Lucy

I'm considering stock for my 30g, I've never had fish who mate so I'm curious.

1. What kind of fish do you have?
2. What do you do with the babies?

platy ben

i recently gave away my breeding pair of convicts, but when they fry were big enough i would help supply my LFS and they would give me free food and other items for doing so.

A 30G is a good size to breed most reasonably sized fish so maybe you could try angels or something?

Fish Addict

I have probably had at least 3-5 batches of fry from my platies. They I think are the only ones that I've had spawn, and I have enough other fish so that about 1-3 fry survive with barely looking. I then just net 'em and keep them until they are big enough to go back...

Alessa

I have platies, guppies and ottos. The only babies I expect are the ones from the female dwarf platy that already came pregnant...

and in regards of the babies... I have no idea what i am going to do. There are not a lot of LFS here since it is the petsmart/petco empire.

but yes, the LFS will most of the time take fry in exchange for store credit

Shawnie

I Have convict babies that just do as they please...like typical babies LOL

ive given alot away and about to ship some more out when I have a chance!!

even tho my angels and oscars have spawned, they were snacks to mom n dad the first time around...

what are you thinking of getting lucy?

COBettaCouple

We've had a variety of fish breed. We sell the young at the fish auctions the Aquarium Society has.

Lucy

I'm totally enamored with German blue rams, but my water isn't right for them. I want something colorful, so I might go with guppies.
I really need to get up to Nashville, there's supposed to be a pretty good store there and do some window shopping, take some notes and come back and look at their profiles and such.


The reason I asked the question, is I see so many people who have live bearers and they have so many babies, I wanted to know what happens to them.

Alessa

you can always have only male livebearers. I have only male guppies in my tank and there are fights from time to time to see whos the alpha male, but thats about it. (except for Hellboy, my smallest, less colorful guppy who is always looking for a fight, even though everyone ignores him :P )

cognizant

I was considering putting a male peacock cichlid with maybe 2 females in my 29g tank (dont want to push my luck with too many since it's only 29g) but i'm at a loss as to what to do it they ever do breed and i can't find a pet store to take them.

clinton1621

I know I will get flamed for this but.... I used to have a 29g guppy tank that produced fry constantly, I also had a 55g SW reef tank and a 55g oscar tank.... I always fed the extra fry / injured babies that I didnt have room for to my SW fish or to my oscar, some were also given away to friends who wanted them either as feeders or as pets.

Lucy

lol clinton, not from me you won't. I knew it would be one of the answers.

clinton1621

Well with guppys its pretty much either do something like that or end up with 100 different tanks lol.... I also did some selective breeding, the best looking young fish got to stay and replace the older fish as they aged. I read your other post about having water that was too hard for blue rams.... have you ever tried mixing (diluting) your regular water with distilled or RO?? You should be able to find a mix that will get you to the proper hardness and pH (I use a 50/50 mix myself for a ph of around 6.7 to 7 , down from a little over 8 straight out of the tap!) doing it this way will also be the most natural and will keep the ph stable with regular maintenance, unlike ph lowering products that go down and then back up again.

Shawnie

that is the best way possible to feed most fish...feeding feeders from a pet store is horrible ...HITH is rampid and 90% of the time when someone has it, ill be my last they have fed them feeders from a pets store...id love to have an extra tank to feed and raise my own feeders for my oscars..they love the chase and the taste but I refuse to buy them and I dont have the nerve to feed them my convicts...I think im very shallow having no problems feeding them feeders but I do convicts...im a weird one thats for sure LOL

Lucy

I know I couldn't do it, I'm a softy. If I got guppies, I'd probably get 1 sex.

voiceless_kat

And be sure the sex is male, cuz for sure the girls will be prego.

I know I couldn't either, but sometimes I wish I could. My first batch of fancy gup babies was such a neat experience. I sold all the fancies by putting a poster at a small grocery store. They were gone in a week.

Through my own recklessness I again have fry and a little lady who is about to burst with more. I am raising them and will sell them too, then I am giving away my ladies, I think.

Now I have these plecs that may be presenting me with fry, I told hubby that might be the only thing that could make me feed my little gups.....nahh, just saying it upsets me! ( this is how MTS gets you yet again)

My petstore will take f ancy gups and feed them to her turtles, unless they are beautiful - then she will sell them. So I wouldn't give them to her.

For sure I would raise the plecs and sell them. In a small town fish are easy to sell, ( there is no fish store except Walmart unless you go over the border to Minnesota )- suddenly all these fish keepers come out of the weeds. I must say, it was a really neat experience every step of the way.

Good luck Lucy with whatever fish you decide on. Personally I need to harden my heart and make decisions with my brain instead!

Val

Laelanna

Right now my fancy guppies are in the main tank with angels and the bgkf. I was trying to pull them out and put them in a breeding net, but they'd be in there 4 days looking about ready to pop so I'd figure they weren't ready and put them back in the main tank and sure enough they'd pop out the babies after that. We've only seen a couple of the babies, but because we don't really have a place to put them (my hubby didn't like the breeding net in his tank because algae started growing on it) they have become angel food dinner. I have considered trying to breed some of the more expensive guppies that are out there, but right now I just don't have the time or the equipment to do it.

Lucy

I never thought to post them at the grocery store, that's a neat idea.
I could see me screening people, my ad would say, "How big is your tank? is it cycled? what are your readings? Home visit, required" lol

voiceless_kat

Ya, when I accepted phone calls, I actually did ask those questions. Then when they came to pick them up and saw my bettas, we'd get into discussions about them. So, the "interview" started again. I was lucky, all had cycled tanks.......... and most had guppies already. I sold them $2 ea or 3 for $5......more a formality than anything. The good thing it did was let my husband know there are many crazy fish people besides hi wife!

Val

Lucy

ninilie

I take my extra guppies to a LFS and get store credit. I have seen people in my local craigslist sell or offer free guppies.

Butterfly

My Cutteri fry went to the LFS(and their waiting for the angels to get big enough). They take very good care of their tanks so I'm not worried. This is how I afford to feed my fish what and when I want to.
I also trade with fishie friends and have sold at aquarium club auctions.
If I have fish that are deformed or not suitable for breeding then I have used them for live food. Home raised live food is always better than buying from the LFS.
Carol