What Are The Easiest Tropical Fish To Breed ?

[benhayes78]

hey i have bought a medium sized 64 litre fish tank just for breeding but have yet to decide what fish to breed which are easy i have been told guppies and platys are the easiest but just wanted to see peoples opinions thanks

 

[200sx]

mollys also

 

[fish48]

guppies are the easiest of all livebearers to keep and breed

 

[Curiosity101]

I personally wouldn't say that guppys/platies/mollys are the easiest to breed cause tbh I don't class it as the owner/keeper breeding them. If you have a male and female in water then in a few weeks you WILL have babies. And often you'll end up over run...

Now if you're asking what's the easiest egg layer to breed... that's a different story. Personally I'd stick to egg layers as they have a resale value. For livebearers you tend to end up getting stuck with a load of unwanted fish... unless you wanted to line breed a rare type?

 

[benhayes78]

I personally wouldn't say that guppys/platies/mollys are the easiest to breed cause tbh I don't class it as the owner/keeper breeding them. If you have a male and female in water then in a few weeks you WILL have babies. And often you'll end up over run...

Now if you're asking what's the easiest egg layer to breed... that's a different story. Personally I'd stick to egg layers as they have a resale value. For livebearers you tend to end up getting stuck with a load of unwanted fish... unless you wanted to line breed a rare type?

thanks thats what i was worried about but what fish do u mean when u say fish that lay eggs x

guppies are the easiest of all livebearers to keep and breed

hi thanks for quick reply how often do guppies breed and how many do they make a time ??

mollys also

thanks for the reply but what sort of equipment do i need to breed mollys is it just a breeding trap ???

 

[Curiosity101]

All livebearers are so called because the female retains the fertilised eggs within her until they're ready to hatch. Then the fry come out fully formed and swimming.

Most fish however lay eggs, some lay eggs then leave them to develop alone. Some fish care for the eggs and then care for the offspring. These are all classed as egg layers.

Of the egg layers I'd say that south american cichlids are probably the easiest to breed. Imparticular kribensis. Thing is because kribs breed so readily (and are moderately aggressive) you could struggle to find homes for them.

Personally if I were you I'd look for someone selling a 'breeding pair' of rams, keyholes, apistogrammas etc
They're a little bit trikier to raise than livebearer fry as the fry are smaller from egg layers... but it's so much more fun and rewarding.

So far I've only raised rasbora fry (they were TINY), and I have a few corydoras eggs almost ready to hatch atm. It's quite cute watching the cory fry move around inside there eggs as they develop.

 

[dsiegel13]

guppies are the easiest of all livebearers to keep and breed

+1

Although my Platies are breeding like bunnies!

 

[Dieses Madchen]

guppies are the easiest of all livebearers to keep and breed

+1

Although my Platies are breeding like bunnies!

My platys/swordtails are also about as bad as bunnies lol

 

[OldMan47]

Livebearers are all fairly easy to breed but hardly produce more fry than egg layers. A guppy may drop 30 fry every month or so but a well cared for egg layer will produce fry every couple of weeks if you move the fry along to a separate grow out tank.They will also produce fry by the hundreds at a time. People will constantly talk about how livebearers can overpopulate a tank but that is only because they can literally breed with success in a community tank in many cases. If you set up a breeding tank and separate grow out facilities, you can probably produce 10 times the number of things like convict cichlids from a single pair of adults.

 

[Curiosity101]

Livebearers are all fairly easy to breed but hardly produce more fry than egg layers. A guppy may drop 30 fry every month or so but a well cared for egg layer will produce fry every couple of weeks if you move the fry along to a separate grow out tank.They will also produce fry by the hundreds at a time. People will constantly talk about how livebearers can overpopulate a tank but that is only because they can literally breed with success in a community tank in many cases. If you set up a breeding tank and separate grow out facilities, you can probably produce 10 times the number of things like convict cichlids from a single pair of adults.

All fair points... but doesn't take into account the fact that although most livebearers don't produce as many fry per batch, more people keep them in the first place and therefore there is significantly less demand for offspring. Hence me not understanding why anyone would breed them unless they were line breeding, or breeding to order.

And I would never suggest to anyone that they breed convicts (same as kribs), as all you need is a male, female and water. So again, there is little demand so next to no resale value IF you can find someone to take them in the first place.

You can't deny that generally speaking egg layers command a higher price and are more hands on/fun. Personally if someone wanted to breed egg layers I'd suggest popular peaceful south american cichlids (examples given in previous post) or perhaps corys.

So easiest = livebearers
Easy but worthwhile/with resale value = not livebearers (unless a rare species or unusual/rare type)