Livebearers Tank

[JackoUK]

I am currently sorting pH levels out and when i've managed to get my pH to around 7 to 7.5 I am thinking about setting up my 15 Gal as a livebearers tank. I would like a mix of Guppies, Platys, Swordtails and Endlers if theres room. I was wondering how many I could have? I know there will be many babies from this tank but I have a LFS that will take them off my hands.

Would:

6 Guppies

4 Swordtails

4 Platys

4 Endlers be too much of a bioload for that size tank? I would maybe have a Bristlenose in there too or a few Cories.

Any info would be gratefully appreciated. Thankyou in advance.

 

[theotheragentm]

I would skip on any Swordtails completely. They need quite a bit of swimming room. I would only get Swordtails in a 20 gallon long. The others would be pushing the limits of your tank. If you kept up with water changes, you would be fine, but that's not counting any offspring. Your Guppies and Endlers will cross FYI.

 

[helterskelter]

True endlers are rare, most on ebay and in shops are crosses. It's not worth keeping true endlers unless you want to keep the true.

Also avoide swords as they do need much larger tanks.

 

[mommyof2bettas]

yeah, I think guppies, platies, and maybe endlers if you find any would be good.

 

[JackoUK]

Thanks guys.

I'm not sure what i'm going to do yet but atleast I know I have the option of a decent livebearer setup if I wanted.

 

[jaarus]

I take it its going to be a male only tank?

If you plan on having females and males in this tank its going to EXPLODE in numbers quicker than you can say "Oh my god...WHAT HAVE I DONE!?!"

 

[theotheragentm]

Male only is a bad idea as they may become aggressive towards other males without females to distract them. The best setup is all male Guppies and all virgin females for other livebearers. Guppies are the only all male livebearer groups I've seen that get along decently the majority of the time. Good luck trying to find females that aren't already pregnant.

 

[JackoUK]

Half the fun of having a livebearer tank was to watch the fry develop and the different fry developments throughout the different species so I was hoping for a mixed sex tank. Although I understand what your saying about population explosions. I may wait till I have a larger, maybe 30 UK gal, tank before I try a livebearer setup, as i'd love to have Swordtails in there as well.

 

[tamara]

I'd say you should get just a few [3-5] guppies, all different colors [2-3females+1-2males]
And when they have fry you have no clue what you're ending up with!
I've got more than a dozen different colours in my guppies! They're gorgeous!
My first mistake though, was having all males then i wanted babies so i got one female...
it was something like 4 males and one females BAD IDEA!
anyways, good luck!

 

[JackoUK]

Thanks tamara.

I'm still hooked on the idea of a livebearer tank. I was wondering if I could get away with 5 Guppies (2M, 3F) and 5 Platys (2M, 3F) and either a trio or 4 of a small Corydoras species such as the Panda or Pygmy Cory?

 

[JackoUK]

Anyone help me on this at all. With the 1 inch per us gallon thing i put myself on the limit but with regular water changes i think it may be feasable. Any help would be great.

 

[lilfishie]

i don't think it would be a problem, my 15 has more than that in it as long as they are smaller cory species

 

[JackoUK]

Thanks lilfishie. I think thats what i'm going to go for. I'll probably get panda corys because i've got some and their great fish.