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Information On Platys2007-11-24 23:37:10

How Can I Breed Livebearers?

Most of the common livebearers (the Big Four; swordtails, mollies, guppies, and platies) are fairly easy to breed. Livebearing aquarium fish belong to several fish families. Most of the common livebearers: Guppies, swordtails, platies, mollies, endlers, etc belong to the family known as Poecilidae. Most poecilids constantly have eggs/fry developing. Under good conditions these fish will drop fry about every 30 days. Under other than favorable conditions these fish can suspend/delay development or even reabsorb the eggs. Since these fish store sperm (superfoetation) once they have mated they can deliver to as many as 7 or 8 drops (maybe more). There are some very beautiful wild forms of livebearers, but there are also a great many cultivated varieties that are very popular. Through selective breeding their colors and fin shapes have been changed to create some unusual effects.There is another family of livebearers, Goodeidae, that are less common, but sometimes kept in the hobby. These fish require refertilization for each brood. The gestation period is about twice as long as poecilids or 60 days. The females in this group of fish get huge before a drop (you have to see it to believe it) and the fry are born very large. Interestlingly enough these fish do provide nutrition to the developing fry, which is part of the reason they are dropped so large. They fry are delivered with something like an umbilical cord called a trophotaenia. For this reason this is very close to being pregnant but.. Since the trophotaenia only absorbs nutrients from contact rather than being actually attached to the bloodstream it is still not a pregnancy. We have had our best success using trios (two females and one male). Males only seem to think of two things.eating and breeding. When the set-up consists of a low female/high male ratio the females will have a hard time even trying to eat and seemingly will never get any rest.