Starting A Livebearers Tank?

[CTGoldfish]

I am getting a large fish tank (50-65 gallons) that will have a 1:2 and 1:3 male to female ratio with Platys,Mollies,Guppys,and Swordtails.
Can these fish get along together and what type of plants and decorations would be good for them.I also heard Platys,Swordtails,and Mollies are better to have 1 teaspoon of aquarium salt per 2 gallons of water,is this true,will it bother the guppys?What temperature should the water be also?
Thanks for any advice!

 

[mtv8dmarine]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

They may or may not all get along since they all will have their own personalities...much like us humans. However you have the proper ratio of 1 male to 3 females in mind which will help things out tremendously.

You can put whatever decorations in the tank that you wish. The more natural the feel, the more comfortable the fish will ultimately be.

I have heard that mollies do prefer slightly brackish water and have heard of it with platies too but I never had any of my platies in salt unless I was medicating the tank with no chemicals. I do really beleive that platies and swordtails prefer freshwater...at least in my experience.

Since I've kept swordtails and platies they can be kept anywhere from 72 - 78 degrees F. I try to keep mine around 75 but living in Southern California, my apartment often gets the tank water to 80 in the summer when I'm not home running the A/C. Platies and swordtails are pretty hardy fish and will tolerate a lot as long as the fluctuations are not sudden. I can't speak for the other types since I don't know about them.

 

[Kerri Gronow]

Hey,
In my tank I have mollies, guppies and platys. They all get on fine in my tank. Ive heard mollies do prefer brackish water but ive never added any salt and theyve all been great!

 

[OldMan47]

All of your fish should be fine together. The salt is a myth, but most common livebearers do like a high mineral content in their water. Do you know what kind of water your are dealing with?

 

[CTGoldfish]

All of your fish should be fine together. The salt is a myth, but most common livebearers do like a high mineral content in their water. Do you know what kind of water your are dealing with?

uhhm cycled freshwater?Alkaline? sort of embarrassing but that question isnt specific enough for me
i hope I might have answered it

 

[OldMan47]

The best water for many of the common livebearers is fairly hard with a GH over about 8 and a KH over a similar value. The GH indicates that you have some mineral content and the KH means the pH of the water will be fairly stable. If you can meet both conditions, a pH of anything over 7.0 and below about 8.0 will work for them. If you have relatively soft water or water that changes pH easily, it will need adjusting to truly make a good environment for livebearers. As much as I love my livebearers, if I had soft water I would probably get into things like South American fish instead of the livebearers. Changing the water parameters can be done, I do it for my cory specialty tank, but it means you can never just use tap water untreated in the tank again. That will not seem too bad at first but over the years it can become tiresome.