Live Bearers
Here we present the livebearing fishes that are so common in the freshwater aquarium hobby.
Live bearers. Livebearers that look overly bloated this could also be a sign of illness. On the other end of the spectrum is one of the most unusual and ancient fish species in existence today. Livebearers get their name because they give birth to live babies instead of laying eggs like most fish.
By feeding fish foods with poor energy optimization and low fiber content this only shortens lifespans even further and allows for lower disease resistance. This group of freshwater fish includes perennial aquarium favorites such as mollies guppies and platies. Livebearer fish guppy molly platy swordtail.
Livebearers are aquarium fish that retain the eggs inside the body and give birth to live free swimming young. Livebearers are among the hardiest and most colorful freshwater fish in the aquarium hobby. Their peaceful nature and constant activity make them popular with fish keepers young and old.
Just as their name suggests livebearers are fish that give birth to live free swimming young. Live bearers are usually omnivorous. Live bearers life span livebearers typically live for about 5 7 years and throughout the course of their lives you re bound to get several generations of fish.
Some such as the mosquito fish q v feed heavily on mosquito larvae and are used to control these pests. Livebearers that have a concave or sunken looking stomach could mean that it is having trouble eating or the stomach hasn t formed properly. Females that are heavily pregnant where her stomach has a box shape to it and has a large gravid spot.
Many live bearers are popular aquarium fishes. Livebearers are one of the most common beginner fish. Among aquarium fish livebearers are nearly all members of the family poeciliidae and include guppies mollies platies and swordtails.
In fact a lot of hobbyists start with a trio of livebearers 2 females 1 male and end up with hundreds or even thousands of babies in just a few months. Anableps goodeides guppies halfbeaks mollies mosquito fish platies and swordtails are some of the richly varied livebearing species available to fish keepers. The most commonnly purchased livebearer is the guppy.
What is also noteworthy with guppies and most all livebearers is that they live short fast lifespans. Live bearing fish such as guppy s sword tails mollies and endlers are easy to maintain breed and are tolerant of a range of water conditions. Livebearers include some of the most common as well as uncommon fish found in the trade today.
However in the aquarium hobby the term livebearer is commonly used to refer to a specific group of fish belonging to the family poeciliidae. The advantages of livebearing to the aquarist are that the newborn juvenile fish are larger than newly hatched fry have a lower chance of mortality and are easier to care for. This is mainly due to their brilliant tail colors and ease of breeding.
The guppy platy swordtail and mollies are the mainstays of the freshwater world and the ease of breeding them has been implicated as one of the primary causes of a problem amongst fish keepers known as mts.
