Livebearing fish

[Terry Blackmore]

Just a reminder that female livebearing fish don't get pregnant they get Gravid

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

would you care to elaborate on "gravid"?

 

[Terry Blackmore]

Hi and welcome to the forum

would you care to elaborate on "gravid"?

Hi and welcome to the forum

would you care to elaborate on "gravid"?

It's the proper term for a female livebearer due to have fry

 

[Shez]

It's the proper term for a female livebearer due to have fry

Hi sorry to jump in, I'm new to forum thought I'd introduce myself here, iam looking for advice and help with my 2 guarmi that I have, iam relatively new to keeping tropical fish I've had my set up around 3 months and all my fish are doing amazing. I have mollies also and they are live bearing fish. I know this because I have 15 little fry that are 2 wks old as I just managed to put mum in a breeding net early hrs one morning as she was giving birth. Just wondering terry Blackmore how can a live bearing fish not be pregnant? I watched my mollie give birth to her fry so I'm a little confused. My female guarmi on the other hand looks ready to burst and the male is making a bubble nest. I know this fish isn't pregnant as she has her eggs which are then fertilised by the male. These fish aren't live bearers an can't get pregnant but I think live bearing fish do get pregnant. I might be wrong but I can't think of anything else to call a live bearing fish before she gives birth other than pregnant mate? Anyway I really need advise on how to keep the fry if it happens with my gourami as I have no experience m watching my fish round the clock

 

[Colin_T]

Hi Shez and welcome to the forum

The following link has information about culturing food for baby fish including labyrinth fishes (Bettas & Gouramis). Labyrinth fish have small babies that need green water or infusoria as their first food. These cultures take a month or so to get going so it's a good idea to start preparing cultures before the fish breed. If you get babies before the cultures are ready, you can use the yolk from a hard boiled egg. There is info about that in the link too.
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/back-to-basics-when-breeding-fish.448304/

The following link is from a member who had honey gouramis breed in his tank. You might find it interesting. The member (Vengified), had a few threads about these fish and breeding them.
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/a...-but-unknown-orbs-remain.449398/#post-3797604

---------------------
Female livebearers have internal fertilisation, which is similar to birds, mammals and reptiles.

They carry the developing young around in a sac inside their body and this resembles pregnancy in mammals.

There was some research done many years ago that showed the developing babies took some nutrients from the mother in the later stages of their development and this also resembles pregnancy in mammals.

So whilst they are fish, they are not typical egg scatterers, and do have some similarities to pregnant mammals. As far as I'm concerned, if people want to call them gravid, that is fine. And if people want to call them pregnant, that is fine too.

 

[Shez]

Hi Shez and welcome to the forum

The following link has information about culturing food for baby fish including labyrinth fishes (Bettas & Gouramis). Labyrinth fish have small babies that need green water or infusoria as their first food. These cultures take a month or so to get going so it's a good idea to start preparing cultures before the fish breed. If you get babies before the cultures are ready, you can use the yolk from a hard boiled egg. There is info about that in the link too.
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/back-to-basics-when-breeding-fish.448304/

The following link is from a member who had honey gouramis breed in his tank. You might find it interesting. The member (Vengified), had a few threads about these fish and breeding them.
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/a...-but-unknown-orbs-remain.449398/#post-3797604

---------------------
Female livebearers have internal fertilisation, which is similar to birds, mammals and reptiles.

They carry the developing young around in a sac inside their body and this resembles pregnancy in mammals.

There was some research done many years ago that showed the developing babies took some nutrients from the mother in the later stages of their development and this also resembles pregnancy in mammals.

So whilst they are fish, they are not typical egg scatterers, and do have some similarities to pregnant mammals. As far as I'm concerned, if people want to call them gravid, that is fine. And if people want to call them pregnant, that is fine too.

Hi Colin and thank you for the quick reply and links really helpful looks like I'm going to be really busy the next few days, as I said i have no experience at all and I've just been winging it so far. Oh and a lot of YouTube and Google up until now. Iam quite proud of my set up and myself especially after saving some of my mollies fry from being dinner, I also wanted to ask abt my fry. I have 15 in a breeding net and there 2wks old and seem to be doing really well, I've been crushing dry flake food into a powder almost an feeding them once a day, if it's all gone later on in the day I sometimes give them a little more. Some of them are a lot bigger than others. Is this because they aren't eating as much as the other's? The smaller ones are a lot smaller but they still dart around as much as the bigger ones, also when would be a good time to put them in the main tank. I'm not keeping all of them as I don't want to over crowd my tank so my friend is having some. Thanks for your help and advice it's appreciated

 

[Terry Blackmore]

