Thinking Of Keeping Livebearers

[merlinblack]

Hi

I have an empty tank im planning to set up again, it 5'x2'x18" and I've just bought a brand new Aqua One Canister Filter 2450uv today.

My other fish prefer soft water and I have an RO unit to produce water for them but its not ideal.
I want this tank to have fish that suit my tap water so I can just do a water change with what I have. I havent decided on what fish i want to keep yet but I've decided i want the ones that are suited to my water and i want to be able to breed them so livebearers is one of the obvious options to me.

I generally prefer wild type fish rather than ones that have been bred to be a different shape/colour.
I have read that some people keep livebearers that are rare/extinct in the wild but havent seen which these are, what they're like and how to get hold of them but Im interested to find out.
To breed livebearers and not produce hybrids or have the young being eaten do they have to be kept in a monospecies tank or can other fish go in with them?

does anyone have any other recommendations?

Oh my water quality is as below, I was thinking I could reduce the Nitrate using an ion exchange resin as it would just exchannge it for salt and would be fine for livebearers as I think salt can be beneficial anyway?

Water quality report
Substance
Typical value
Unit


Calcium
58.5000
mg Ca/l


Magnesium
6.4575
mg Mg/l


Residual chlorine - free
0.20
mg/l Cl2


Residual chlorine - total
0.29
mg/l Cl2


Coliforms
0
no/100ml


E-coli
0
no/100ml


Aluminium
14.132
µg Al/l


Colour
1.04
mg/l Pt/Co Scale


Conductivity
287.14
µS/cm


Fluoride
0.062
mg F/l


pH (Hydrogen Ion Conc.)
7.68
pH Units


Iron
25.71
µg Fe/l


Manganese
2.22
µg Mn/l


Nitrate
13.7633
mg NO3/l


Nitrite
0.0093
mg NO2/l


Sodium
15.83
mg Na/l


Turbidity
0.152
NTU


Copper
0.0230
mg Cu/l


Lead
0.400
µg Pb/l

 

[nmonks]

If you have soft water, your livebearer options are somewhat limited. Halfbeaks are an obvious choice; most Nomorhamphus and all Hemirhamphodon will do better in soft water than hard. They're only available periodically, but they are out there if you look. Yesterday I came across some lovely Hemirhamphodon tengah, a blackwater species, at an aquarium shop in Bracknell.

Not many poeciliids do well in soft water. I believe Alfaro cultratus is one that does. It's a charming fish, if a bit shy.

Cheers, Neale

My other fish prefer soft water and I have an RO unit to produce water for them but its not ideal.

 

[merlinblack]

If you have soft water, your livebearer options are somewhat limited. Halfbeaks are an obvious choice; most Nomorhamphus and all Hemirhamphodon will do better in soft water than hard. They're only available periodically, but they are out there if you look. Yesterday I came across some lovely Hemirhamphodon tengah, a blackwater species, at an aquarium shop in Bracknell.

Not many poeciliids do well in soft water. I believe Alfaro cultratus is one that does. It's a charming fish, if a bit shy.

Cheers, Neale

My other fish prefer soft water and I have an RO unit to produce water for them but its not ideal.

No this is a new tank I'm setting up which doesn't have any fish so far. The water in my area is pretty hard although I dont know if its just right for livebearers, I've always thought it was more closely suited to them than eg tetras. If I dont mix with RO water then I can only grow hard water plants such as vallis, hornwort & duckweed and fish like cardinal tetras are stunted and don't live long at all, when I blend with RO water I can grow a lot more plants and the fish are fine. The analysis above is from yorkshire waters website.

 

[merlinblack]

If you have soft water, your livebearer options are somewhat limited. Halfbeaks are an obvious choice; most Nomorhamphus and all Hemirhamphodon will do better in soft water than hard. They're only available periodically, but they are out there if you look. Yesterday I came across some lovely Hemirhamphodon tengah, a blackwater species, at an aquarium shop in Bracknell.

Not many poeciliids do well in soft water. I believe Alfaro cultratus is one that does. It's a charming fish, if a bit shy.

Cheers, Neale

My other fish prefer soft water and I have an RO unit to produce water for them but its not ideal.

No this is a new tank I'm setting up which doesn't have any fish so far. The water in my area is pretty hard although I dont know if its just right for livebearers, I've always thought it was more closely suited to them than eg tetras. If I dont mix with RO water then I can only grow hard water plants such as vallis, hornwort & duckweed and fish like cardinal tetras are stunted and don't live long at all, when I blend with RO water I can grow a lot more plants and the fish are fine. The analysis above is from yorkshire waters website.

I've just found found out that the hardness is 11°dH or which is between moderately hard and hard

 

[OldMan47]

A DH of about 11 is just right for many of the more common livebearers. I have tap water that runs about 12 degrees of both GH and KH which means that I have no trouble with over 20 species of livebearers that I presently keep. My tap pH runs about 7.8. If you are willing to do frequent water changes and provide some cover, you should have good success breeding most of the readily available livebearers.