We've also gotten lots of comments that say something like, "I can tell when one of my female livebearers (like a female guppy) will release babies very soon, because she will start to look for places to hide or places to hide her babies."

But I think you will have to observe your female guppies closely for a few weeks, before you will be able to predict that one of them will release her babies soon. I wish I had a better answer for you, but I think you will have to patiently watch your female guppies.

As explained below Mr. Frank Dayes did not put his female guppies in a contraption to protect their babies. Mr. Dayes had a more natural method, as explained below on this page.

On the other hand we were greatly helped by being with other people who were kind enough to show us what they were doing. One person that really helped us was Mr. Frank Dayes.

I think Mr. Dayes moved here to San Diego from Chicago or somewhere in the Midwest in the late 1950s. We met him in the "Blue Pacific Fish Store", which was the closest place to our home that sold tropical fish. Mr. Dayes' home was just a few blocks from our house, and he invited us to come to his house and see his aquariums and fish. We did, and he showed us his garage, where he had about 25 aquariums full of Fancy Guppies. The aquariums were probably 10 or 15-gallon aquariums.

Each aquarium had an aquarium heater adjusted to about 80 degrees, a sponge filter, and a big bunch of live Java Ferns about 6" to 7" in diameter and 7" to 8" tall. Some of the aquariums had 15 to 25 beautiful Fancy Guppy Males, other aquariums had 20 to 40 large Female Guppies, and some aquariums were packed with baby Guppies.

Mr. Dayes explained to us that Male Guppies have brilliant colors on their bodies and their fins, and that Female Guppies are gray or tan with much bigger abdomens that are filled with baby Guppies. We also saw the dark spot, called the gravid spot, at the rear end of the female's abdomen. This dark spot is caused by the baby Guppies showing through their mother's skin.

Female Guppies do not normally lay eggs like most female fish, instead Female Guppies release small live babies. Usually they release a group with about 12 to 30 babies over a period of a few hours, and they do this again every 3 or 4 weeks. In fact, once a Female Guppy is fertilized by a Male Guppy, that female can continue to release baby Guppies for many months without a Male Guppy in the aquarium.

After they are released by their mother, baby Guppies float to the bottom of the aquarium and often swim in a hurky-jurky way for a few hours. They are probably learning how to control their fins. But soon they are swimming well and find their way into the big clump of Java Ferns, where they look for tiny bits of food. A little later the baby Guppies swarm around the sponge filter, and pick bits of food off the sponge.

I think it was Mr. Dayes, who showed us how to put flake fish food inside a plastic bag, and crush it into a fine powder to feed to the baby fish. I remember seeing him put a tiny pinch of powdered food on the surface of the water then stir the surface of the water with his other hand, so the bits of powdered food would fly about inside the aquarium, and we could see the baby Guppies swimming to catch a bit of food. Within a few minutes all the baby Guppies had round stomachs full of the powdered fish food.

Mr. Dayes said he fed his baby Guppies at least six times a day. Click here to read more about making powdered food for baby fish.

Mr. Dayes had more than 20 years of experience with breeding Guppies, when we met him. He could look at a Female Guppy and instantly tell if she was going to have babies in the next couple of days. If she was going to have babies soon, he would very gently move her to her own aquarium with just an aquarium heater, a sponge filter and a big bunch of Java Ferns. I never saw any gravel or ornaments in any of the aquariums that Mr. Dayes used for breeding his Guppies.

My brother and I have never bred Guppies. What I have written here in these few paragraphs about breeding Guppies is just an account of what I remember seeing many years ago. I hope it helps you. If you have a comment, suggestion, or question about what I have written, please send me an email.

You might be able to use another kind of plant, even a plant that floats, but the Java Ferns seems to do very well without getting much light, and Mr. Dayes did not have a light above each aquarium. In fact he didn't have any aquarium covers or anything above his aquariums. He just had aquariums with heaters, sponge filters, a big bunch of Java Ferns, and lots of Guppies!

If you read the information about Mr. Dayes' method of breeding guppies, you will learn that he kept a big Java Fern plant in each aquarium with his female Guppies. The Java Ferns are an excellent place for baby Guppies to hide and avoid being eaten by adult female Guppies.

Incidentally for about 48 hours after a female Guppy releases babies, she usually will not eat baby fish or any other food, because her internal organs release a hormone that greatly reduces her appetite.