Hi sorry to jump in, I'm new to forum thought I'd introduce myself here, iam looking for advice and help with my 2 guarmi that I have, iam relatively new to keeping tropical fish I've had my set up around 3 months and all my fish are doing amazing. I have mollies also and they are live bearing fish. I know this because I have 15 little fry that are 2 wks old as I just managed to put mum in a breeding net early hrs one morning as she was giving birth. Just wondering terry Blackmore how can a live bearing fish not be pregnant? I watched my mollie give birth to her fry so I'm a little confused. My female guarmi on the other hand looks ready to burst and the male is making a bubble nest. I know this fish isn't pregnant as she has her eggs which are then fertilised by the male. These fish aren't live bearers an can't get pregnant but I think live bearing fish do get pregnant. I might be wrong but I can't think of anything else to call a live bearing fish before she gives birth other than pregnant mate? Anyway I really need advise on how to keep the fry if it happens with my gourami as I have no experience m watching my fish round the clock

Hi Colin and thank you for the quick reply and links really helpful looks like I'm going to be really busy the next few days, as I said i have no experience at all and I've just been winging it so far. Oh and a lot of YouTube and Google up until now. Iam quite proud of my set up and myself especially after saving some of my mollies fry from being dinner, I also wanted to ask abt my fry. I have 15 in a breeding net and there 2wks old and seem to be doing really well, I've been crushing dry flake food into a powder almost an feeding them once a day, if it's all gone later on in the day I sometimes give them a little more. Some of them are a lot bigger than others. Is this because they aren't eating as much as the other's? The smaller ones are a lot smaller but they still dart around as much as the bigger ones, also when would be a good time to put them in the main tank. I'm not keeping all of them as I don't want to over crowd my tank so my friend is having some. Thanks for your help and advice it's appreciated

 

[Terry Blackmore]

The best way to breed bubble nesters is usually to have a male and female alone in a tank. The male builds the bubble nest, then mates with the female who drops the eggs. At this point she should be removed to another tank. The male collects the eggs in his mouth a squirts the eggs into the nest, while waiting for the eggs to hatch he will repair the bubble nest. Once the fry's tails can be seen to move around in the nest, the male should be removed. There are plenty of different fry foods on the market with which to feed these fry. I once breed siamese fighting fish, the reason I never did them again was the 300 plus jam jars needed in my deicated fish house to keep the fry apart until they could be sexed. The males would have killed each other.

 

[Terry Blackmore]

I forgot to mention that the tank I used for breeding siamese fighters had been set up with a glass divider, so the female could be removed without disturbing the bubble nest. The divider was used again to remove the male.

 

[Colin_T]

Baby fish need to be fed at least 3 times a day and 5 times is better. You only offer a small amount at a time and the babies should eat until they are fat and look like pregnant/ gravid guppies.

You don't want uneaten food on the bottom of the breeding net because it will cause water quality problems. Use a length of airline to suck the uneaten food off the bottom.

If the babies are growing at different rates, it's from lack of food. Newly hatched brineshrimp is the best food for them, and microworms are good too. These can be used in conjunction with powdered dry foods.

Do not put the babies into the main tank until they are half the size of the other fish. Livebearers don't normally eat their own young if the adults are fed well, but other fish will.

--------------------------
If you are breeding Bettas and Gouramis, the males look after the nest, eggs and fry for the first few weeks. You should not remove the male until the babies are swimming around and eating well, or if the male decides to eat them, then you can remove him.

 

[Shez]

Baby fish need to be fed at least 3 times a day and 5 times is better. You only offer a small amount at a time and the babies should eat until they are fat and look like pregnant/ gravid guppies.

You don't want uneaten food on the bottom of the breeding net because it will cause water quality problems. Use a length of airline to suck the uneaten food off the bottom.

If the babies are growing at different rates, it's from lack of food. Newly hatched brineshrimp is the best food for them, and microworms are good too. These can be used in conjunction with powdered dry foods.

Do not put the babies into the main tank until they are half the size of the other fish. Livebearers don't normally eat their own young if the adults are fed well, but other fish will.

--------------------------
If you are breeding Bettas and Gouramis, the males look after the nest, eggs and fry for the first few weeks. You should not remove the male until the babies are swimming around and eating well, or if the male decides to eat them, then you can remove him.

Thank you Colin I've read that many different suggestions on line regarding feeding fry and how often to feed them it's daunting especially when it's 1st time. I mean I couldn't keep a gold fish for longer than an hour when I was kid so we're all doing good , I have already been removing all the crap from the bottom of the net but I need to start with there new diet plan this morning thanks again

 

[Colin_T]

If you have an established biological filter in the tank, you can feed fish regularly throughout the day. Just do lots of water changes to compensate for the extra nutrients (from the food) and remove any uneaten food.

If you feed newly hatched brineshrimp, they continue to swim around the tank for a few hours and get eaten during that time.