Plan to Curb the Population Explosion

[theotheragentm]

So, like a lot of people I started the world of aquaria with livebearers. I was lucky enough to get all female Mollies and thus far, no male Mollies have survived to adulthood.

The Platies are a whole other issue. I have all breeding males out of my tanks thus far. Some of the fry are definitely female, but I am worried about some of the other fry. I'm not sure whether they are just late developing males as their anal fins are definitely triangular but much more pointed than some other fry which show very rounded triangles. These fry are about the length of the characters printed on a standard keyboard. So if you look at the 'T' key, the height of the 'T' is about how large the fry are at this point. Are these just females with more pointed triangular anal fins or am I looking at possible males? That's the immediate concern to hold the population down.

I am looking for a systematic plan to end up with only females. I'd rather not end the lives of any fish if I don't have to, but as it stands right now, all the fry will never be eaten, and I am afraid that a male will make it to breeding age and the problem will start all over again.

Any ideas?

 

[bs6749]

I have heard that female platies and some other livebearers can store enough sperm to last for 8 pregnancies. Good luck! lol.

 

[guppy12]

Livebearers are just evil- try guppies

 

[tropicfishman]

why are live bearers just evil???? LOL

 

[Zagz]

Female livebearer's can store sperm for quite some time so as long as you plan on keeping females you will have fry. You can separate the males and give them to the lfs. Or you can give the females to the lfs and be positive that you will have no fry.

 

[JTAM963]

See im on opposite end I want to try and mix different guppies..I think it'd be fun...I'd want to try cichlids..but only ones I can breed in a 25 is convicts

 

[jbarr]

Yea i've recently gotten some guppies. From petsmart . I got 7, three males and four females. A lot, right? Too much,
So in a way I was 'glad' when 2 of the males died. Not glad, that's terrible, but I'd rather it be males then females; The remaining female would just die of stress if it were the females who died.

I've got one male and four (3? I couldn't find one female tonight, she looked like she had mouth fungus )
I don't want to have to treat this tank! It's heavy planted!! Booo petsmart guppiiiies!!

 

[JTAM963]

Anyone have any success with breeding sunrise guppies and regular..

 

[theotheragentm]

Yeah, I know about storing sperm for six months. That's the current status I'm in with no breeding males at this point. Basically my plan is to continue to remove males into a separate tank and let them grow up enough to give them to a LFS. The question I have is those ones that are the size of the printed letter on a keyboard, are they sexually mature or do I have to keep watching them to make sure they're not male?

 

[SeanMurphy]

I've read this time and again, how people have massive population explosions from buying a couple livebearers. I've had between 6 and 10 livebearers in my tank for the last 3 years. There's tons of plants for fry to hide in, and conditions are, as far as I can tell, optimal. No ammonia or nitrites and nitrates are well under control, from weekly PWCs and massive plant growth. I've only ever had two fry survive to adulthood, though I can now see a grand total of 3 living fry in the tank, which have grown out of the bite sized stage, but still are no where near adult.

I find the population tends to control itself, but maybe I'm getting livebearers with low sex drives for some reason.

 

[itafx]

Yea i've recently gotten some guppies. From petsmart . I got 7, three males and four females. A lot, right? Too much,
So in a way I was 'glad' when 2 of the males died. Not glad, that's terrible, but I'd rather it be males then females; The remaining female would just die of stress if it were the females who died.

I got 2 female and one male guppy from PetSmart. They all died. Boo! But one of the females had fry first and I raised 20 up to adults and now all the females are pregnant. They're beautiful, healthy and wonderful algae and crumb eaters. Yea!

 

[theotheragentm]

I find the population tends to control itself, but maybe I'm getting livebearers with low sex drives for some reason.

Since I have removed the only mating male thus far, things seems to have slowed down, but I'm not taking any chances. Anything that looks like a male is out.

 

[itafx]

Ah, but in several species the males are the pretty ones and the females are rather drab.

 

[gu2high]

I bought two female guppies from Petsmart and they are in good health. Both are pregnant but I have only saved one female's 20 fry and rest of drops were eaten by others. You have to check the fish before you buy it as no all fish are in good health.

Recently bought two males from Petco and now I prepare to have more fry. But I will only keep the most beautiful ones.