Keeping Male And Female Livebearers Together...

[Eines]

When keeping a tank of male livebearers, it is said one should have at least three to spread the aggression. What if one is keeping a tank of mixed genders? If one has two females to every male, can one keep only two males, or does one still have to have three males?

 

[lordofthesea]

The two females to one female rule is 100 percent necessary. however don't be disheartened! many female species are now almost as bright as the males!

 

[fish48]

The two females to one female rule is 100 percent necessary. however don't be disheartened! many female species are now almost as bright as the males!

The two females to one female rule is not a 100 percent necessary
it can work the other way when kept in large numbers /more males than females or even kept in pairs.

 

[Eines]

My question has nothing to do with the ratio of males to females, I already know that. what I want to know is whether or not one can keep two males with six females, or must one have three males even in a mixed tank?

I right now have three females and one male and the females are definately smarter and prettier.

*Edit: I meant four females

 

[fish48]

yes you can keep two males with six females

 

[Eines]

okay, thanks! Now I might consider getting another male.

opps, I meant four females (although I'll probably have more)

 

[AngelOfDeath]

The two females to one female rule is 100 percent necessary. however don't be disheartened! many female species are now almost as bright as the males!

I used to keep 4 females and 3 males, and none of the females got over hassled at all, now i have 6 females and 3 males and there is no difference, guppies btw

 

[Eines]

I suppose it also depends on the species of fish. I gather guppies can be a lot less aggressive than bigger fish like swordtails.

 

[fish48]

Yes Some species of livebearer can be very aggressive and will go as far as killing of ther females
swordtails are normally ok but some times you can end up with a aggressive one

 

[dunchp]

Yes Some species of livebearer can be very aggressive and will go as far as killing of ther females
swordtails are normally ok but some times you can end up with a aggressive one

Are you all sure that we are talking about aggression? I thought that the big deal with some Poeciliids is regarding mating.

Many male Poeciliids are ambush maters, that is that they do not court their mates and will simply attempt to copulate with any passing female (recent research suggests that it does not necessarily need to be the same species), if you keep more males than females then the females will get worn out by trying to evade chasing males and will fade away (not always but sometimes). So it is not aggression, but aggressive mating.

The rule of thumb is obviously that you would keep more females than males but the ratio does not matter so much, 2:1 is probably best but 20:1 would be OK also, also if you keep a pair then it is unlikely that the female will be overly harrassed and many breeding programmes start off with a ratio of 1:1 (3 pairs for instance).

Of course Fish48 is right and many livebearer species are aggressive towards their mates, but these species are unlikely to be livebearers that those guys who are interested in Common Livebearers would ever come across and are the sort of species which normally only dedicated wild livebearer hobbyists will come across.

 

[Eines]

I was thinking more about male to male aggression than mating aggression. I'm pretty sure that without careful attention to the setup, males can get aggressive amoungst themselves.

 

[OldMan47]

Like Dunchp said, you are less likely to run across that kind of behavior unless you get into the much less common livebearers. Sometimes a male sword can sort of dominate a small tank but usually they are OK in moderately large tanks.

 

[dunchp]

Like Dunchp said, you are less likely to run across that kind of behavior unless you get into the much less common livebearers. Sometimes a male sword can sort of dominate a small tank but usually they are OK in moderately large tanks.

Swords are interesting because often only then alpha male will develop male characteristics, the other subordinate males will not sex out until the alpha male is removed and will appear to be female. With certain species, as the alpha male gets older a young male will begin to sex out and the alpha male will waste away. There does not appear to be any aggression displayed.