guppies need to breathe air?

[musica123]

So, i was going to post this in the fresh water disease forum but decided that my fish weren't really sick so it didnt really belong there. anyways, i own some guppies and whenever I see a heavily pregnant female I remove her to a separate birthing room (a ten gal). Long story short, I owned this black female that I really liked and she was pregnant so I moved her to the separate tank (along with three other females). On the third day that they were in there, i saw the black female when I came to feed them at night. When I woke up to feed them, I didnt see her and only found out about 3-4 hours later that she died in a cave decoration that I kept in the tank. my conclusion is that she got trapped in the cave and didnt know to sink lower and exit through the exit. Obviously stress was a factor in her death but my question is if guppies need to breathe air, much like we do, in order to survive? normally, I would so say no to this idea but in my past experience, there was this one time when I put a pregnant female into one of those plastic breeder net/cages that traps fries at the bottom and prevents the female reaching them. when I returned from work I found most of the fries dead at the bottom of the net/cage (they were born while i was out). to get back to the point, my black female couldn't have been trapped inside the cave for more than 13 hours (the point from my last time seeing her and the time I discovered her body). Her body was deteriorated enough that when I scooped her up, her stomach was punctured and the the dead fries came out. Im not an expert but this suggest that she died in the first few hours after being trapped. she obviously didnt die from hunger and not from bad water, so is stress alone strong enough to kill a fish in only a few hours or did she really need to surface for air?

 

[Kaosu]

they don't need to breathe air.

My guess is they died from stress of being heavily pregnant and being moved..both in to the breeder box and in to the 10 gallon tank...

was the birthing tank cycled?

 

[musica123]

she was never put in the breeder box. when I mentioned the breeder box, it was earlier on during my guppy breeding days. I have since long forsaken them and decided to keep an empty 10 gal on the stand by for births. the tank IS cycled (and there is always either pregnant females in there or baby fries that are waiting to be grown out). I treat the tank the same way i treat my main tanks. The black female was in the tank for 3 whole days and she was acting fine and healthy the last time I saw her before she died. The other females were put in at the same time as her and they are still doing okay.

p.s.
I should probably clarify: once fries are born, i remove mothers and grow out fries. while this happens, other pregnant females stay in the main tank with males and its survival of the fittest for those unfortunate fries. The cycle repeats once the fries in the 10 gal are large enough to survive in the main tank. if i separated every pregnant female I saw, my tank would be over populated very soon.

 

[Kaosu]

..Alright well my best guess is the stress of moving...and some times female guppies die during birth.

but im no expert and hopefully someone will chime in

but no they do not breath from the surface of the tank.

 

[squidyboy0]

Getting into fish biology (ichthyology
) here. But, guppies son't have labyrinth organs which allow bettas to breath air directly from the surface. She most likely died of stress or even more likely in labor. That is my number 1 guess. Sorry for your loss
My favorite guppy died 2 days ago as well


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[musica123]

thanks for the replies guys. at least now i'll never keep a cave deco with my guppies anymore