Livebearer Tank

[sunpirate2u]

I have a 12 gal tank and im not sure how to stock it, so I have some questions:

1. What is the max. of female platies I can put in my tank?

2. Could it be possible to stock the tank like this:

5 female platies
1 srword tail male
1-2 mollies


ideas welcome
Thanks

 

[dunchp]

Why don't you go for a male platy instead of a swordtail?

 

[bucksgill]

Why don't you go for a male platy instead of a swordtail?

I agree, I would think that amount of fish would be fine

 

[sunpirate2u]

Well I don't want them breeding. So I thought a male swordtail would be pretty, would the male be aggressive?

what kind of molly (s) should i get?

 

[bucksgill]

Well I don't want them breeding. So I thought a male swordtail would be pretty, would the male be aggressive?

what kind of molly (s) should i get?

Black Mollies are good because they are quite small, moonshine/silver mollies may be too big for your tank. I think i remember reading somewere that swordtails and platys can breed, I may be wrong. I dont think the male will be aggressive

 

[kribensis12]

Yes swordtail's adn platies can interbreed! Ever heard of the Red Wag Platy? Ever heard of the red Wag Swordtail? They interbred the Red Swordtail with the Red Wag platy.

 

[sunpirate2u]

ok i will get 5 female platies and 2 black mollies.

 

[bucksgill]

whats wrong with fish breeding? Cant you just donate them to a lfs?

 

[sunpirate2u]

whats wrong with fish breeding? Cant you just donate them to a lfs?

well, I don't know, I do want to breed them but I dont have breeding nets/boxes, a spare tank, I don't have time to clean the tanks 2 a day ect. I may buy a pregnet platy and keep 1 or 2 fry to raise. Would that be ok? The only other tank I have is a 3 gallon.

I go to petsmart, I dont think they'll take platy fry.

 

[bucksgill]

If you rescue the 2 fry and leave the rest, the fish will naturally eat them. It sounds cruel but its what happens in the wild

 

[LauraFrog]

Slight problem: If you buy a pregnant female, she will have between 20 and 40 fry on average, once a month for around six months. If you are getting platies from petsmart and they are female, they will be pregnant. Ditto the mollies. If you really dont' want them to breed, get something large to eat fry (angels do really well, but a 12 gal is probably a bit small for an angelfish) or buy males.

 

[dunchp]

OK. If you don't want them to breed then buy 5 male platies and 1 male swordtail.

 

[sunpirate2u]

ok so male platies & mollies.

yes or no swordtail male?

 

[kribensis12]

In the natural order of thing's, you cant put a whole bunch of male's together, as there will be a huge hierarchy, and it will leave the smallest weakest one's with no swimming room, an dleave them open to diseases. I would buy 1 male, 2 femlae's of what ever livebearer you have, unless you buy all female's, as there isnt alot of bullying. 97% of the time, female's you buy a pregnant. Petsmart will take them, but they wont give you anything. If you can find a local fishstore( home owned) they will take them and give you credit 95% of the time.

 

[fish48]

In the natural order of thing's, you cant put a whole bunch of male's together, as there will be a huge hierarchy, and it will leave the smallest weakest one's with no swimming room, an dleave them open to diseases. I would buy 1 male, 2 femlae's of what ever livebearer you have, unless you buy all female's, as there isnt alot of bullying. 97% of the time, female's you buy a pregnant. Petsmart will take them, but they wont give you anything. If you can find a local fishstore( home owned) they will take them and give you credit 95% of the time.

a all male tank will be ok. keep at lest 6 or moor and their will be less Aggression Amongst themselves theses are peaceful fish. they will be fine keept together.
OK some times you may get a very aggressive one that my keep bullying the same fish but this can happen with any fish. a ratio of 1 male and 2 femlae's works fine it can also work the other way the moor females in the tank the larger number of males you can ad to the tank all the males will be to interested in competing amongst themselves
.