Anyone keeping live bearers

I have decided to setup one of my new tanks with live bearers [ guppys mollies swords and platies ] I read that they need salt added to their water, how much salt should i add to a 2ft tank. Or how much salt per litre water. The website i visited recomended 1t per gallon if i'm right thats 15t for a 60l tank [ seems a bit much ]

 

Be sure you're buying the right salt. As I'm sure you know, never use table salt, as it is iodised and not suitable for aquarium use. Most shops sell salt known either simply as 'aquarium salt' or livebearer salt'. Both of these are suitable, and you can normally go by the recommendations on the packaging.

You may also use marine salt for some species, such as mollies and guppies, as in the wild they are sometimes found in slightly brackish environments. Normally for these species you'd go up to an SG of 1.005 as a maximum, although Mollies can surive sea water condtions for some time. You'll need a hydrometer to measure the salt content in your tank though. Swordtails and platies don't appreciate the marine salt as much.

Also, just as a side thing, platies and swordtails are very capable if interbreeding with each other. Because of this hybridization, I don't recommend that you sell any fry from this setup to pet stores, as you'll technically be selling 'inferior stock', where some people may buy what they think to be a swordtail or platy for breeding purposes, and end up with a fish with a mixed gene pool.

Cheers
SA

 

Gee thanks for the info. I bought daro coarse salt, it has no directions for use so i guess that i will have to get a hydrometer. It doesn't say whether its marine salt.As to the platties and swords mixing i will then get one or the other not both. Thanks

 

From the fish you have listed only the mollies will like the salt.
I have a tank full of guppies with no salt and are breeding like flies.

 

Can you keep the mollies in a tank without salt, or maybe i should put the mollies in their own tank [ MTS at work ]

 

Yes they can be kept without salt.
Platties seem also less agressive than swords , so a tank with guppies mollies and platties would be good 1 male to 4 females.
Googling at the moment to try and find a good sight with liverbearer info.

here is some nice info: http://www.fishforever.co.uk/livebearers.html (below is from the sight)

Be sure to keep your aquarium clean and change about 25% of the water in your aquarium at least once a week. Feed your livebearers plenty of floating flakes and some live food as well to supplement their diet and give them larger and more healthy offspring. As always remove any uneaten food after 5 minutes.

When your female livebearer is big and looks like she’s about to (burst) release babies there is the option to move her into another aquarium or put her into a net breeder protect her babies when they spawn, it should be noted that the mother for approximately 12 hours after releasing the babies has a surge of a hormone which results in her not being hungry. While this is an option the difficulty is that often I have found that if I move the female too early she will abort the pregnancy due to stress, the same may happen if you buy a heavily pregnant fish from the fish store and yet you find no babies in your tank. For this reason I have found - perhaps because fry especially from livebears are no longer unusual or special I just leave the adults in my community tank which has a planted corner. I have found that even without removing the babies into an external aquarium/net breeder you'll get some babies which make it to adult hood... unless you've got some really evil fish in there! I have also found the use of large marbles on the floor of the tank to be superb as hiding places for the fry, even so if I wish to save some interesting colour fry or need more fry then I follow the following procedure.

Aid the Fry: A net breeder is a must if you wish to save large numbers of fry. Simply place it in a corner of the tank when one of the females has already spawned or place the female in it just before she spawns. Either way ensure the fry are the only fish inside the net. As a rough guide, a young female platy/guppy/molly usually releases 12 to 30 babies in her first batch of young. In comparison a large molly may be able to release up to 100 babies! I highly recommend you to purchase a "net breeder" made out of mesh rather than a plastic one as I have heard too many bad reports about them and my net breeder has worked flawlessly for me (plastic ones babies escape/get eaten or trapped!) The net breeder has a frame made of plastic and is covered in fine net to separate the fry inside the net from the larger fish swimming around in the aquarium.

