Re: Livebearer Setups

Posted by Oldman on 2009/4/27 19:25:46

For the large goodeids, I use a colony breeding / flock breeding approach. I set up a decent 40 gallon plus tank with plantings and a sponge filter then get out of the way and wait for results. The easier goodeids that I have been breeding have worked well this way. Some of the common poeciliids work well in that kind of setup too. I usually just run a single species for the general tank occupants but have added in cories for the more peaceful livebearers to help with the excess food I tend to use when there are fry.
For mollies, I find the mollies are quite gentle with fry but the other fish in a community think they are sushi. Because all that I have are pet store mollies, I keep them in a community setup and only move the female to a drop tank of 10 gallons when I want to collect some fry. I don't worry too much about her grazing on fry and last time left her in the drop tank for two successive drops.
For maintenance, I am following some advice I had elsewhere and remove the mature adults to pass on while keeping the juveniles and fry to maintain my colony. When I remove most of the large fish, I usually experience a sudden explosion in colony numbers that settles down a few months later. It keeps my colony young and vigorous and gives other people a chance to have my breeders fill their tanks too.