lish839

Hi again,

So, I am not ready to add fish yet, but I was starting to think about what kind of fish I would like to have, and was reading some profiles on this website. I don't want to have an aggressive fish and noticed that many of the "peaceful" ones want to be with 6 or more of their type. hm. but won't they... you know... and maybe then they have some little ones?

i'm all for nature, but my tank won't be set up for it. I want my fish to be happy, but I do not want to get into bredding. Should I have only female, or male fish? How can I tell? what are the chances of my fish makin whoopie? do different species ever bred with each other?

sirdarksol

With the exception of livebearers (mollies, platies, and guppies), most schooling fish won't breed in your aquarium. There are usually different requirements needed to trigger mating. Often things like specific changes in food and temperature are necessary.

Barbrella

Even fish, other than livebearers, who do breed in your aquarium shouldn't be a problem. Most others lay eggs, and the fish in the tank usually do a pretty good job of making sure they never hatch. If a few do manage to, the babies don't last long.

I've been keeping all sorts of fish for many years and have never ever had baby tetras etc. The only baby I ever had was ONE cherry barb.

pepetj

Hi lish839.
I'm a newby too, I have 8 zebra danios schooling for two months now and they might have spawn but the odds of the fry surviving are minimal as barbrella says (special food, water parameters). As for livebearers I read that mollies would eat the fry (and seem to require some salt to mate); to my knowledge, school fish require some work from our part to breed like sirdarksol posted.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

angelfish220

tetras are really hard to breed in home aquaria if your not trying. The only schooling fish I can think of that will breed are danio and barbs, and they'll eat their young really fast. I wouldnt worry about it.

COBettaCouple

Welcome to Fishlore.

If you go with livebearers, you could get all males and avoid fry. Or you can get tetras or barbs and have a low chance of ever seeing any fry that you don't want.

goggles

as cobettecouple said, if you do go with livebearers then get all males. the reason for this is that i wanted to stop breeding and i got two female swordtails, then one changed sex and then i had a breeding pair. but they will not change from male to female.