Livebears-platty,guppy, mollie, swords...

[Sharlene1385]

I havn't gotten any yet, but I'm doing my research. We 've had platies and mollies and swords before. And have had fry. We really don't want to have to have babies and take care of them, plus I only have a 10 gal so it's kind of hard to raise them. I was just wondering if for those types of fish, is there anyway to keep them from not breeding, or I mean at least minimize the chance of the breeding? I know guppies are easier to tell males from female, and I can get all male I guess, but I never seem to do a good job at getting non pregnant mollies and platies. We had a platty deliver on the way home with about 20 fry. So, since our pets shops don't let us pick the genders since they can't tell, what would be the best way to go about keeping the breeding down? I don't think we have the equipment to raise fry anymore, and our fry always died anyway. Well, the last 2 platties got ... sadly cooked thanks to bad heater. And the 2 swords we saved got to much cholrine or something during water change... we ended up losing 5 fish all together in one day from it. So I 'm praying theres a way to keep them from breeding all the time. It's just to sad to see them have babies and lose the fry, or not be able to care for them. We had a platty give birth to some that had no tails, still born. Poor things.

 

[Ben]

if u dont want them to breed(wich is a shame) get mroe males then females
or no females

 

[Sharlene1385]

I can't tell the difference between the genders on plattys and mollies. And the pets shops don't usualy let us pick. I'll probably breed when I have a larger aquarium and better set ups to house the fry. But my breeding nets broke and I just wouldn't be able to take care of them, I guess I'd have to give them to a LPS. Thank you though, I'll try to get males. I know males on guppies and swords, that's easy.

 

[Angry_Platy]

With platies, you can tell males from females by their anal fins....in a female it will be a fan shape...in a male it will be like a spike pointing towards their tail...

If your LFS doesn't give you the option to choose the sex of the fish you buy they aren't worth buying from. Also, I would be concerned about any LFS that didn't know how to sex live bearers

 

[Sharlene1385]

That's what I would say, but thats Pets Mart. And the one here doesn't take care of their fish. And Walmart... don't even go there, their guppies looked really sick. And I think we have zamzows, I havn't tried them yet. I might have to see if they have them cheeper and know more about them. Sometimes I get to choose, sometimes they just grab one. Thinking it doesn't matter I guess is how they feel. Made me mad, I wanted to work their because I know more about fish then some of the workers their know. lol

 

[Clown Loach]

It's nice to have a few livebearer young, but as I agree it gets ridiculous in a very short space of time

 

[MerryCat]

You could leave the young in with the parents, and add another small, predetaory fish in tank too. That way most or all of the fry would get eaten, and you'd only have to worry about finding homes for one or two, if that. I feed my excess fry to my betta, even tho it kind of breaks my heart.

 

[tstenback]

The only way to enjoy livebearers without all the fry is to go to a friends place and watch theirs . Really there is no way to stop them if you have one of each gender they will breed and you will get fry. Like has already been mentioned you could leave them in the tank and most will be eaten but some of the strong and smart will survive sometimes. Good Luck

 

[wrs]

the only place i could find females guppys was at walmart. i only got 1 though, shes doing great!

 

[finius]

I've found that filling the tank with gasoline works pretty well. On the downside, it kills all of your fish. It's also a fire hazard.