Mert16

Hello all!

I've read that live bearers should be kept three females to one male, to keep them happy. I like live bearers for their color and their over activeness in the tank, but I don't want an over population problem. I do have one male pineapple swordtail in my tank alone with other fish and he seems to be happy and active. Anyway my question is can I have a variety of live bearers of one sex without a problem. Example: a male swordtail, a male or female sail fin molly, a marble black and white molly. can or will they breed with each other? or being that they might be all males will they fight? I really like them for their color. Please let me know something. thanks

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TFA101

it's best to keep one genus of live bearer per fish tank. Xiphophorus contains platies, swordtails, and variatus platies. poecilia contains guppies and mollies. Choose, your genus, and have a little fun. Your swordtail should be the only one in the tank, because if another is added, they'll tear each other apart. So, overall, the answer to your question is yes. You can also do this with females if you want.

You know how to tell male from female correct?

jdhef

Yeah it's easy, the males are the ones who won't let go of the TV remote

Alessa

ok, what i've heard is that they will interbreed, thats why i have only male livebearers in my tank.

about the agressiveness... i have noticed guppies arent agressive, just from time to time a little chasing to show whos the boss, but in overall they are very, very peaceful and play with each other happily the whole day.

Now, i have platies too, and they are a different story. Right now i am in the proccess of getting myself another platy because one of them is too agressive towards the other one and i need to distract him so that my other platy gets a rest!

i believe you will not have a problem, as long as you keep more than three of each kind.

Mert16

Thanks

I 've also heard that live bearers can interbreed, that's why I asked, but when alessa1235 says to keep three of each kind, will they only fight with each other? or with the other species of males too?

Alessa

i have never noticed that happening (at least in my particular case with 2 male platies and 4 male guppies). they basically ignore each other and have never had any problem with fights between the two groups. So yeah, basically they will onky "fight" with their same species.
when i said keep at least three i said so, so that there isnt one particular individual picking on the other one, but instead there is balance. And like mentioned before if you want to prevent interbreeding and or overpopulation you should definately keep males.

Shawnie

Fishies-for-me

I think that platies and swordtails are very closely related ( they will interbreed) and in my opinion the swordtail is more aggressive than the platy and will make the male platy's life miserable. That is only my experience and each fish is different so it may work for you....good luck.