on the subject.

Below are some other sites which have been mentioned (or should have been mentioned) from time to time. By no means is it comprehensive - do a Google image search for Guppies and see what I mean. Still the following are fun to browse. Some have many pages, so look around and check their links to other sites.

Undoubtedly others who happen upon this have other favorite guppy images. Please share the URLs.

Thanks and all the best!
uncle scott

http://www.tropicalfishintl.com/guppy.htm

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/medaka-ken/k.t/framepage5.html

http://www.world-guppy.de/

http://www.laurellakeguppies.com/

http://www.ifga.org/

http://www.deltaguppies.com/

http://www.arihood.com/azgenetics/guppycolors1.html

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/medaka-ken/k.t/framepage5.html

http://www.ifga.org/guppy_store/gs_roebuck.htm

http://www.guppy-art.de/galerie01.htm