Solitary males

TheZoo

Curiouser and curiouser!
Apr 12, 2006
635
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melting in Houston, TX
Would a solitary male livebearer (platy, guppy, mollie) be ok in community tank? With other solitary males? With females of a different livebearing breed?
 
I dont think a single male livebearer really works I've never had much success with this in the past, I've always found one single livebearer of pretty much any livebearer species always dies mysteriously a few weeks later, but that could just be me. To keep the fish happy though you want at least 3 females for every male.

As for what breeds with what, I have heard a swordtail can breed with a platy, but I've no idea how this would work since theres an obvious size difference.

And a dim and distant memory tells me a guppy can breed with a molly, but I'm even less sure on this combination.

But anyway get your male fish some females he'll be much happier.
 
Im actually planning to move some of my existing fish around, and buy a few additional down the road... Also gearing up to adding 2 smaller tanks to my zoo, so Im wondering who to put where!
 
Mollies and platys interbreed for sure, breeders have occasionally encouraged it on purpose and that's why their color varieties are so similar. Not sure about the swordtails but don't doubt it seeing that the females look a lot alike and they also have been bred with similar colors. I've had a solitary male guppy in a tank with glowlight and neon tetras with no problems but I'm not sure about other possible combinations.
 
If I'm not mistaken, all of guppies, platies, mollies and swordtails can interbreed with eachother. I think some match ups are more common than others, though. I could be wrong, of course, but I seem to recall reading that somewhere. o_o

At any rate, I've only ever tried to keep a single male guppy. He lives in my 10 gal with six adult platies, and is by and large ignored by all of them. I do, however, have one surviving platy baby that seems rather endeared with the guppy. She follows him around from time to time, and he doesn't seem to mind. He's grown quite a bit in the time I've had him and seems to me to be perfectly healthy.
 
Yes, Most of the fish in the Poecilia family can inter mingle their genes but its not common. I doubt it was Mollies with Platies, but more or less, Platies with Swordtails, and various supspeicies of Mollies with each other to get the varity. Guppies will try to mate with Mollies or Platies but the odds of fry coming from this union is very slim and they would be Mules, sterile.
But your fish will try to mate with another no matter what. I had a swordtail trying to mate with a large guppy, nothing ever happened but her being pestered all the time.
 
So, help me out, oh wise fishy people....

Im adding to the zoo a 5 gallon bow front and maybe my little 2.5 gallon hex. I think I need to move some of my existing fish around and plan on getting more fish, as well.
Right now all my platys are male, mature guppies are 2m 2f, mollies are 1m 1f. I know I need to seperate the platys, at least one of them, and get them some females, and get another molly female. But then what? I also dont really want to be overwhelmed with fry, which Im already starting to be with the guppies. What can I do with those guys? (Is there any specific kind of fish that would love to eat them? Before Krispy the betta passed, he consumed all but one of the platy fry, but I dont know about another betta - still kicking myself for letting him die) AAH!

Who should go where and what should I get? Should I just have the hex ready and empty for a q tank? I know these are personal opinion questions, but Id like some experienced opinions!
 
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