GOOD breeding stategy ?

[Blackhawksfn0286]

I'm gonna get my 10 gal sey up again and my 5 gal.. i also have a 1 gal tank.. or 2 i don't know what it is.. well it's really small well i have 3 tanks that i'm gonan set up again and there small.. I'm gonna put live beaers in em... now if i were to breed guupies and platues and swords is there a better chance if i put my stuff in the tank such as rock, Fake plants and stuff like that so the fry have a better chance to live? or if you have a really good stategy please tell me... one tank is gonan be live bearer proablly my 10 gal.. ya it's gonan be my 10 gal

 

[sylvia]

Guppies and/or platies would work in a 10 gallon but I'd choose either one or the other and get a maximum of 6 fish - 2 males and 4 females. Better would be 1 male and 2 females so they breed and are less likely to eat the fry (more room for the fry to get away and fewer mouths chasing after them). Ornaments like you said - plants, roks etc would work to breed them. Swordtails get too big.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

Or you could do what I do, and put the adults in the ten and put the fry in the five. Or, you could put three adults in the five, then put all the fry into the ten to grow out. What are you going to do with them all anyways?

 

[Polardbear]

10 gallons is really too small for swordies (I tried - it's not fair to them). Swordies need room to swim. You might be able to make it work with guppies if you don't have a lot of adults. You will absolutely want to provide lots of cover for babies to hide in or they will get eaten. You might be able to net out the babies and let them grow out for a couple of weeks in the 5 gallon. I'm not sure if that's enough room for guppies or not though.

Another option (and I'm having great success with this) is a large almost see through Rubbermaid storage box. I've got 2 of them that are 26 gallons each. Their dimensions are like 31.5" long by 18" wide by 15" deep. I made cutouts in the lids for filters and attached 50 watt submersible heaters to small pyrex casserole dishes. One of the tubs has 2 100 gph AquaTech filters on it and the other has a 200 gph Whisper filter plus a 170 gph power head. The 2 AquaTech filters were originally on my 2 ten gallon tanks but I had upgraded them so they were just sitting around. But even if you bought new filters you wouldn't have to spend over $25.00 for a decent filter. The heaters were only $15.00 a piece at WalMart.

I keep my baby swordies in the tubs for about 6 weeks then I let them go back into the 55 gallon main tank or send them off to other homes.

But the way any of the livebearers reproduce you better have a plan for what to do with all the fast growing little puppies. It seems like forever before the first batch is born but once they hit about 8 weeks old you've usually got 2 or 3 more batches already born and all your ladies looking ready to explode again!

 

[duendecillo]

the storage box thing is a good idea...
if you are lucky to have a room that is always warm enough, you could even leave out the heaters, and work with smaller boxes...
this can be handy to separate different batches

 

[Polardbear]

I've also got 2 15 gallon boxes that I can use as needed. I just like the 26 gallon ones a little better because they give more swimming room. They really make you realize how tiny a 10 gallon tank is.