Help With Mostly Live Bearer Tank

[jbjack]

i was just given 8 female guppies, 2 male guppies, 6 female platies, 2 male platies, 4 ballon mollies and 1 male.

i have a cycled 40 gallon tank that i put them in. how exactly should it be set up? decor, salt ect. its running right now with some salt, medium planted (fake) some rock and a breeding mat, bubble wall and an up to 60 gallon duel filter, with lots of gravel.

i would love to add about 7 neons and 7 danios.

thats 37 smal fish.

i would keep the tank very clean doing often water changes.

will this work?

if not what would you suggest?

any hints or tips?

please let me know why or why not this wont work, and what i should do

thank you very much.

i would like to have this all done asap, so if you could throw out some answers asap i would really appreciate it thanks again.

ps if this isnt a good idea could you put togather using these kinda fish the ideal amount of each, and the max amount of each for this 40 gallon.

(keep in mind all babys are welcome, the more the marryier as i have a few cichlid tanks....)

 

[dunchp]

Yes, 37 small fish in a 40 gallon tank will be OK aslong as you keep your filtration up.

The only thing is that the livebearers are hardwater fish and the tetras are soft water fish; although they will probably all be OK with a pH around 7.0. You will also have to keep on top of the livebearer fry as you have 18 livebearing females which will each produce 15-20+ fry every month, they could quickly overpopulate the tank so you could think about putting in a few gouramis or something like that which will take care of them.

Normal rules apply, raise the stocking levels gradually and keep an eye on your levels.

Also not too sure about guppies, neons etc with salt. Mollies do well with salt, but not too sure about the rest.

 

[jbjack]

Yes, 37 small fish in a 40 gallon tank will be OK aslong as you keep your filtration up.

The only thing is that the livebearers are hardwater fish and the tetras are soft water fish; although they will probably all be OK with a pH around 7.0. You will also have to keep on top of the livebearer fry as you have 18 livebearing females which will each produce 15-20+ fry every month, they could quickly overpopulate the tank so you could think about putting in a few gouramis or something like that which will take care of them.

Normal rules apply, raise the stocking levels gradually and keep an eye on your levels.

Also not too sure about guppies, neons etc with salt. Mollies do well with salt, but not too sure about the rest.

thanks, babies are MORE then welcome, i have cichlids and gars........... yum

 

[kribensis12]

15-20? I had a female dalmation mollie give birth to 65 in a day! Guppies can birth up to 100! But hte norm is 30-40 for most livebearer's. Unless you are keeping Pike Guppies which give birth to about 3 or 4 babies the size of full grown platy's!

 

[dunchp]

15-20? I had a female dalmation mollie give birth to 65 in a day! Guppies can birth up to 100! But hte norm is 30-40 for most livebearer's. Unless you are keeping Pike Guppies which give birth to about 3 or 4 babies the size of full grown platy's!

15-20+ Kribensis.

I would question your numbers as the 'norm' 'for most livebearers'; some livebearers like some of the Poeciliopsis and Heterandria formosa drop a few young every few days; some of the other smaller livebearers will have very few and the goodeids have far larger young, but 30-40 is definitely not the norm for all livebearers; and what is a 'Pike Guppy'?; I have never heard of it?; do you mean a Belonesox belizanus?; if that is the case then they will have up to 70 young in a single brood.

 

[kribensis12]

They had a Belonesox belizianus give birth in a seperate tank at my lfs. They were trying to breed them. The mom gave birth to 4 platy sized fry. Then she promtly ate them up. She was skinyy, and they said that she started adn stopped gicing birth during store, hour's, so there were only 4 born. I hvae never have a livebearer give birth to fewer than 30 fry. EVER, and that is alot of livebeaere's, so i consider it the "norm" for them. Maybe they are different where you live, but i have neevr seen a livebearer( except for goodied's(sp?), and Pike Guppies( Belonesox belizianus)!) and yes that is what a pike guppy is. They are given different name's by the seller. A silver angelfish could be labled: Snow White Angel, all names differentiate( sp?). You stated that 30-40 isnt the norm for all livebearer's, but notice in my post i said Most, and when i refer to as most, and many other's unless your a Livebearer addict, would think of " platies, mollies, guppies, swordtial's".
Krib

 

[dunchp]

They had a Belonesox belizianus give birth in a seperate tank at my lfs. They were trying to breed them. The mom gave birth to 4 platy sized fry. Then she promtly ate them up. She was skinyy, and they said that she started adn stopped gicing birth during store, hour's, so there were only 4 born. I hvae never have a livebearer give birth to fewer than 30 fry. EVER, and that is alot of livebeaere's, so i consider it the "norm" for them. Maybe they are different where you live, but i have neevr seen a livebearer( except for goodied's(sp?), and Pike Guppies( Belonesox belizianus)!) and yes that is what a pike guppy is. They are given different name's by the seller. A silver angelfish could be labled: Snow White Angel, all names differentiate( sp?). You stated that 30-40 isnt the norm for all livebearer's, but notice in my post i said Most, and when i refer to as most, and many other's unless your a Livebearer addict, would think of " platies, mollies, guppies, swordtial's".
Krib

OK, I understand. I guess the difference is that I am a livebearer addict then. I have around 90 species of livebearers including the Pike Livebearer (it is not called a Pike Guppy, although I guess your local shop guessed the name, although it is in the Poeciliidae family along with the Guppy). Pike livebearer fry are probably the size of a medium platy at birth, but they are thin slender fish, a bit like a stick coloured needle. They definitely have more than 4 young; but it is possible that she started at night, ate all the fry and then had a few more during the day.

I guess that 30-40 fry is a pretty normal amount for the fish that you have listed, but normally the younger fish will only have 6-8 in their first brood and will then increase as they get older and there are around 250 other species of livebearers which are all different in their breeding habits etc.

 

[helterskelter]

My Pike gave birth to 70-100 every 4-6 weeks and the female dose not eat the fry........
There feeding urge is switched off for around 24 hours while giving birth, so u can offer food and they will not.

This makes catching the fry very easy and a nightmare to feed

Thats if you can get enough food to feed the adults LOL