Interested In Breeding Rarer Livebearers

[sweetp544]

Until now i have never heard of most of those type of fish. I now am very interested in learning more about them. I usually stick with mollies or guppies, so i see there are large and small types of them, so can any of them go with my mollies or guppies?? If so which ones?

If someone has any information they could give me on some of these that would be great i would love to learn more about them. Pictures are a plus too!!!


Jenn

 

[dwarfgourami]

Me too, count me in! I've been reading up for the last couple of months to find a suitable species.

I though I might start with something that is rare in the trade, but not threatened in nature, and get a bit more practice before I start on the really rare species. And I need something that won't interbreed with my platies, so no xiphopohorus species for the time being. Maybe later when the platies are gone; there are some wonderful species of swordtail out there. Probably no poecilia species either, because of my guppies. I have got several tanks but juggling can still get awkward.

I am thinking of maybe a limia species or phallichthys (merry widow) to start with. They should go fine in a community tank with small-medium sized fish. And as far as I know they won't interbreed with your guppies. Am also attracted by the heterandrias and neoheterandrias, tiny little fishies that would probably need a species tank. Afraid I'm no good at posting links but you can google.

One day I would like to try my hand at breeding goodeids, as they are a species that really needs a helping hand from aquarists. But some of them can be a bit rough, so I need to think carefully about my other fish. Also most of them like cooler waters than I can offer, so again I need time to get my planning right.

Since you don't have platies or swordtails- you could look into swordtails too; there are lots more species than your common one. Though most of them need a bit of space, there are some (like the pygmaeus) that aren't very big at all.

 

[nmonks]

I have quite a bit on halfbeaks in my web site, covering stuff like identifying species and breeding them.

http/homepage.mac.com/nmonks/aquaria/halfbeaks.html

Halfbeaks are nice fish, but they can be delicate, and sometimes just finding them in the shops can be difficult. The fry are very easy to raise, but pregnant females seem to be very sensitive, and all sorts of mysterious things seem to go wrong. Definitely a challenge!

Cheers,

Neale

 

[dwarfgourami]

Having seen my first real live halfbeaks in a shop yesterday, I have to say these are absolutely stunning fish!!! They just look too exotic to be true. And though I knew in theory about their size, I just couldn't get over how small they were. Somehow with that shape you expect a monster fish; these were not quite 3 inches.

 

[nmonks]

Aren't they just?

They're also fun to watch. The males fight, a lot, while the females tend to be more curious, even smart. They quickly learn to beg for food and take stuff from your fingers. The males remain dumb as posts, best as I can tell.

Halfbeaks are odd on the health front though. Right now, I have one large female in a net that I thought was dying. Doing the whole "I can't swim the right way up" thing. Figured I'd confine it for a while, since it was torpedoing around the tank, bashing its beak. Well, a day later, it's still alive, though still not swimming properly. I've brought a baby halfbeak back from this point, but whether adults can make it, I don't know.

I don't get why raising the babies is so easy, but keeping the mother alive during her pregnancy so dicey. Males seem to be very hardy, but females generally much less so.

By the way, they can get quite big. I had a female about 10 cm long.

Cheers,

Neale

Having seen my first real live halfbeaks in a shop yesterday, I have to say these are absolutely stunning fish!!!

 

[sweetp544]

Which type would you recomend for my tank. It is primarly mollies and guppies or shall i say will be very soon, and it is a 29 gal tank. I dont want something that will get too big or agressive. Thanks for the help!

Jenn

 

[nmonks]

Of the halfbeaks? Female wrestling halfbeaks are completely placid and so if you can find them, will do well even with guppies. Male wrestlers are a bit more boisterous, but only towards one another. Provided you just get one male, you're fine. You sex them the same way as guppies or mollies, by looking at the anal fin. In halfbeaks, the anal fin seems "clipped", as it's bent over to form a sperm-delivery fin, known as an andropodium.

Wrestlers are an ideal size for a 29 gallon tank. They get to about 6 cm long at the very most, and don't seem nearly as active as Celebes halfbeaks. The males can be very colourful, but most of the females I've seen are more or less silver.

Another good thing with wrestlers is they tolerant salty water well. Your mollies will appreciate at least some salt in the water, and wrestlers (as well as guppies) will be totally cool about that.

Cheers,

Neale

Which type would you recomend for my tank. It is primarly mollies and guppies or shall i say will be very soon, and it is a 29 gal tank. I dont want something that will get too big or agressive. Thanks for the help!

Jenn

 

[sweetp544]

Thanks for the information. Do the half beaks have any color to them??

 

[nmonks]

They have lots of colour, but as ever, it's often the males that show it best. Dermogenys spp. halfbeaks (the wrestlers) tend to be silvery, with the males having red or yellow fins. Nomorhamphus halfbeaks (the various species sold as Celebes halfbeaks) are much more variable. I've had specimens ranging from copper with orange fins through to greenish specimens with red and black fins, and fins with blotches of blue and red.

Compared with fancy guppies, no, they're not brightly coloured, but they're still very pretty fish.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[dwarfgourami]

They almost had me tempted, you know. But I'm still sticking to my plan of delving deeper into the poeciliid species; I just want to see how much difference there is between the old tank-bred-for-generation-species and the more natural variety.
But the halfbeaks were cool. They had a male in there; a sort of greyish brown body, but this lovely yellow and red colouration to the fins. I could easily fall in love....

 

[nmonks]

Why be a purist? Keep both halfbeaks and poecilids! The wrestling halbeaks at least will get along fine with livebearers, and the Celebes ones will too, though some need soft water and they may eat the fry.

In fact, biologists consider the freshwater halfbeaks to be the ecological analogues of the American livebearers. Convergent evolution... different groups ending up with the same basic body plan and lifestyle because they're occupying the same kind of niche.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[dwarfgourami]

Why be a purist? Keep both halfbeaks and poecilids! The wrestling halbeaks at least will get along fine with livebearers, and the Celebes ones will too, though some need soft water and they may eat the fry.

Get thee behind me, Evil Tempter!!!

[/quote]
In fact, biologists consider the freshwater halfbeaks to be the ecological analogues of the American livebearers. Convergent evolution... different groups ending up with the same basic body plan and lifestyle because they're occupying the same kind of niche.
[/quote]

That is interesting and makes sense. Did they mention if they think the livebearing itself is part of this adaptation? And if so, what its specific benefits are for a surface living, omnivorous lifestyle?