A few of common problems people have is that they have bought store bought fish which the store said were pregnant and yet you don't have any babies. If this is the case, and you are sure that you have both females and males in your tank preferably at the ratio 2 females to 1 male livebearer then you can do a couple of things to enhance your chances.
1) Change 20% of the water in the aquarium each day replacing it with dechlorinated water which is as close to the temperature already in the water as possible, remembering any differences will result in stress to the fish and more chance of your livebearer aborting her pregnancy.
2) Supplement your livebearers diet with vegetables which form an integral part of a livebearers diet in the wild I would reccomend blanched zucchini (courgette) or cucumber, flakes are only so good and try to add to the meaty part of your livebearers diet with blood worms or adult brine shrimp.
3) This should probably be number 1 as it is the most important... Patience! there is nothing to stop your livebearer giving birth and the odds are stacked in her favour if you have followed the procedures already mentioned.

Now you've got the fry leave them in the net breeder or their own aquarium, feed them little and often - 3 times a day for maximum growth- with finely crushed flake food (as fine as you can crush it, use your fingers and rub them together really grinding it up very finely because any large bits will remain uneaten and will rot polluting your tank). When your baby fish have grown to about one inch which will take between two and four months you can release them back into the aquarium with their parents or this is also the size when fish stores will be willing to buy livebearer fry off you. Growth will vary on quality of food and also of tank temperature, 79 degrees fahrenheit is about the maximum recommended and at this temperature the fry will grow faster than at a lower temperature. Not recommended if you have other fish in the tank though and step up the temperature increase slowly.
If everything goes well you should have lots of fry which will look like this:

 

Yes you can keep them without salt - the salt is never necessary but does help with various ailments that mollies are susceptible to, such as mouth fungus. I suggest just using the Daro salt you got, which the mollies will be happy enough with.

As far as I can remember, Daro salt isn't marine salt, but rather just a general salt for freshwater aquariums, which is what you would rather use in a mixed livebearer tank.

 

Donny thanks a stack for the info. I've already got a net breeder, a nice big one and i have a growout tank for the babies if needed. I don't know if i seriously want to breed them i just really wanted to try something different from what i already have. I could also use the babies as feeders for my angels. Thanks for the link will read it now.
Thanks again
A

 

No problem for the link and info sitting at work and its quiet

Had 2 small breeder nets in girlfriends tank at one stage her mind set is there will be no eating of babies in MY TANK ,,, well she was up to 60 babies and 10 big ones in no time (tank is 50cm x 40 x 40) convinced her now to nets out and leave the babies to live natural, have lots of floating fern to help them.

 

Hey Bauer

Saw this thread late.... I keep a Sailfin Molly tank with a pair of Kribs and a Pleco.

I dont add salt due to my Kribs and pleco but my water is buffered to a PH of aprox 7.6 which the Mollies LOVE!

Mollies are often toted as being perfect beginner fish when this is far from the fact. They are susceptible to a number of diseases including popeye, fungus related illnesses and fin rot. Ideally a little salt would help with all of these or, as in my case, you just have to keep an eye on them and ensure your water parameters are very good and you do frequent water changes.

My suggestions for a livebearer tank would be to try and keep them species specific due to the fact (as mentioned by Donny) that Platys and Guppys can hybridise and that Mollies and Platys sometimes dont get on that well. Swordtails are also sometimes quite "fiesty"...

Otherwise if you dont mind the hybrids or have a largish tank you can go for a mix bag!

Goodluck and post some pics as I would love to see how it comes along


Sorry missed the part where you said you have a 2ft... I would not keep sailfins as they can get quite large and would rather stick to Platys, guppys or swords!

Attached a pic ofmy female mollies I took while busy scaping my tank (hence the plant still in the pot)

 

Ok another questune would it be ok to put corys in with them ? How big do mollies get [ +/-5 - 7cm ] Sorry thats two questunes thanks for bearing with me.
Thanks again for all the help so far.
A

 

@KiazerG: What substrate is in that tank?

 

I have mollies with cory's and have no problems..

 

agree with Kat, no problem with mollies and cory's.... Sailfins can get to 7cm while the black and lyretail mollies get to around 3-4cm ( i would suggest those for your 2ft btw).

@darryn - I'm using aragonite substrate which buffers my water and maintains a PH of 7.6. I would only use it for hardwater species

 

In theory, Corys and Mollies should so well together. However, if you're wanting to keep the water parameters within the range that is ideal for most livebearers (IE: pH 7.0 upwards), that means that you're moving more out of the range that Corys enjoy. Perhaps stick to the hardier and more tolerant species, like the Bronze and Pepper corys.