A Pregnant Guppy Gives Birth To Numerous Babies

One of the first questions people usually ask is, "How do guppies have babies?" When a guppy gives birth, the females will "drop" 2 to 200 baby guppies, called fry, typically in four to six hours. If she is stressed, however, the process of giving birth to all those fry can take up to 12 hours.

In extreme cases, a female guppy may give birth to just a few fry at a time, with pauses of several hours or days between births. However, in most of these cases the young are not viable and die quickly. Typically, the fry are delivered one at a time, although they may appear in quick succession with pauses between groups of babies.

The baby guppies are usually born curled into small balls, just as they matured in the female's womb in this compact shape. They will uncurl and begin swimming quickly, however, and newborn guppies often swim upward if they are very healthy. Unhealthy, premature or stillborn young will sink.

Understand that guppies can reproduce very quickly, without any encouragement, and you will likely have fry very soon. The answers to these questions are essential to understand.