Hi! Congrats on your new tank.

And I had Cichlids once a while back, and if I'm not mistaken they need pretty big tanks with lots of hiding spots as they are fairly aggressive/territorial... Like I think a 55 gallon is the minimum size. I may be wrong though, so you can wait and see what others post. Good luck!

 

Hhhmmmm... perhaps just as a start and then sell them back then... I might get guppies after all if that's the case! lol Thank you

 

I'm not familiar with this cichlid exactly but I'm sure it will need a much larger tank like angella suggested. Guppies though would be perfect for a 10g. You could get quite a few and many different color ones and the tank would be very interesting. If you wanted something that is easy to breed you could get some platies too with the guppies since they're livebearers as well.

 

If you want color and personality, you could get two bettas and divide the 10 gal. I have two tanks like that. I love watching my bettas swim around and flare at each other (and me sometimes lol).

 

Ok, so I did some more thinking! I was looking at all the fish in the store and picked out some little guys that looked pretty bright and stayed small. What do you all think of guppies, zebra danios, and platys? They all seem like peaceful community type fish.

I know guppies are pretty easy to breed, but what about the other two? It would be cool to get some little guys to bring back into the store.

Thanks!

 

Was just thinking again... can they interbreed? Would that be bad? I'm new to fish breeding if you couldn't tell. lol I'll even get a separate tank for babies if I have too. I'd go on a scooping frenzy.

 

you could put some shrimp in it..

 

I'm still rather new to fishkeeping but I'm pretty sure fish don't interbreed. Also, you don't want to put any other kinds of fish with cichlids. They are very agressive. If I remember correctly the require a lot of room. You can do some searching and see if different types of cichlids can be put together but only two or three I think, depending on their size.

My mom had some guppies in her 35 gallon tank and bred them. She went from 7 guppies to almost 100 in the span of only a few months. They are VERY prolific lol. She had to buy two more smaller tanks and has been trying to seperate the males from the females. If you want some real eye pleasers, I suggest some male fancy guppies, they tend to have longer/larger tails and are more brightly coloured. Also they are community fish and do well with lots of other fish (except for betas). I have a three gallon and have two male guppies and a rosie danio (beautiful fish) at the moment with a bristle nose pleco. I don't know if mollies can be with guppies but they also have some nice sharp colouring (black, white, dalmation and gold (gold seems to range from yellow to a rather metallic looking golden)

Sorry for running on like that lol. Just a couple suggestions. Hope they help!

~Midsie~

 

Thanks for suggestions I was reading somewhere that guppies can breed with some other fish... Molly? Maybe... Lol I can't remember but I can keep researching just in case.
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Guppies and Endlers can interbreed. I'm not sure about Mollys tho.

 

It might not have been. I was reading about a lot them... Mollies, platys, guppies, swordtails... Fried my brain! Lol

 

Just to save you some time, it is not a good idea to put different livebearers in the same tank bc occasionally they will interbreed and that is relatively not good for the fish. As an example platies, swordtails, and mollies can interbreed and some platies will be interbred and you may not know it. I would say if your focusing on a breeding tank and it's a ten gallon i would do platies, guppies, or endlers if your looking into livebearers, i would stick with just one of those species not combined. Also mollies and swordtails will grow to be to big for your tank most reach at least four inches if not more. Just a warning platies are not like tetras. You will not be able to keep a lot in your tank due to the amount of waste they produce. They for some reason always over eat and produce a lot more waste than most other fish of that size. And is the tank planted?

 

Ok! Thanks so much and no live plants for now. If I put some silk plants or plastic ones and some rock decorations would that be good for baby guppies to hide in? They could hide in the more densely decorated part of the tank. Lol

Could I get just one female platy? They have one that I just love the looks of. Also I mentioned zebra danios, are they ok if I just get maybe 2? They arent livebearers are they? Then a few guppies? I'd just like more than one kind of fish and I'm picky. Lol

If I had too, would it be ok, if the guppies breed, to just scoop out the babies I find right away? Put them in a little tank on their own? They'd be fine right?

Thanks for answering my questions! Sorry if they sound stupid! Lol
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I have ciclids now iin my 55fish gallon tank if iim not mistake the smaller ones like blue moon ciclids do not get very big liike 6 inches but I still wouldn't put them in anything smaller then a 30good gallon due to them love too swim and are very active
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Alright let me clear up some points of confusion. Livebearers will interbreed with specific types livebearers. Livebearers breed with fish with in their own genus, so this means guppies and mollies (genus: Poecilia) will interbreed and swordtails and platties (genus: Xiphophorus) will interbreed. Keep in mind it is VERY unlikely that they will interbreed when the same species of the opposite gender are in the tank, and that sounds like what you want to do.

I would suggest getting some guppies as they are a great fish to begin breeding and they aren't all that expensive so the inevitable mistakes won't hurt that much. I would also HIGHLY recommend getting live plants with the guppies. Since they are so active they take in and produce a lot of waste the live plants will take in that waste and produce O2 and lower the nitrates. Water Sprite is a great starter plant I have kept some for years. It's extremely easy to grow and a great beginner plant. It also provides tons of shelter for the fry. Hope this helps!

 

It does help! Thank you!!
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I know I'm a little late in putting in my two cents worth but I just saw your post and couldn't resist... You've probably already picked out your fish but I just wanted to let you know that personally we decided to go with the platies in our 10 gallon tank. I really love the platys. They are very active, have tons of fry (not to worry though because if you don't want to keep the fry - the adults will eat them), are hardy and easy to care for and come in a huge variety of different colors. It's best to keep two females to one male so you could get a two or three females and one male. They give birth to live young and it's fairly easy to tell the difference between the males and females and I wouldn't be great at explaining it so I'll just say to do a websearch on the difference between a male platy and a female platy because it's all in the shape of one of their back fins. Hope this helps!!!!