I would like some babies :)

[OohFeeshy]

Before I start attempting to breed my cories, I want to get a bit of experience dealing with fry. I was planning to get a preggers female (as I don't want to overrun the tank) then seperate the fry into male/female when they are sexable. The sex with the most in would be put in the community (which has plenty of room), the rest would be divided between some smaller tanks (hopefully I'm getting a few tanks for m,y birthday). I'd imagine it would be best to go for platies. yar? Not as big as mollies, not brackish either. I have bbs eggs (decapsulated) and can easily get liquifry/whatever else. So, does this sound an OK plan? The female would go in a heated 3g until she gives birth.

 

[Annastasia]

Platies are good. They also don't have as many fry, usually, so you won't have tons and tons of Livebearers. The only thing I wouldn't do is get a very pregnant female. She can get very stressed on the way home, and then have trouble giving birth, or have a still birth...or even abort the pregnancy.

Other then that, your plan sounds great! Good luck with the Babies!

 

[acetennis2002]

Rather than plattys i would get swardtails they, from my findings, breed easier i have a 1:3 raito and every about 1 month i get a new batch of fry.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Firstly what size tank do you have available for them? I agree with annastasia that buying pre-pregnated females is not a good idea, and for the realy fry experience i suggest you try to get as least pregnant female as posible; standard mollys are freshwater but sailfins are brackish while platys are freshwater.
Molly pregnancys take longer and they tend to have more fry, but platys will reproduce on a much faster scale and you can still easily end up with 40+ batchs of fry.
What tanks and eqipment do you have at hand for all this and sizes etc?

 

[OohFeeshy]

Ah yes, I forgot about preggie ones getting stressed. Although most are probably pregnant anyway, very few places seperate males from females... I have a 15 ish gallon tank, and I can easily get plenty of 3 gallons. I'm also hopefully getting a 5 in a few days, and a 10 for my birthday which I can use for a growout before I stock it with my intened stuff. So, on second thoughts, how about a male and 2 females? Fairly Ok ratio, not too may, easy to seperate. Can the male be kept on his own in a 3 gallon, or should I *attempt* to offer it to my friend? The tank will be heated. I can order a heater as soon as I've finalised this. The preggo females will be in the 5, and will be moved to the 15 when done giving birth. The babies will live in the 5. I'm hoping to find some whitish ones, this way I can put some in my albino tank.

Edit- Whoops, forgot to mention I have some sponge filters lying around, have worked out how to use airline tubing as a gravel vac (but it will have no substrate).

 

[Kittycat]

I got preggy ones before who made it fine and gave birth soon after I brought them home (some within a few days). I think you're right, I'd rather go with platies, not as big as swords and mollies, and not brackish. My platies have 10-20 babies at a time.

 

[Jen21]

I think platies are a good choice, sometimes swordtails take longer to have fry. The only thing is I have platy fry that are a few months old and I still can't tell the sex... how long does it usually take?

 

[wrs]

I was thinking of getting some preg fish as well to have birth in my 5.5, as I had one who had all her fry eaten, and it seems that platties are the best to get. I totally agree.

I would say heck no to guppies, they are pains, and die really quickly.

 

[Erised]

I dont want to sound harsh here, but breeding and looking after corydoras fry is Completely different than looking after any livebearer fry. I don't really think you're gaining any experience by doing it this way, sorry.

However, it can't hurt to go along with it anyway Just telling you this so you won't treat your corydoras fry the exact same way as your livebearer fry in the future

Livebearer fry are a lot hardier, bigger when born and easier to look after than corydoras fry. Corydoras fry are still quite easy though, nothing to worry about there

 

[OohFeeshy]

Well, that was just an excuse I've decided to get a 10 gallon livebearer tank. I'll start off with 3 females, no males yet in case any are pregnant, then when I know none are, I'll get a male. The male can go into the community once they're done, and the females can stay until they give birth. Then I'll seperate out the male fry when they are old enough and put them in the community too. Sound fairly sensible?

 

[Kiarra]

Are you only wanting 1 batch of fry from each female? Because, if so, that's simply not going to happen. From one mating with one male, they can have up to 6-7 batches of fry.

And, if you get them from a petstore, they'll probably be pregnant already.

 

[OohFeeshy]

I'm not too worried about how many fry I get. I have a friend who loves platies, and I also have the worlds of Ebay and Freeads. And obviously I can get extra tanks as well. I guessed they'd already be pregnant, I'm hoping that at least one shop near me seperates them out. But if it comes to it, I'll try and get ones that don't look very pregnant so they're not too stressed by moving.

 

[Kiarra]

If you want females who aren't pregnant, you'd have to get them from a pro breeder who keeps virgin females. I'm sure they'd cost a fortune, though, considering how difficult it is to keep them virgin.

Just get some that aren't TOO fat. It doesn't matter if they're pregnant, but you don't really want to transport those that are HUGELY pregnant.