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No babies, please...

3K views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  carmari1973 
#1 ·
I want to start an aquarium, and am in the researching stage right now. My question is, can I avoid my fish having fry? I understand the need not to crowd an aquarium (I'll probably start with a 20 gallon), and I don't want to wake up and discover hundreds of little ones someday! I know there are some fish that are more prolific, such as mollies & platys, and I plan to avoid them. Is it just one of those things, that they are likely to reproduce? Could I get only males, or would there then be territorial issues? Thanks for your advice.

Carol
 
#2 ·
I want to start an aquarium, and am in the researching stage right now. My question is, can I avoid my fish having fry? I understand the need not to crowd an aquarium (I'll probably start with a 20 gallon), and I don't want to wake up and discover hundreds of little ones someday! I know there are some fish that are more prolific, such as mollies & platys, and I plan to avoid them. Is it just one of those things, that they are likely to reproduce? Could I get only males, or would there then be territorial issues? Thanks for your advice.

Carol

You can get only males, hopefully someone can give you a good group size, as long as their isnt one female in there with mollys platy and guppys they should fight, the only reason they would fight usually is cause there is a whole group of males and by accident you had 1 female. Just learn how to tell the sexs apart so when you do buy them you can double check, cause ive have had times when i have requested certian sexes that the person working the fish section that day cant even tell the males from the females apart
 
#3 ·
livebearers such as guppies, mollies, platies and swordtails are the most likely to breed prolifically.

Most, but not all, egg layers (such as tetas, rasboras, corydoras, cichlids etc) are harder to breed and may require some specific effort with a higher quality diet and water conditions. Even if egg layers do lay, it is very likely that the eggs and fry will be eaten by the parents or other fish in the tank before they can mature, so overpopulation shouldn't be an issue.

My panda corydoras lay eggs every month or so but they all get eaten unless I specifically take them out of my main tank to somewhere safe.
 
#6 ·
Thanks for the advice. I had really wanted guppies, but I may be re-thinking that. ;-) I love the Glofish danios, but I may not be able to find them in the colors I'd prefer... seems the green ones are rare and the blue ones can only be ordered online (at least in my area). I'd love some small corys, some of the various tetras, and I definitely want either a ghost shrimp and/or a snail or two... not in any hurry just yet, though.
 
#8 ·
Thanks for the advice. I had really wanted guppies, but I may be re-thinking that. ;-) I love the Glofish danios, but I may not be able to find them in the colors I'd prefer... seems the green ones are rare and the blue ones can only be ordered online (at least in my area). I'd love some small corys, some of the various tetras, and I definitely want either a ghost shrimp and/or a snail or two... not in any hurry just yet, though.

Guppies are fine as long as you have either all females, or all males. I have a tank full of male Guppies now and everyone gets along fine. Actually, I have all male Guppies and one Dwarf Flamepoint Gourami. It is a very colorful tank.
 
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#7 ·
For what it is worth. I used to see all the colors everywhere in stores, and lately I haven't seen many of the Glofish at all regardless of color. I wonder if there is a supply issue. Best of all they are egg layers.

It is likely that the small fish you mention would go after shrimp but make sure in the profiles that you get fish that don't harass shrimp.

I have some mystery snails. Fun to watch, as slow as they are wonder around. They remind me of cats I always see them napping.
 
#9 ·
For what it is worth. I used to see all the colors everywhere in stores, and lately I haven't seen many of the Glofish at all regardless of color. I wonder if there is a supply issue. Best of all they are egg layers.

It is likely that the small fish you mention would go after shrimp but make sure in the profiles that you get fish that don't harass shrimp.

I have some mystery snails. Fun to watch, as slow as they are wonder around. They remind me of cats I always see them napping.

I still see the glowfish alot at my pet stores, maybe it just depends where your at?
 
#10 ·
dont take this as advice just putting it out there, i have a tank (listed below) full of live bearers for over a year, just picked out ones i liked with no regard to male vs female.

i see fry and i know 2-3 fish are always pregnant at any given time, but they never make it very long before they are eaten by the mollies or something else.

just saying livebearers worked for me and didnt over run my tank
 
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