midnightwolf

hello everyone! i just got my fresh water tank set up yesterday and i have a few questions about my tank.

when i got the supplies for my tank i decided to go with live plants and so far seem ok but i was wondering if they could go in an uncycled tank or not?

i also have decided on getting fancy guppies, dalmation mollies, platys, and otocinclus algae eater fish and i wanted to know if the live bearers would cross breed because that would be a problem. anyway thanks for all your help, i wont regret finding this site.

if you have any comments or suggestions for me im open. thanks a bunch!

TFA101

live plants can go in an uncycled tank just be sure to have a fertilizer that won't interupt the cycle

platys and mollies might crossbreed and create impure strains of fish, and its normally recommended to keep one genus of livebearer per tank for this reason. Guppies and mollies are from the same genus Poecilia, whereas platys are from the genus Xiphophorus

With all the molly variations there are, i would go with another molly type instead of the platys. I personally like the cremesicle mollies.

midnightwolf

will the mollies and guppies breed?

Minnow

The way I would eliminate any crossbreeding issues is to get all male or all female livebearers. Personally, I would go with all male, since male guppies are prettier and if you went with all female, you could be buying pregnant fish. Not sure if that's what you want. If you go with a one-gender group, you can have mollies, platys, and guppies without any breeding whatsoever.

midnightwolf

but would the males fight?

Nick G

I bought 3 female platys from the LFS and 1 of them gave birth 3 days later, and another of them is definatly pregnant too. I'm wanting to breed them so it's a bonus but I still had to go out and buy another tank for the fry. So if you don't want fry then I'd definatly say buy only 1 sex. I'd agree with Minnow and get all males.

Minnow

Hmm, not sure on that. I think if you have enough of them (three or more) any agression will be spread out between them.

midnightwolf

i would like to have some fry but not all over the place

Nick G

If you want fry you'll need at least 2 females for every male you put in. Otherwise the male will literally chase the female to death wanting sex! And then you can either use a breeding trap/tank for the fry, or just use the 'Natural Selection' method. You probably won't get too many fry survive that way.

midnightwolf

ok i think ill get male and female fish but seperate the fry and give them to a petstore

Nick G

It might be a good idea to check whether the pet store will take them first,as you don't always get high quality fish that the petstore will want. I'm going to use 'low quality' fish as feeders for my Oscars.

midnightwolf

oh ok

Minnow

Since you will have a mix of livebearers in your tank, you won't know what exactly any of the fry are or if they are hybrids or not. So you may have trouble selling them or taking them back to the store.

If you're set on fry, maybe you could find a friend who has some, or check on craigslist. I'm always seeing ads for free livebearer fry, anyone with mixed genders usually ends up with a surplus and you shouldn't have any trouble finding some free fry. That way, you get however many fry you can take care of, and no more, and no less.

Not to discourage you from getting mixed genders; if you have the time and room to care for all the fry or the means to dispose of them (whether it be your LFS, a friend with spare tanks, or a hungry Oscar), I say go for it.

catbtony

When you get fry you will end up with MTS..like most of us here
Male guppies will try to breed with anything...and with most crosses/hybreds the off spring can not reproduce and most LFS will not take them unless pure..but fry make great natural food for your fish if you just let things happen in your tank....have fun....