View Full Version : Easy live bearers
dwarfgourami7
12-10-2006, 2:30 PM
What is the best type of live bearers that: Breed easily, can do well in a small tank, require no salt at all, ever, and are just all round good. I want to know as i feel i am capable of breeding some and it will be awsome! Thank you.
Evan214
12-10-2006, 2:52 PM
Endler's Livebearers. Thay are kind of hard to come by, but John N. sells them here. Just look in the Classifieds section. They look just like a smaller Fancy Guppy. I personally really like them.
cichlidkeeper91
12-10-2006, 2:55 PM
I would probably get mosquito fish. They can breed pretty quickly. You might be able to find them in you lfs. Not including petsmart or petco.
jm1212
12-10-2006, 3:24 PM
none of the common livebearers you see at evey LFS require salt.
guppies and platies are pretty easy to breed, but molly and swordtail fry are able to take crushed flake food from the beginning because they are larger
I don't think there are many 'hard' livebearers. Not really. Guppies and mollies are certainly dead easy. And none really 'need' salt as such...
Tommy Gun
12-10-2006, 3:45 PM
Yea, all livebearers are pretty much recomended for beginners. However, I hope that you are ready to deal with the large amounts of fry that you will end up with. I put four mollies in a 55 gallon tank and in less than three months had more than I could keep up with. I even stopped taking the fry out of the tank and quite a few would still escape mommy and daddy to not get eaten.
If you want to keep the fry, you need another tank or a breeder's net. I like the other tank idea better so that more can fit in it. A 10 gallon is all you would need. I am using a 10 gallon for yellow lab fry right now.
blackwolfXKAV
12-10-2006, 3:49 PM
mollies have been proven to due significantly better in full marine if not at least SW environments. in fact, most are regularily found in SW in the wild.
When acclimated to SW, their rate of illnesses drops 90%.
just my two cents, but bearing this in mind, i wouldnt put them in FW for long.
btw, the whole "livebearers that could work in a small tank and are easy to breed", this could be a blessing and a curse, as most livebearers have a habit for filling up tanks to the brim.
Tommy Gun
12-10-2006, 3:56 PM
Mollies are brackish fish by nature, but can live a long life in freshwater, but they are more susceptible to disease.
vidiots
12-10-2006, 4:08 PM
For a small tank I'd go with endlers, guppies or platies. I prefer to keep swordtails & mollies in slightly bigger tanks..
EzSleeper
12-10-2006, 6:22 PM
guppies all types would work. just dont let it get too carried away. had to many frys swimming about and it was a pain to cut down the number of fish you actually want to keep
$eaba$$
12-10-2006, 6:37 PM
I can't find it anywhere..
jm1212
12-10-2006, 6:44 PM
I can't find it anywhere.. why did you post that here?
coupedefleur
12-10-2006, 9:50 PM
I vote Endlers, Guppies, or Platies. Swordtails need more room, and the males can get pretty aggressive, sometimes killing each other. They need a lot more room. I know a few people have different experience with mollies, but most are sickly in fresh water- you have to have perfect conditions to keep them healthy under those circumstances.
Some livebearers, like Goodeids and halfbeaks are very difficult to breed. At a
couple recent auctions, people have said "these fish will give you cichlid breeders a real challenge!"
DrussRob
12-10-2006, 10:09 PM
Least Killifish: Heterandria Formosa (not a true killifish) are great for smaller tanks and nano-enviroments and breed extremely fast. They rarely get over half an inch long and can live in a variety of water parameters. They are live bearers also.
They are sometimes hard to find. I however have the good fortune here in central Florida to go down to the river and grab up a netfull :P
dwarfgourami7
12-11-2006, 12:37 PM
I would like to breed sword tails but they are brackish as it says in the species profiles on this website and in my newly purchased book. Can i keep them in totaly fresh water? Or will i have to go to platys?
jm1212
12-11-2006, 3:36 PM
I would like to breed sword tails but they are brackish as it says in the species profiles on this website and in my newly purchased book. Can i keep them in totaly fresh water? Or will i have to go to platys? swordtails are not brackish whatsoever. they do not need any aquarium salt either, and will thank you in the long run if you do not put any salt of any kind in the tank (unless you are treating for ich or some other diesase of course). if you want swordtails, they need a tank of at least 20 gallons, and like to be in groups of 1 male to 3 females.
mollies are the only common livebearer that can be considered brackish.
BlueLobster
12-11-2006, 3:46 PM
Hmm.. How hard is it to breed mysis shrimp? They require SW, or can they be in FW? Also, what in the world do they eat? Would they eat goldfish flake food? Or, how about Omegaone Shrimp Pellets?
coupedefleur
12-12-2006, 6:16 AM
If I wanted to breed nice ST's, I'd use a 40 or 55, and have a couple 10's handy as breeding traps.
vidiots
12-15-2006, 8:42 AM
I would like to breed sword tails but they are brackish as it says in the species profiles on this website and in my newly purchased book. Can i keep them in totaly fresh water? Or will i have to go to platys?
I wouldn't consider swordtails a brackish fish to where you would want to add salt to the water for them. They do prefer PH's above 7 and slightly hard water, but they also have a pretty wide range of PH and water hardness that they will be perfectly happy in. Mollies are the only livebearer that I am aware of that are often refered to as a brackish fish. So yes, swordtails will breed completely out of control just like most other livebearers in totally fresh water. (Mine do).