not too many babies...

[Collin1104]

is there any fish out there that will breed and not have a million fry? i really like breeding fish but every time i have, i have no room for the fry so i hand them over to my LFS and then they are gone next time i go, i dont ask questions lol probably used as live food.

is there any fish that has about 5 fry at a time or am i asking a noob question? thanks in advance :22:

[Wild Turkey]

The only types of fish you need to worry about breeding in one aquarium really are livebearers and fish who care for the fry. Avoid those two types and you wont have multiplication "problems". I dont know of any fish that have such a small amount of fry every time though.

[Mvjnz]

I find that my nigerian killies are not very productive. They can lay up to 30 eggs a day, but mine usually lay no more than 3-5, and if you leave the eggs the parents will eat the babies anyway. So all you have to do is collect the amount of eggs you want and raise those.

[NickFish]

Neolamprologus similis

Personable, active, relatively easy to care for. Usually under a dozen babies, with 5-10 being more common.
They are tanganyikan shellies and do need a species only tank.

They are fairly expensive and in demand, so I really doubt they will be used as food. You can probably get a few bucks each for them if you know how to negotiate.

[toddnbecka]

Similis are hard to find, but N. multifasciatus are nearly identical in every respect (though a bit more social, not a bad thing generally) and much easier to find. Another slow-reproduing species is N. buescheri, my breeding pair only produced 2-3 fry each spawn. Both species are excellent parents, and shared a 55 with Synodontis catfish w/out any problems until I forgot to put a heater back into the tank for the winter. After not being able to visit the basement for a month (broken hip on Christmas eve) I finally made my way around the house and into the side door. When I noticed there weren't any fish visible (except the catfish, they didn't seem affected by the colder water) I checked the thermometer and found the water temp was 60. One recently dead fish and a handful of skeletal remains were all I found remaining from what had been several dozen fish. There were 2 small buescheri and a single juvie multi remaining alive.

[NickFish]

Similis are hard to find, but N. multifasciatus are nearly identical in every respect (though a bit more social, not a bad thing generally) and much easier to find.

Only problem with multies, besides being a half inch smaller than similis, is that in a breeding tank you generally get that "Are there even fish in that tank??" response from anyone that comes over. Multies need so many shells to breed, and because they are so many shells they seem to feel they never need to come out of hiding. You can have a dozen multies and not see one except for feeding time, and they certainly are not as social as similis.

Although it is true that multies will usually have even less babies than similis, often less than a half dozen. Still, if you want to see any social behaviour I would go with similis if you can find it.