BREEDING YOUR FISH
Live Bearers Egg laying
All fish have different breeding
techniques. Live bearers are fairly easy to
breed. You need to have two females for
every male and the water temperatures
should be in the low to mid-70's. Breeding
egg laying fish is usually more difficult.
They will chase all the other fish that go
anywhere near the nesting sight. Some fish
let the eggs fall to the bottom of the
tank, into the plants and gravel. Other
fish like Kuhli Loaches and Bettas make
bubble nests on the top of the water. The
nest looks like a bunch of bubbles stacked
onto each other. The fish lays the eggs in
the bubbles.
During mating, the male betta will kill the
female because he squeezes the eggs out of
her. Then squeezes her to death. If the
female is not ready to mate then she will
possibly kill the male. The temperature
should be in the low to mid-70's for most
egg laying fish.
Using a breeding net for live bearers and
egg layers is a good idea. When the eggs
are laid or the babies are born, it keeps
them safe from other fish or things that
may eat them. Most fish won't breed if
you have lots of other fish in the tank.
The other fish keep getting in the way.
Sometimes instinct tells the fish that
their babies will be eaten. When the eggs
are laid or the babies are born it is
important to remove all the fish that are
capable of eating the babies or eggs.
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LIVE BEARERS
Live-bearing fish don't lay eggs. They hold
their babies in their womb until they
develop everything they need. The most
common live-bearers are the Swordtails,
Mollies, Guppies, and the Platies. There
are many different types of each of those
fish.
Take mollies for example, there are Black
Mollies, Lyretail Mollies, Silver Mollies,
Balloon Mollies, Sailfin Mollies, Marble
Mollies, Gold Mollies, and many more. The
same with Guppies, Platies, and Swordtails.
We have had the most success raising
Swordtails and Platies. They are very
strong, hardy fish. Mollies, and Guppies,
are a little more delicate. They need a
little more attention than the others.
There are other live-bearers too. One of
our favorites is the Half-beak. They are
spear-like looking fish that mostly swim
around in plants floating at the top of the
water. Half-beaks are silver fish with some
bright orange on their back fins. The
Pike-Live-Bearer is one of the more larger,
more aggressive live-bearing fish. They are
not highly recommended if you want a
successful community fish tank. The
Heterandria Formosa is the smallest
live-bearer native to the United States.
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EGG LAYING FISH
Egg laying fish lay their eggs in the safest
place they can find. Then the male fish
fertilizes the egg. It is be good to take
out any fish that might eat the eggs and
place them in another container or
aquarium. Most fish lay eggs. Only the
live bearers we mentioned and some others
don't lay eggs.
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