Population control...

S

slidez

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Nov 20, 2007
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So I have a molly and platy baby making factory in my community 20g long tank and its starting to get out of control. To lower the amount of trips of donating fish to my LFS, what fish would you recommend for population control? I currently have a male betta in the tank but he doesn't seem to interested in eating or attacking other fish, probably the most passive betta I've ever seen. Could you guys recommend some fish that are generally compatible with bettas that will eat fry? If this is too difficult I will move my betta to my 2nd 10g tank.

From what I've searched I've read that gourami's and apistogrammas do nicely. Could people that have owned both give me some insight on what they recommend and any others I might have left out? This fish will be going into a tank with tetras, corys, molly/platies, your run of the mill community tank.

Thanks!
 
I think if your tetras, cories, betta and the platies n mollies themselves aren't keeping the population in control you may have trouble getting any other fish to eat that many.

That, and wouldn't you have over feeding issues with a fish living with essentially, as many fry as it cared to eat?
 
I wonder how heavily decorated your tank is especially the feeding schedule. Fish will turn blind over a free meal of fry when there is enough fish food from you available for them to eat. Also, I would expect the fry are quite adept at hiding if your tank is indeed heavily decorated. Instead of getting a fish to eat the fry for you, why not just sell all the livebearers altogether? This is why I loathe keeping livebearers in any of my tanks. They don't stop until your nitrates rise rapidly.:shakehead:
 
Danios and most tetras will usually make quick work of any fry. What kind of tetras do you have?
 
Lupin said:
I wonder how heavily decorated your tank is especially the feeding schedule. Fish will turn blind over a free meal of fry when there is enough fish food from you available for them to eat. Also, I would expect the fry are quite adept at hiding if your tank is indeed heavily decorated. Instead of getting a fish to eat the fry for you, why not just sell all the livebearers altogether? This is why I loathe keeping livebearers in any of my tanks. They don't stop until your nitrates rise rapidly.:shakehead:
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I agree with Lupin that to get rid of the problem, the best solution would be to get rid of the livebearers altogether, or alternatively, to keep only males. Every time I see one of these threads about livebearers taking over someone's tank, I am reminded of why I don't keep them.
 
If you really like your livebearers and want to keep some then you have but a few options. One is to get 2 tanks and separate the males from the females. If you can have only one tank then keep either the males or the females and get rid of the other (I'd keep the males as the females will keep pumping out the fry even though the males are gone). Gouramis do a great job on the fry but some fry are good at hiding and will make it to maturity even with hunters in the tank. As was stated above if well fed then even hunters will ignore a live treat.

I went through a molly phase... I got rid of them except for two female fry that I still have 1 year later.

Q
 
ersteb said:
...get rid of the males
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The problem is if you leave the females, they will continue dropping batches of fry for weeks whereas leaving the males should not pose too much problems.
 
Yeah this is planted tank with tons of Wisteria so they have a lot of hiding spots, I only feed a small pinch every day, but they could be munching on any of the other live plant matter in the tank. The tetras I have are Neon tetra, and most of the fish generally seem to leave the fry alone. They are so comfortable that the fry swim wherever they want and never hide. I think I may just have to give all of them away and keep one sex. Is there any reason why I should keep female over male or vice versa other than the females storing sperm? I tend to like the females of the tank and eventually they'll stop spitting out fry right?
 
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