Fish Breed?
- Thread starter sher8853
- Start date
well live-bearers are def the way to go if u want easy breeding fish. as far as getting them to survive to adulthood ur gonna need a way to separate them from the adults in ur tank so the adults dont eat the fry. u can use a breeding trap/net or a smaller second tank, around 5 gallons, u also should feed the fry powdered food so it's easier for them to eat. offer them plenty of hiding spots so they dont get stressed. other than that it's pretty much gonna be nature taking its course, u can only do so much.
Welcome Sher.
I find that if I want my livebearer fry to survive I need to start with the tougher fish like mollies or even goodeids. They have larger fry that are better developed at birth than swordtails, platies or guppies. With their bigger size, they are less likely to fall to predation by the parent fish in the first few minutes of their lives. I always use a separate birth tank of at least 10 gallons when I want a high fry survival rate.
Several other factors help quite a bit. One is the cover that the fry have to escape predation even by the less eager fry eaters. Cover is best done with fine leaved plants in dense clumps. Plants that I find suitable are the mosses.
Water is also a consideration. I find that a hard water high pH tank is ideal for most common livebearers and even some of the less common ones. The right water makes for healthier parents and thus healthier fry. After the fry drop, it is usually best to remove the female from the birthing tank so that she will not eat any of the fry although there are some livebearers where removal of the parents is not needed.
Rapid fry growth is best achieved by using a mix of several different foods including both live foods, frozen foods, flake foods and even vegetable based foods. Because the heavy feeding needed to assure good growth will end up fouling the water, lots of large partial water changes are also needed.
With decent care of fry in suitable water with good feeding and frequent water changes, I usually see at least 80% survival to adulthood. There are times that the rate is much higher but I don't ever count on much more. After all, even in a well maintained tank of adult fish, there are sometimes unexplained losses.
Even common aquarium mollies can produce lots of long lasting fry. I kept a female in a tank with her fry for the time between fry drops so that I could document both the fry growth and the parent's next pregnancy so I took lots of pictures. This was a very peaceful molly who rarely chased her fry so they were fairly safe with her. At about 5 weeks, this is how my 10 gallon looked with all the fry still surviving. I never did see one of them dead but there may have been minor losses that I just did not see.
Edit to add comment and picture.
I find that if I want my livebearer fry to survive I need to start with the tougher fish like mollies or even goodeids. They have larger fry that are better developed at birth than swordtails, platies or guppies. With their bigger size, they are less likely to fall to predation by the parent fish in the first few minutes of their lives. I always use a separate birth tank of at least 10 gallons when I want a high fry survival rate.
Several other factors help quite a bit. One is the cover that the fry have to escape predation even by the less eager fry eaters. Cover is best done with fine leaved plants in dense clumps. Plants that I find suitable are the mosses.
Water is also a consideration. I find that a hard water high pH tank is ideal for most common livebearers and even some of the less common ones. The right water makes for healthier parents and thus healthier fry. After the fry drop, it is usually best to remove the female from the birthing tank so that she will not eat any of the fry although there are some livebearers where removal of the parents is not needed.
Rapid fry growth is best achieved by using a mix of several different foods including both live foods, frozen foods, flake foods and even vegetable based foods. Because the heavy feeding needed to assure good growth will end up fouling the water, lots of large partial water changes are also needed.
With decent care of fry in suitable water with good feeding and frequent water changes, I usually see at least 80% survival to adulthood. There are times that the rate is much higher but I don't ever count on much more. After all, even in a well maintained tank of adult fish, there are sometimes unexplained losses.
Even common aquarium mollies can produce lots of long lasting fry. I kept a female in a tank with her fry for the time between fry drops so that I could document both the fry growth and the parent's next pregnancy so I took lots of pictures. This was a very peaceful molly who rarely chased her fry so they were fairly safe with her. At about 5 weeks, this is how my 10 gallon looked with all the fry still surviving. I never did see one of them dead but there may have been minor losses that I just did not see.
Edit to add comment and picture.
