Newbie With Smallish Tank

[Megansdad]

Colin, you're a good source of useful info.

If I don't want to breed is there any need to get females over male platies? Is there a community/territorial thing going on that I should know about?

Will pretty much all female species be bought pregnant?

If so, how many eggs and fishes will I end up with?

I don't want to kill everything and I suppose I could give some away to good homes with larger tanks.

I've been looking at the Killis already but haven't made up my mind.

I'll probably get a large snail to help with any algae issues. Is there a particular snail(s) I should look for?

 

[Butch]

Colin, there is dwarf sunset platy, just dwarf version of normal platy. I never say that WCMM will get up to 4 inch long but I've seen 4 inch bitterling before.

Mostly killifish species are not good for community tank as they can sometimes nipping the fins. So pick up one carefully. Clown killifish and medaka are good tankmates. But if you want fry then I'd focus on getting two female platies only as they are already pregnant anyways. They give birth live fry. No platy eggs. As long as you have lots of plants for the fry to hide in it from the momma as they can sometimes eat their fry. Platies are much peaceful toward to any fish, expect the newborn fry.

As for snail, try Olive nerite snail as they don't reproduce in freshwater. Maybe even striped ramshorm (not really ramshorn but close relative to apple snail) as they are litle bigger than your pond snail.

 

[Megansdad]

Colin, there is dwarf sunset platy, just dwarf version of normal platy. I never say that WCMM will get up to 4 inch long but I've seen 4 inch bitterling before.

Mostly killifish species are not good for community tank as they can sometimes nipping the fins. So pick up one carefully. Clown killifish and medaka are good tankmates. But if you want fry then I'd focus on getting two female platies only as they are already pregnant anyways. They give birth live fry. No platy eggs. As long as you have lots of plants for the fry to hide in it from the momma as they can sometimes eat their fry. Platies are much peaceful toward to any fish, expect the newborn fry.

As for snail, try Olive nerite snail as they don't reproduce in freshwater. Maybe even striped ramshorm (not really ramshorn but close relative to apple snail) as they are litle bigger than your pond snail.

Butch, this is my empty tank with live plants.

I didn't realise killis nipped the fins of other fish, I just love their fantastic colours.

Just to confirm if I get the right platy and killi combination, these will survive in a tank at room temperature ie. with no heating supplied???

 

[Miss Wiggle]

both the quantities of water are meaningful in their own way.

you are right to think as you only have the swimming space of a smaller sized tank that you need to get a suitable number and size of fish for that smaller space. however you have an advantage in that a larger body of water is more stable and you do have the larger body of water so can handle a little more bio load.

both points need to be taken into consideration really tbh.

 

[Colin_T]

Wow the tank looks good with the red, black and green. Nice contrast in colours.

Platies will survive in unheated tanks in most homes. Killis need the water to be 22C or more. You could put a thermometer into the tank and monitor the water temp. If it stays above 22C then you could add killis too. Otherwise look at the medakas and white clouds.

If you don't want to breed the fish then you can just get males.

Platies, guppies, swordtails and mollies are livebearers. They give birth to live young, most other fish are egg layers that scatter eggs among plants. Because platies are livebeaers they carry the young around inside their body for about a month before giving birth. This means most female platies will already be pregnant when you buy them. Female livebeaers can carry sperm packets from previous matings and use these to fertilise future batches of eggs even if a male isn't present.
The number of young from a female platy can vary between a couple up to 100 or more. Generally they produce about 20-30 fry (baby fish) in each batch.

Check out the following link and click on mollies, swords, guppies & platies for more info on how to sex platies.

http/www.perthaquarium.com.au/fish/tropi...ater_fish.phtml


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For Butch

Fair enough, I didn't know there was a dwarf sunset platy. Any idea how long they have been around for?
Any idea why they would bother making a dwarf platy?

Gotcha regarding the 4inch thing. Bitterlings

 

[Megansdad]

Thanks Wiggle and Colin, I've just ordered myself an Eheim 200 for a good price and it should arrive with the API test kit too.

I do like that contrasting look too.

My mini volcano comes in a slate type colour with grey streaks in it for good effect. I'll drop another pic in once it's connected and working with the built-in rainbow effect lighting.