Live Bearers

[Kapenta]

Hi there,
We were given a 200l tank by someone who didn't want it any more, the trouble is altho he enjoyed his fish and fish keeping he wasn't that knowlegable.So l am kind of learning things backwards you might say.l love the fish and love caring for them so you could say its a new hobby by default.
We only have Mollies,guppies,tetras and a rather splendid and rather superior crab.They have all been easy to keep so far.
However the numbers never seem to really increase and when l read in a book that they can have between 12 and 20 young l knew l was doing something wrong. Today l went and bought a breeding net and carefully caught the remaining babies about 6 and two pregnant females and placed them within the net. l am not sure of the following things
1. Can l do a water change now? or will it cause them to abort?
2. Should l take the mothers out as soon as they have had their babies.

l do not have an under gravel filter system and my gravel is really dirty, whats the safest way to clean the gravel? Do l take all the fish out with some of the fish water, clean the gravel and replace with new dechlorinated water and put all the fish and fish water back in?

 

[DJ ArKaDaRkA]

Hi there,
We were given a 200l tank by someone who didn't want it any more, the trouble is altho he enjoyed his fish and fish keeping he wasn't that knowlegable.So l am kind of learning things backwards you might say.l love the fish and love caring for them so you could say its a new hobby by default.
We only have Mollies,guppies,tetras and a rather splendid and rather superior crab.They have all been easy to keep so far.
However the numbers never seem to really increase and when l read in a book that they can have between 12 and 20 young l knew l was doing something wrong. Today l went and bought a breeding net and carefully caught the remaining babies about 6 and two pregnant females and placed them within the net. l am not sure of the following things
1. Can l do a water change now? or will it cause them to abort?
2. Should l take the mothers out as soon as they have had their babies.

l do not have an under gravel filter system and my gravel is really dirty, whats the safest way to clean the gravel? Do l take all the fish out with some of the fish water, clean the gravel and replace with new dechlorinated water and put all the fish and fish water back in?

buy a gravel vac for cleaning the gravel sorry can help on the fry front though

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Kapenta.
You should not mix adult fish with fry unless you want to lose fry. Some well fed adults will leave the fry alone most of the time but it is a way to lose fry in most situations. You have placed a half dozen fry with 2 adults so chances are that you either will lose some of those fry or they are big enough to be in the main tank. The best way to save fry is to set up a separate birthing tank with lots of good cover. When you have a female almost ready to deliver, you put her into the birthing tank. If she is well fed and the cover is adequate, you can take your time removing her after the birth. You should be able to easily get at least 20 guppy fry or 30 molly fry with this method. This is what it looks like when you have 30 molly fry in the birth tank.

The way to use a breeding net is to just put the fry into it until they are big enough to survive in the adult tank. If you have a female that is about to drop fry, she can be put into a breeding net along with some plants or other cover. That way she won't find the new fry as fast and can be removed to let the fry grow up in safety.

To clean your tank, you use the gravel vacuum and drain a large part of the water, maybe 30%, into a bucket and dump it out. You refill with dechlorinated water at about the same temperature as the water you took out. The fish can stay put while you do it.

 

[Kapenta]

Welcome to the forum Kapenta.
You should not mix adult fish with fry unless you want to lose fry. Some well fed adults will leave the fry alone most of the time but it is a way to lose fry in most situations. You have placed a half dozen fry with 2 adults so chances are that you either will lose some of those fry or they are big enough to be in the main tank. The best way to save fry is to set up a separate birthing tank with lots of good cover. When you have a female almost ready to deliver, you put her into the birthing tank. If she is well fed and the cover is adequate, you can take your time removing her after the birth. You should be able to easily get at least 20 guppy fry or 30 molly fry with this method. This is what it looks like when you have 30 molly fry in the birth tank.

The way to use a breeding net is to just put the fry into it until they are big enough to survive in the adult tank. If you have a female that is about to drop fry, she can be put into a breeding net along with some plants or other cover. That way she won't find the new fry as fast and can be removed to let the fry grow up i safety.

To clean your tank, you use the gravel vacuum and drain a large part of the water, maybe 30%, into a bucket and dump it out. You refill with dechlorinated water at about the same temperature as the water you took out. The fish can stay put while you do it.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

you should also consider weather you actually want 20/30 extra fish every month from each female. do you have space for all those fish?

a lot of aquarists leave it up to natural selection by not making any attempts to save the fry, some babies will survive but the rest will get eaten then the population is controlled so you don't get overrun with fish.

