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Well... I'm a mummy. I have about half a dozen baby guppies swimming around in my tank. Here I was thinking all my guppies were male. They certainly LOOK all male. I have no idea which one the mother was... all the adult look in great shape. So my question is, what on earth do I do now? I have 5 adults in a ten gallon plus the babies. Should I try to raise them or let them fend for themselves? I don't want to overstock my tank. They are swimming around which makes me think they are oldish. I've been away on holidays and didn't know. Oh well. Any advice?

If you look at the anal fin on your adult guppies, males have thin, tube-shaped fins (called the gonopodium) while the females have fan shaped anal fins. You can also tell by the gravid spot on the females... a dark spot near their vent which is quite obvious when they are pregnant. Some colors of guppies prevent the gravid spot from being obvious, though. Also... if you notice one getting very big and sort of boxy (once a month), SHE is about to drop fry again.

If your guppies don't have a midnight snack (mine didn't...), then you'll be surprised with fry every month. Even if you figure out which is the female and separate her, she can still have up to six more drops. Drops can be from something like 6 - 60 fry. Maybe more, I'm no expert. My guppies were very young when they first had fry and only dropped ~8 a piece. As they get older, they'll drop more and more.

I started out with what I was told were three female guppies. One turned out to be very male, causing over two dozen fry in the following months. I saved the first drop, left the second... I thought the second drop would be sushi... but noooooooo...

I now have one female guppy, six female fry and a hoarde of younger fry. As the fry are easily sexed, the males get sent to my sister's tank. Hopefully this means I've prevented another population outbreak, but the female looks like she's ready to pop again. *sigh*

One female died of unknown causes (possibly holding fry), which is the only reason I'm not completely buried in fry. My advice... if you don't want to be overrun by fry, get some population control in there. I'd offer you the Terrible Trio (my golden zebra danios), but they're busy over here. They don't bother the fry once they're a week or so old, but the newborns are, sadly, free food. However, since I have NO room for more guppies (or more tanks), there's not much I can do.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

*peers at the brilliant black and yellow tail of her adult female guppy* Female guppies are NOT dull. Granted, their male counterparts are more striking, but I don't think you could call my shiny silver guppy with leopard spotted yellow and black tail dull.

As for the gravid spot, I notice that it changes colors, getting very black when she's about to drop and turning to a reddish-brown just after birthing fry. It also gets smaller, as has been mentioned.

Also, I've found that the parents will NOT eat the fry... or if they do, enough of them escaped my guppies' tummies that I've got dozens of the tiny lil fry left. That's why I had to add my danios...

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

If you don't have another tank to raise them in, then you are restricted to 'letting nature take its course' as putting the fry in a trap in such a small tank would inhibit their growth.

Ok, the first six got eaten. And then she dropped another 16, so i got a breeding trap and they seem to be growing well. I have been feeding them freeze dried brine shrimp. I have two spare tanks, a 5 gallon and a 20 gallon. They have no filter, though. They are used for betta set ups in the winter. Can I stick the guppies in there or do they need a filter?