Increasing Livebearer Birth Rates

[rocaquarium]

Good afternoon all.

My Belonesox pair just gave birth to 45 babies. I am in need of lots of feeder fish. I figure the best way to get them is to set up a couple of livebearer tanks. I've breed lots of guppies and platys in the past. Other than good diet and water quality does anyone have suggestions on getting the most fish out of each brood?


Thanks for your help.

Dave

[troy]

Have the tank the tank well planted so the fry have a higher chance of survival.

[Dave66]

Guppies and half-grown livebearers are the main food sources for the pike livebearers, since live food like that is the only way to get live fry from them. You can train them to eat white fish flesh, earthworms, paenid shrimp, things like that, but for live fry, live fish are the only way I know of.

Dave

[NickFish]

The foods Dave mentioned are excellent alternatives, but for baby platies an guppies.....

You are going want to put them all in one big tank, but when the female is about to give birth, or maybe a week before, put in a tank divider or a breeding trap. Make sure there is plenty of java moss and other hiding places.

To increase the sperm and egg count feed plenty of protein.

Live/frozen brine shrimp, live/frozen daphnia, and frozen bloodworms and a high quality pellet are excellent for producing plenty of livebearer fry. And of course, high water quality is a must.

Also, make sure you have about 2 females for every male, and crank the temperature in your tank to around 80-82F. This speeds up the reproductive cycle and growth of the babies.

If you put a male and female together, they will have babies. How much and how often depends on what you do.