# Will livebearers overrun a planted tank?



## UnderwaterEden (Oct 27, 2009)

I am trying to decide what kind of fish to go with once my tank gets cycled. I thought that livebearers might be good, since my water has a high ph. However, will livebearers, such as platies, overpopulate a tank because the fry are better able to survive by hiding in the plants? My tank is only 10 gallons, and I would not know what to do if I got too many fry in the tank.


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## TAB (Feb 7, 2009)

In a 10 gallon, you should not have a prob with over population.


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## mudboots (Jun 24, 2009)

I put livebearers in a 125 gallon dense-planted tank, hoping they'd reproduce, and out of the many, many batches of platties and mollies only 2 individuals survived to adolescent-hood.


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## FrostyNYC (Dec 16, 2007)

Depends on the livebearer. Some actively hunt and eat their young, and some don't.

Endlers livebearers don't eat their young, so the 10 I started with turned into over 80 in my tank. And 80 adult endlers in a 10 gallon is a lot of fish.


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## tranr (May 20, 2009)

My platies are constantly overpopulating their 30 gal heavily planted aquarium. I have to periodically take them to the LFS to thin out the massive numbers of fish. I have also kept endlers before (started with 1 male and 5 females from my bio professor in college), and they rapidly reproduced until they heavily populated their 10 gal tank as well.

mudboots - I think you may have had trouble having fry survive because of the mollies. My understanding is that they will readily eat fry much more than other livebearing fish (like platies, guppies, or endlers). I think it also depends on what filtration you have -- some people recommend putting a mesh netting over the intake so that the fry do not get sucked up.

Anyway, livebearers are a nice and easy group of fish to have. If your tank gets overpopulated, take them to your LFS. Most places will accept them.


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## UnderwaterEden (Oct 27, 2009)

Thank you all so much for your input. I guess I will have to ask my fish store if they would take babies. Or maybe I should look into mollies.


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## AEWHistory (Jul 6, 2008)

In my tanks--allplanted--my Guppies reproduce like....errr.... Guppies! I've now got enough for three tanks, a 29, a 70, and a 125. I'll be culling quite a bit soon..... does that help?


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## LVKSPlantlady (Oct 4, 2009)

I wish my guppies would breed faster... my Red Eared Sliders love them!


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## AEWHistory (Jul 6, 2008)

Wanna trade?


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## fishyerik (Oct 8, 2008)

If well fed all the mentioned fish will reproduce like crazy and not be very cannibalistic on the fry. Only starved mollies eat most or all fry in a planted tank, a 10g is not optimal for keeping mollies. 

For many people endlers seems to be the most prolific of the mentioned species, thats because they're not very cannibalistic on the fry even when poorly fed, but kept in good conditions including generous feeding multiple times per day all the other mentioned species are more prolific. 

I recommend a more predatory species that won't have to be starved to lessen the number of fry that will grow up.


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## wi_blue (Apr 5, 2005)

I have had guppies and platys in the past with out population problems. Though my mother had some swords that went crazy with the baby making. Since the LFS wouldn't take them we put a african dwarf frog in the tank to controll the population.


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## UnderwaterEden (Oct 27, 2009)

I really appreciate all of the informative responses. Now I am thinking about trying White Clouds.


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## tranr (May 20, 2009)

UnderwaterEden said:


> I really appreciate all of the informative responses. Now I am thinking about trying White Clouds.


White clouds are nice - I have a small school of them in one of my tanks. They are easy to keep. I believe they are egg scatterers though, so you shouldn't have a problem with overpopulation if they start reproducing in your tank.


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## fishyerik (Oct 8, 2008)

Yes, white clouds are egg scatterers, well fed and kept as only species in a well planted tank they usually reproduce, but very rarely to the point where it becomes a problem. A fish of almost any other species would make reproduction very much less likely, as would the earlier mentioned frog species.


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

tranr said:


> White clouds are nice - I have a small school of them in one of my tanks. They are easy to keep. I believe they are egg scatterers though, so you shouldn't have a problem with overpopulation if they start reproducing in your tank.


They will eat their fry readily and will not at all over populate a tank. You'll be lucky to see a baby.

GL!


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## LVKSPlantlady (Oct 4, 2009)

AEWHistory said:


> Wanna trade?


You talkin to me? What do you wanna trade guppies for? NOT MY TURTTLES! I dont think I would have anything worth trading, well plants maybe... PM me we can talk business....


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