Hey.. thanks guys.. u helped me alot , i have a breeding tank now.
Any idea what are the fishes that are easy to breed and wont die so easily...
are mollies easy to breed?
Another question
Must all fries be seperated from their mother after giving birth?
Any idea what are the fishes that are easy to breed and wont die so easily...
are mollies easy to breed?
Another question
Must all fries be seperated from their mother after giving birth?
I have found that mollies are easy to breed but not everyone finds them easy to even keep alive. It depends a lot on your water. I also have good success with guppies and endlers. Any of those three will breed themselves out of a place to live.
I have also had good success with Xenotoca eiseni, Xenotaenia resolanae and Ameca splendens in larger tanks without heaters. My Limia melanogasters are doing great in a little 10 gallon but have only bred a few times because I just got them in November. All of these have been expanding and breeding for me in colony situations where the fry live with the parents. In most cases, there is a fairly heavy cover of java moss for the fry to hide in. When I bought some Xenoophorus captivus at a recent auction, the female delivered fry into my quarantine tank in less than a week and I have now moved them into a nice 29 gallon for a growout tank.
For a small tank, the Heterandria formosa do well but take a bit more care to keep them growing, because they are so small.
Almost all of my tanks with less common livebearers are reserved for a single species because many of the fish I keep are a bit rough with other fish or can cross with other fish. Since I am breeding wild types, I don't want any crosses and certainly don't want one kind of fish picking on another kind.
I have also had good success with Xenotoca eiseni, Xenotaenia resolanae and Ameca splendens in larger tanks without heaters. My Limia melanogasters are doing great in a little 10 gallon but have only bred a few times because I just got them in November. All of these have been expanding and breeding for me in colony situations where the fry live with the parents. In most cases, there is a fairly heavy cover of java moss for the fry to hide in. When I bought some Xenoophorus captivus at a recent auction, the female delivered fry into my quarantine tank in less than a week and I have now moved them into a nice 29 gallon for a growout tank.
For a small tank, the Heterandria formosa do well but take a bit more care to keep them growing, because they are so small.
Almost all of my tanks with less common livebearers are reserved for a single species because many of the fish I keep are a bit rough with other fish or can cross with other fish. Since I am breeding wild types, I don't want any crosses and certainly don't want one kind of fish picking on another kind.
Piltdownpaul
Fish Herder
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My guppies chase the fry but the tank has plenty of plants which give the fry somewhere to retreat. My endlers dont touch the fry at all.
hotdogoramer
Fish Crazy
Welcome Sher.
I find that if I want my livebearer fry to survive I need to start with the tougher fish like mollies or even goodeids. They have larger fry that are better developed at birth than swordtails, platies or guppies. With their bigger size, they are less likely to fall to predation by the parent fish in the first few minutes of their lives. I always use a separate birth tank of at least 10 gallons when I want a high fry survival rate.
Several other factors help quite a bit. One is the cover that the fry have to escape predation even by the less eager fry eaters. Cover is best done with fine leaved plants in dense clumps. Plants that I find suitable are the mosses.
Water is also a consideration. I find that a hard water high pH tank is ideal for most common livebearers and even some of the less common ones. The right water makes for healthier parents and thus healthier fry. After the fry drop, it is usually best to remove the female from the birthing tank so that she will not eat any of the fry although there are some livebearers where removal of the parents is not needed.
Rapid fry growth is best achieved by using a mix of several different foods including both live foods, frozen foods, flake foods and even vegetable based foods. Because the heavy feeding needed to assure good growth will end up fouling the water, lots of large partial water changes are also needed.
With decent care of fry in suitable water with good feeding and frequent water changes, I usually see at least 80% survival to adulthood. There are times that the rate is much higher but I don't ever count on much more. After all, even in a well maintained tank of adult fish, there are sometimes unexplained losses.