 

[Kapenta]

you should also consider weather you actually want 20/30 extra fish every month from each female. do you have space for all those fish?

a lot of aquarists leave it up to natural selection by not making any attempts to save the fry, some babies will survive but the rest will get eaten then the population is controlled so you don't get overrun with fish.

Thankyou for that info, l wouldn't mind just a few more fish - is there a general rule as to how many fish you can have per tank? and is it true that if you vary the mollies diet their colour improves deepens/darkens?

Welcome to the forum Kapenta.
You should not mix adult fish with fry unless you want to lose fry. Some well fed adults will leave the fry alone most of the time but it is a way to lose fry in most situations. You have placed a half dozen fry with 2 adults so chances are that you either will lose some of those fry or they are big enough to be in the main tank. The best way to save fry is to set up a separate birthing tank with lots of good cover. When you have a female almost ready to deliver, you put her into the birthing tank. If she is well fed and the cover is adequate, you can take your time removing her after the birth. You should be able to easily get at least 20 guppy fry or 30 molly fry with this method. This is what it looks like when you have 30 molly fry in the birth tank.

The way to use a breeding net is to just put the fry into it until they are big enough to survive in the adult tank. If you have a female that is about to drop fry, she can be put into a breeding net along with some plants or other cover. That way she won't find the new fry as fast and can be removed to let the fry grow up i safety.

To clean your tank, you use the gravel vacuum and drain a large part of the water, maybe 30%, into a bucket and dump it out. You refill with dechlorinated water at about the same temperature as the water you took out. The fish can stay put while you do it.

Thankyou thats fantastic it has really helped, if l want to completely empty the tank,clean the gravel well and fill with fresh water do l have to start the cycle? again. or can l put the fish straight back into dechlorinated water straight from the tap?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

the general guideline is 1" per us gallon for new tanks or beginner fish keepers, with good filtration and maintenance and a mature tank you can go as high as 2" per gallon but a lot of people stick around 1.5"

it's not an exact science and it only really works for small/medium sized community fish but for your situation it's a good enough indiciation.

your tank is 54 us gallons so you can have between 54 and 108" of fish depending on how heavily you want to stock it.

so google the fish you have, look what their adult size is and add them all together and you'll soon see how many more fish you have room for.

you can of course save a few batches of fry and then leave the rest to natural selection.

 

[OldMan47]

If you empty and clean the tank, you will be starting from scratch. If your fish are healthy, the tank probably has nothing wrong with it as far as a fish environment goes. That does often leave you with an unsightly tank. The best way I know to do anything with fish is to do things gradually. If you have lots of filthy ornaments, pull out a couple each week and clean them thoroughly. When they are all clean, maybe it is time to clean the glass very well one week, etc. By taking things slowly, you will not lose the cycle in the tank and you will be unlikely to lose fish. When you get done, it will probably have taken less time and will certainly have caused you less stress, than a fish-in cycle.

 

[Kapenta]

If you empty and clean the tank, you will be starting from scratch. If your fish are healthy, the tank probably has nothing wrong with it as far as a fish environment goes. That does often leave you with an unsightly tank. The best way I know to do anything with fish is to do things gradually. If you have lots of filthy ornaments, pull out a couple each week and clean them thoroughly. When they are all clean, maybe it is time to clean the glass very well one week, etc. By taking things slowly, you will not lose the cycle in the tank and you will be unlikely to lose fish. When you get done, it will probably have taken less time and will certainly have caused you less stress, than a fish-in cycle.

Wow you are very knowlegable, l have put the fry and three pregnant females in the breeding tank their tummies are very dark already, is the gestation period roughly two weeks? Should l feed them more often than l do the rest of the tank?

 

[OldMan47]

Gestation for most of the more common livebearers is 4 weeks. Endlers are shorter at 23 days and goodeids are longer at between 6 weeks and 60 days depending on which species you keep.

For fry feeding and even near delivery females, you feed several times a day but very little at each feeding. When you do that you need to be extra careful about not overfeeding or you will ruin the tank's water chemistry.