Livebearers - Stocking and Fry

[Judgejudy]

what are some unusual livebearers...other than platties,swords, mollies or guppies? Are there any other livebearers available.

There are halfbeacks, splitfins.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

what are some unusual livebearers...other than platties,swords, mollies or guppies? Are there any other livebearers available.

Some fishkeepers on this forum have numerous less common livebearers (Oldman47; fish48; ricefish to name but a few). I have a maturing group of 8 Ilyodon xantusi (Limones Goodeid) that are now ~8cm SL (body length excluding their tail fin), that came from Tim Addis of TDC Aquatics last autumn as ~4cm SL youngsters, which could reach close to 12cm eventually. I was on the lookout for these for about a year, after being enlightened to their existance by nmonks (Neale Monks) on the forum, because of their sub-tropical riverine needs; their size (making them compatable with most of my other fish); plus the management of fry is more manageable (~55 day pregnancies to <20 fry per drop). The size of the newborns is staggering, close to 2cm albeit very streamlined (they deepen their bodies during early growth spirts), making it very easy to feed them crushed food given to my other fish.

 

[Staxx]

just found 1 lonely platy fry in my community tank could be more but i dont want to go looking. i dont have another tank or breeding net or anything so im guna let nature take its course. i have 5 platys and 2 of the others look pregnant aswell.

the fry wont survive long i dont think as ive got 5 mollies as well who will probably eat them

 

[OldMan47]

There are just tons of livebearers that you will seldom see in the LFS.
A problem that many of them share is that they are not as colorful as the more common livebearers that you do see. As has been indicated, I keep lots of less common livebearers including a species once though to be extinct in the wild, Ameca splendens, and lots of the other goodeids, also known as splitfins. I even used my own goodeids in the livebearer sexing thread to show a splitfin and how to sex them. If I recall correctly I used my greens, Zenoophorus captivus as the example fish. Unlike common livebearers, which are mostly poeciliids, they have an andropodium instead of a gonopodium in the male. The goodeids also provide nutrients to developing fry, in a fashion similar to a mammal, unlike a poeciliid which merely provides a protected place for an egg to develop before the resulting fry is dropped.

One rarer livebearer, a goodeid, that can be recommended based on its nice coloring is Characodon lateralis. Try a Google search and see what you think of them. UI really love mine and I recently had them breed for me. We will see how that goes. Another subtly colored goodeid is the A towerii, blue tailed goodeid, another fish that recently presented me with lots of fry.