Will My Tank Get Overrun?

[hedgehog]

Folloiwng on my from post yesterday regarding my rather hard water (GH>300). I was advised that I should stick to Livebearers or Rift Valley Cichlids.

Now, I'm not too disapointed by this as I think I could make a nice community tank (55g, 100 cm long) with a selection of Guppy, Platy and / or Molly, plus a couple of other slightly bigger fish.

My question having done some reading on the above relates to the number of fry they produce, and the frequency of said event. Will I get overrun with dozens of fry, bearing in mind that I want to keep a mix of male and female to keep everyone happy?

Of course I could go for just Cichlids, but that would require me to setup the tank again with more rock / cave structures.

Thanks.

 

[chibi]

I wouldn't worry about it. I have many livebearers in my tank, male and female, and they all get gobbled up. I think I've had maybe 2 fry live to be 3/4" long until they got a fungus. D:

 

[GoldLenny]

Some of the livebearers can get pretty big also. Some of the mollies can grow to 5"-6". http/fish.mongabay.com/livebearers.htm (read all three family links in the first paragraph also)

 

[donna123]

If you dont get males the females will run out of fry anyway, you dont need males to keep females happy its the other way round . sword tail females get nice and big , i have a 260ltr tank with just livebearers and 2 gourami and 2 plecos

 

[dwarfgourami]

Donna makes a good point: I've never noticed female livebearers seeming less happy because there was no male in the tank, far from it.

There are also less common livebearers which make a nice addition to a tank.

I have a 240 ltrs with female guppies, female platies, porthole livebearers, a single merry widow (sadly lost her mate, will look for a replacement) and then just bristlenoses for the bottom and to remind myself that livebearers are not the only fish on earth. If I did not have the somewhat fragile and showy guppies and platies, I would add ameca splendens, another beautiful livebearer, but one that apparently can be a little prone to fin-nipping.