Live Baearers

[scott133]

hi guy and gals

just bought my son a tank few weeks back and have endlers guppys,swords,guppys,platys,mollies and the platys and mollys babys have been seperrated just wanted to know what should the habitat be like for the fish above thanks scott

and had tropicals for few years but kept marine but for 20 years so cant remeber that to long ago

thanks scott

 

[Mbarton2010]

hi guy and gals

just bought my son a tank few weeks back and have endlers guppys,swords,guppys,platys,mollies and the platys and mollys babys have been seperrated just wanted to know what should the habitat be like for the fish above thanks scott

and had tropicals for few years but kept marine but for 20 years so cant remeber that to long ago

thanks scott

All those fish go good together except mollies. They really should be in brackish water. Any ways you want to to have plenty of space to swim and plants for hiding. If you want fry.put some java moss In there

 

[tropic_john]

hi guy and gals

just bought my son a tank few weeks back and have endlers guppys,swords,guppys,platys,mollies and the platys and mollys babys have been seperrated just wanted to know what should the habitat be like for the fish above thanks scott

and had tropicals for few years but kept marine but for 20 years so cant remeber that to long ago

thanks scott

All those fish go good together except mollies. They really should be in brackish water. Any ways you want to to have plenty of space to swim and plants for hiding. If you want fry.put some java moss In there

Guppies do best in brackish, but that doesn't matter. just keep a ph of rough 7.0 to keep everyone happy.

 

[OldMan47]

I keep all of those fish and find that my water at 7.8 pH and fairly hard is fine for all of them. I do not use salt on any livebearer although guppies and common mollies can tolerate some. None of these fish tolerate overly soft water very well, they need the higher mineral content. People who do not understand the water these fish come from often add salt and get away with it so they think it is needed. Sea salt could even be used to raise the mineral content and pH of excessively soft water but so could lots of other KH raising options. What is a definite must is fairly high mineral content water with a pH of well over 7.0 .

 

[scott133]

hello my ph is 6.8 so that shouuld be ok what you think

how do i know when my fish are about to breed

regards scott

 

[tropic_john]

you can usuall see the male insterting his gonopodium into the females ''hole'' and 28 days later, tiny fry swimming around.

Also, guppies can get pregnant about 5 times or more just from ''just 1 night of romance'' with one male

 

[scott133]

well said john

lol

 

[OldMan47]

Livebearers will mate almost constantly if there are males in with females. What it means to you in practical terms is that all of the adult females are carrying fry at almost all times. Of course there may be a day or two between a fry drop and starting the next drop developing.
A pH of 6.8 is not high enough for most of the common livebearers. The fish will do better if you add some crushed shell or crushed coral to the filter to help bring the KH and pH up on the tank. By itself, pH is not a big deal but that kind of pH is usually associated with a low mineral content. If you can measure your water hardness, so much the better, my own guess is that the KH is quite low and the GH usually follows the KH.

 

[scott133]

so what should the kh and gh be for them thanks

 

[OldMan47]

For a typical livebearer, a GH of at least 7 or more degrees and a KH of at least 5 degrees would be minimal in my book. I don't know of any studies having been done to establish a real minimum but that is what my experiences tell me. My own GH runs in the 10 to 12 range depending on the time of year and the KH runs from about 5 to 8 degrees. My TDS, a direct measure of mineral content, runs at over 225 ppm all year and reaches about 300 ppm at times. My water is harder than you really need but well within the acceptable range for many livebearers who can thrive all the way to 15 or 20 degrees of hardness depending on the species.