Live bearers in community tank?

[Masha]

I'm wondering about the consequences of putting live-bearing fish in a community tank, if you are not interested in breeding the fish.

How do people feel about just allowing the other fish to eat the fry - is this cruel?

Is it better to rather just have males or females by themselves to avoid breeding?

 

[RadMax8]

Personally, I don't consider this to be cruel. It's the circle of life, so long as you aren't torturing the fry before they get eaten. A lot of fish naturally eat others in the wild, and even a lot of aquarists feed live food to larger fish.

I'm sure there are other viewpoints on this, but this is just my opinion and thought on the matter.


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[Mebbid]

Guppies are the bottom of the food chain in all honesty. They really are there in the wild to get eaten. It's hard to object to natural processes happening in your tank.

 

[Luananeko]

The way I see it... Any fry that get eaten or die are just natures way of picking out the stronger genetic specimens. Plus it's a bit of extra nutrition for my other fish. If I see some particularly pretty babies then I'll fish them out and raise them separately (brighter colors tends to make them easier targets), but for the average babies I let survival of the fittest handle the natural culling that all breeders have to do to keep their genetics strong.

That said, I quickly gave up on dealing with the fry when my guppies were breeding in my community tank. After having about 5 batches that had barely any dent taken out by my other lazy fish, I caught all but the prettiest males and sold them to my LFS. From then on I've only been keeping males so I don't have to deal with babies

 

[Glene20]

Sure just get all females or all males. Avoid any deaths to fry

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[Luananeko]

Female livebearers can carry sperm from previous matings for several months. Going with all females doesn't guarantee you'll be safe from having babies. The males are usually the prettier ones as well

 

[absolutangel04]

I don't have an issue with letting the fry get eaten. That said, if I ever see fry, I will try and net them out to raise them. But, I rarely ever see any. In a bigger tank, with lots of bigger fish, I don't ever see fry from my platies or mollies. Every once in awhile I will net out a female who is ready to drop fry though and put her in a smaller tank with smaller tank mates so that I can get a few new fish.

 

[Masha]

Female livebearers can carry sperm from previous matings for several months. Going with all females doesn't guarantee you'll be safe from having babies. The males are usually the prettier ones as well

...that's a good point!

Thanks for the answers, everyone.