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i have two female guppies that i got from a reputable local breeder, and i noticed that both (shortly before and after giving birth to fry) started to look a little "humped" or "bent." they act normally and eat, etc... but they just don't look quite right. the one that gave birth earlier is starting to look a little better (i think)... is this something to do with pregnancy? or are they deformed?

my guess would be : it would have to do something about breeding b/c u would have noticed a problem when u got them. Right?

I've just had this happen to one of my females that I breed. She's about a year old, she has had several batches of fry and has been a very good breeder. Within the last couple "drops" though, I notice her spine looking a little more and more bent as time goes on. I had this happen to another female I used to have. It is very unfortunate, but it does happen. I have not put my finger on anything in particular that causes this (besides dropping fry of course).

In fact, here is a pic of her right after she really started showing signs of being "bent". She is looking a lot worse these days and is very crooked...I don't think she will make it much longer....



~jamie~ attached this image:

I've had similar experiences with females after they have had several batches of fry...I wonder if it has something to do with how they carry the weight and then don't have it, thus after so many batches of fry this is just the "deformity" they are stuck with? Though I know it was males I was discussing at one point, it was the weight of their tails that caused them to be bent...Heidi

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

Good points Heidi.

I also wanted to add that it could do with genetics also. Sometimes you just don't know how inbred fish you buy might be. As with a lot of the fancy guppy population and even just mixed guppies, they get inbred a lot to draw out a specific trait in the fry and such. After awhile, some of the fry end up deformed (most common deformity "bent spine". This is where good "culling" technique needs to be put into play. I hate the sound of the word, and also the idea of it but it is very important.

As Babel also has brought up, it could also be caused over time because of old age. I guess it just depends.

Good luck!

I had the same with my female guppys when I had them that is. The older they got the more bent there spine got. Also the older and larger they got the bigger the more fry they dropped. So my guess would be the weight, as long as they were not bent from birth.