Livebearers FAQ

Big Vine

Elite Fish
Feb 7, 2006
3,895
9
0
47
Florida
#41
Thanks for the reply, FroggyFox. :)
Maybe we'll get a fish geneticist or something to browse by and figure this one out for us. :rolleyes:

...which gives me an idea...

One of my best friends is a wildlife biologist and deals with fish a lot...maybe he'll have a better idea. :confused:

Either way, it's not one of those "if I don't get an answer I won't be able to sleep at night" type of questions, LOL. I guess I'm just curious about things a little too much and tend to over-analyze. :eek:

Big Vine
 

Mar 19, 2007
29
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0
#42
Great job!!

From my expiriance, you should never put the pregnant female in the breeding net, that will stress her and she will usually die and not give birth. I just let her give birth in the main tank and then catch the little babies afterwards. And if there are more than one male in a tank they might fight (possibly to the death) to see who is the dominant male.

good luck
 

Feb 23, 2008
2
0
0
South Carolina
#43
hey guys I am new to the forum and have seen some great information so far. so thank you for that first of all. I have had guppies and platies(swordtails) for a while. They are at the point now they are self sustaining, in that I only bought 2 females and 1 male and now the tank is full of fish(both guppies and platies). I love fish and I dont keep them for profit but with so many fry surviving and growing up to have their own babies do you all know any where in South Carolina I can maybe donate or perferably sell my fish? Or should I just go to the local pet store and ask them?
 

brian1973

Superstar Fish
Jan 20, 2008
2,001
3
38
Corpus Christi, Texas
#45
welcome to the tank, I cant help you but your best bet would be run an ad in your local classifieds or find a lfs, but IMO these fish are so common and multiply so easy that getting rid of them is difficult even when giving them away.
 

brentd123

Small Fish
Oct 27, 2008
35
0
0
paisley, Ontario, Canada
#46
Once the gravid spot is seen how long do you have before she gives birth. I ask this because my Platy was very pregnant, and when I came back from school one day she was not at all. I was holding back on the whole breeding trap because she was not very happy in it. I would just like to know how long i have.
 

Mar 3, 2009
4
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0
#48
I have a girl mickey platy, a girl painted platy and a boy sunburst platy. The sunburst platy is always chasing the mickey mouse platy until to the point that my MM platy has a rotten fin and keeps on hiding in the cave. What should I do ?
 

FroggyFox

Forum Manager
Moderator
May 16, 2003
8,589
10
38
42
Colorado
#49
This is pretty normal for livebearers unfortunately. Your options would be to bring the male back to the store and see if they'll exchange for a female, or if your tank is large enough you could add some additional females...with the understanding that the tank will fill up with fry pretty quickly so you should plan accordingly.
 

Mar 3, 2009
4
0
0
#50
My painted platy is chasing the sunburst while chasing the MM platy all together especially feeding time. The fin of my MM platy looks okay now after 2 days of hiding and medication on the water. I don't think I can return the sunburst back to the store.
 

Nov 16, 2008
6
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0
#51
My mickey mouse platy just gave birth and i do not know what to do i put them in the net because i thought she is sick then the next day she has babies. i remove her from the net because she might eat the babies. one baby is in the tank and the male platy keep chasing it
 

Mar 3, 2009
4
0
0
#52
I keep changin 10 percent of my water tank evey week likewise scraping the algae but after 3 days they come back again even more. I use an algae remover so what should I do now?
 

Mar 13, 2009
314
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Poconos, PA
#53
Female 'X' has been impregnated by male 'Y' a month or two ago and has NOT yet had fry.
BUT, female 'X' has---within the past week---just been mated with by male 'Z.'

Does the former male's (Y) contribution override the more recent male's (Z) contribution because it happened first, or does the more recent male's (Z) override the former male's (Y) contribution because it happened more recently?

I can try to re-phrase this if you find it difficult to make sense out of it.

Big Vine

P.S. This is with regards to platies, specifically, but I'm sure it would apply equally to all other livebearers.

I know this is an old post but....did you ever find out the answer?

I understood the question and I wonder about the answer too.

Hmmm...makes you think.


Regarding another post:....a muppy??? haha I didn't know that mollys and guppys could interbreed. Time to google.*BOUNCINGS
 

tlkng1

Small Fish
Jul 17, 2009
46
0
0
Glen Burnie, MD
#55
Algae Issues

Eaglefish...

I had an algae outbreak about a year or so ago. I was scraping sheets of the stuff on a weekly basis. What I found was that I had a little too much lighting and just a little too much light coming in from a side window. The particular window is actually a door that goes out top a screened porch so Ididn't htink that little bit of light would be a problem.

I put aluminum foil on the end of the tank, sort of like a backdround on the end, that was facing the window and lowered my wattage a hair, using just enough to sustain the few live plants in the tank.

So far so good. The algae still grows but it isn't nearly as thick. My fish are pretty good at keeping the algae controlled.

You can also use a medium called AlGone. It is an algae controller and is safe to use with saltwater or freshwater and is also safe for live plants. It won't eliminate the algae per se but it seems to lessen the growth.

Terese
 

Aug 16, 2009
1,318
0
0
SW Pennsylvania
#56
I am getting conflicting reports on the proper ph level for angelfish on one site it says between 5.8 - 6.2 and on another it says between 6.2 -6.8 who can I call or email to get a definate answer on this I have mollies in my tank now and want to add angels but want to make sure my tank is properly set for them first thank you please let me know any info you may have or suggestions you can email me at
jparis757@yahoo.com thanks again
I believe mollies need a ph of around 7 ish, but they should be fine with mollies. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Our lfs keeps mollies and angels together. Just make sure to get a small school of angels instead of just one because they tend to be aggressive by themselves.
 

Apr 3, 2010
13
0
0
#59
Hi! Thanks for the info!

I have a question though....I bought 3 mollies 2 days ago, 2 black male and female, and 1 white. Yesterday the white molly gave birth, I went and bought a breeding net (that looks huge in my tank, which I'm not sure the actual size of it though...it looks like a 10 gal...but may be a 5+? Idk, my mom got it a long time ago when I was just a little girl (im 20 now) so idk how big it actually is. And I would show a picture of it to see if any of you can figure it out but I'm afraid that you will all kill me for it's set up as I'm VERY VERY VERY *stesses VERY* new to this, but I love fish! And we've had a prego mollie before but i dont remember it that much.) anyways I'm planning on buying a bigger tank if it's not too much money (my mom will tell me that I'm crazy and stupid to get too big of one) So anyways, the black molly gave birth last night too but I only have 4 in the breeding net and I think theres still 2 left in the tank outside the net hiding under the filter platform thing. So all together I have like 14-15 fry....What do I do with them when they get big? I don't think I want 15 mollies but I couldnt let those cuties be gobbled up by the parents.

Oh and the male molly keeps attacking (well looks like it) the female black molly. Once I get the bigger tank, I am planning on separating the male with the females.

And, PLEASE DONT HATE ME! if I said anything that would be asking for hating on, im still very very new!

Thanks!!
 

Krista

New Fish
Jul 2, 2010
2
0
0
#60
I have a lot of Platy-sisters (Red-wag with very big bellies, which isn't of being pregnant, because the brother has it as well), and wanted a male for them.
This male isn't interested in them at all! He only tries to impress my guppy-females.
Is that normal? This platy-male is a sunset platy.

This night my swordbearer-female gave a long expected birth, but all fry is eaten! OH NO!