Even common aquarium mollies can produce lots of long lasting fry. I kept a female in a tank with her fry for the time between fry drops so that I could document both the fry growth and the parent's next pregnancy so I took lots of pictures. This was a very peaceful molly who rarely chased her fry so they were fairly safe with her. At about 5 weeks, this is how my 10 gallon looked with all the fry still surviving. I never did see one of them dead but there may have been minor losses that I just did not see.
Edit to add comment and picture.
what type of molly is that Oldman, in the pic.
ChiNA MaN
Fish Fanatic
mollies
She is a garden variety creamsicle lyretail. It is a manmade fancy fish but that is far from a show quality one. I saw her in the local fish store and picked her up to add to my Noah's ark community tank. A little later I decided that I liked her so much that I got a nice similar quality male to put with her.
It was all an impulse thing. If I had it to do again I might look harder for a good quality fish. If you look closely at her, she has a perpetual orange color on her lower lip that looks like an injury but is always there. She also has a very short point on the top ray of her tail compared to the bottom ray. Both the top and bottom ray extensions of her tail are quite blunt even compared to the pet shop male that I got her as a companion. It is pretty easy to see most of her faults in this picture. About all she has going for her is that she is in robust good health which you can't always say about the show quality fish. She is just one of the better looking mutts.
It was all an impulse thing. If I had it to do again I might look harder for a good quality fish. If you look closely at her, she has a perpetual orange color on her lower lip that looks like an injury but is always there. She also has a very short point on the top ray of her tail compared to the bottom ray. Both the top and bottom ray extensions of her tail are quite blunt even compared to the pet shop male that I got her as a companion. It is pretty easy to see most of her faults in this picture. About all she has going for her is that she is in robust good health which you can't always say about the show quality fish. She is just one of the better looking mutts.
My fish are currently 2 endler males and 3 guppy females with a male betta, I find fry survive but in low numbers, which is ideal for me as I am not trying to actively breed them. To me it sounds like you do want to actively brred in which case I reccomend you get dense vegetation perhaps a moss wall aand further vegetation and get mollies which are particularly hardy.
hotdogoramer
Fish Crazy
She is a garden variety creamsicle lyretail. It is a manmade fancy fish but that is far from a show quality one. I saw her in the local fish store and picked her up to add to my Noah's ark community tank. A little later I decided that I liked her so much that I got a nice similar quality male to put with her.
It was all an impulse thing. If I had it to do again I might look harder for a good quality fish. If you look closely at her, she has a perpetual orange color on her lower lip that looks like an injury but is always there. She also has a very short point on the top ray of her tail compared to the bottom ray. Both the top and bottom ray extensions of her tail are quite blunt even compared to the pet shop male that I got her as a companion. It is pretty easy to see most of her faults in this picture. About all she has going for her is that she is in robust good health which you can't always say about the show quality fish. She is just one of the better looking mutts.
i would love to have a molly looking like that, but i guess she is one of a kind.
Platygirl11
Fishaholic
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She is a garden variety creamsicle lyretail. It is a manmade fancy fish but that is far from a show quality one. I saw her in the local fish store and picked her up to add to my Noah's ark community tank. A little later I decided that I liked her so much that I got a nice similar quality male to put with her.
It was all an impulse thing. If I had it to do again I might look harder for a good quality fish. If you look closely at her, she has a perpetual orange color on her lower lip that looks like an injury but is always there. She also has a very short point on the top ray of her tail compared to the bottom ray. Both the top and bottom ray extensions of her tail are quite blunt even compared to the pet shop male that I got her as a companion. It is pretty easy to see most of her faults in this picture. About all she has going for her is that she is in robust good health which you can't always say about the show quality fish. She is just one of the better looking mutts.
I think she's cute!!!
For surviving (as adults, I don't have a lot of experience with fry as I recently got them) I would choose platys, because they survived all my initial mistakes...
oldman, what kind of water params do u have to get her to drop fry so often??? i have platys and swordtails and tryin to get them to have some babies. got them on a pretty good diet of flake food, tubifex worms and bloodworms also gonna start some veggie matter once a week, so they should be pretty healthy, just need to get the params right i think.
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