|
|
What is a live-bearer?
This is an interesting question and one that any new aquarist would ask. A live-bearer is a fish who actually gives birth to live fry or babies.
Fish such as Guppies, Mollies, Platies, and Swordtail are among the types of fish that are known as live bearing fish. These fish can be some of the most beautiful fish that a beginning aquarist can keep. They are very hardy, meaning they have a high tolerance for imperfection in water parameters, and they are full of color! If you want the most exceptional color that will last throughout the generations of these fish, I recommend you purchase them from a breeder. There are show quality available but they are more expensive to purchase. As for a beginner though, you will do fine if you go to the local pet store and purchase your first fish from them.
Other types of fish such as cichlids, barbs, and labyrinth fish are all egg laying fish or some species of cichlids are known as mouth-brooder, meaning they hold their eggs in their mouths until they are hatched and become known as free-swimming.
If you are interested in keeping a live bearing fish, then I hope that you will learn something from this article. I want to begin here by saying that no matter what type of live bearer you have or are interested in keeping you will always want to keep in mind that, the general rule of thumb for these fish is to keep at least one male to two or three females. The reason being is the males of this group are programmed naturally for one purpose and that is to reproduce. This job they do very well! If you have only one female to one male ratio, the female of the pair will surely be driven to death by the male. Now if you have more than one female at a time then it will spread out the interest from just the one to more than one female thus giving each female a resting period from the male.
Now once you have a two female to one male ratio then you will be in for a treat once you see that your female(s) are pregnant. You will be able to tell this by her enlarging abdomen and a blackish brown tint to her stomach area. This is actually the brood and after almost thirty days she will begin to give birth. The signs that this is about to happen will vary depending on the fish, but from my experience the female will hoover along the bottom of the tank, often near a decorative plant or other cave like structure, and become very still. Once it is almost time for the first fry to emerge she will become agitated and then very still again. If you watch closely you will see her actually giving birth. The fry will swim free and the process will start over again.
Now here we have an interesting dilemma. Once the fry are born, the female will not hurt them until after all the fry are born however the rest of the fish in the tank will feast on them. It is advisable to separate the female, ideally in another tank of at least ten gallons, cycled, filter and heater in place. The temperature needs to be about 78F depending on the fish and have a net handy. Once all the fry are born you will need to remove the mother as soon as possible. This whole process can take up to two hours but most of my females have given birth to a batch of fry in about thirty minutes.
You will also want to place some sort of netting material over the filter inlet such as nylon hose or even small pored sponge material will work.
Now for feeding the brood, you don’t have to buy any fancy food although some pet stores have fry food available. Finely crushed fish flakes will do nicely. You will want to feed them a very small amount about three times a day. Be sure to do the maintenance on this tank just as you would any of the other tanks. Be very careful when taking out the water because these fish when born are usually kind of a transparency to them and it will be easy to suck them in the hose or scoop them out. It is safe to return them to the main tank when they are approximately 3/4"-1" in size. As long as they are big enough the adults won’t eat them.
Some people have tried to get by using one of the netted fry tanks that hang on the side of the main tank. I do not recommend these as the fry can become trapped in between the netting material and the frames and die. Also I have had bigger fish from the main tank bite holes in the netting to get to the smaller fry. They are just bad news all around. I prefer to use a grow out tank for the fry until they are large enough to add back to the main tank.
Now you may be wandering when the female will be ready to have more fry. Well guess what! She is already pregnant. When a female live bearer becomes impregnated she retains enough sperm to fertilize six batches of eggs! So, in thirty days or so she will be giving birth to another batch of fry. This can be a bad thing if you have your heart set on the male reproducing anytime soon. If you are wanting to have him as the only male and breeder in the tank, then the best thing to do is to put him in a separate tank until the females have given birth to all the fry and then adding him back in. You should always be sure to add him after you have waited at least thirty days from the sixth batch of fry.
