Breeding livebearers in your tropical fish tank is very easy. Guppies and Swordtails are very popular tropical fish for beginners and easy to breed. They are both livebearers, that is they do not lay eggs but bear their young live. From conception to birth can be between twenty and forty days with an average of 28 days. If you have both make and female livebearers in your tank they will inevitably mate and produce young as long as they are healthy and the conditions in the tank are good. You can tell if a female guppy is pregnant by the appearance of a 'gravid spot' on her abdomen. This is a dark mark shaped like a triangle that appears close to her anal vent and darkens and enlarges over the course of the pregnancy.

Taking Care of the Young

To prevent the fry from being eaten when they are born you will need to provide a breeder box with a v shaped vent to allow the fry to be separated from the mother immediately after birth. The box can be placed in your main tank and the mother placed in it when birth appears imminent. You can also add some breeding grass to the tank in case birth occurs before you have managed to separate the mother and provides somewhere for the young fry to hide.

Feeding the Fry

The fry can be fed with the same flake food as the adults but crush it first into a fine powder. If possible using live food in the form of tiny brine shrimp is also a good idea although most people cannot provide this regularly. Any left over food should be removed from the bottom of the breeder box before it begins to decay by siphoning out with a piece of tubing. Make sure you do not siphon up any of the tiny fry!

Looking After the Fry

It is a good idea to perform partial water changes at least weekly while you have baby fish in your tank. The fish will be big enough for their own tank in a few weeks or can be kept in the main tank provided you have a divider as they are still too small to be mixed with adult fish. Only after about 8 weeks are they big enough to safely mix with your adult fish unless you have very large fish in the tank. In this case you would probably be best to wait longer.

Conclusion

Breeding livebearers, especially guppies and swordtails, is very easy provided you provide a healthy environment and know how to look after the tiny fry until they are big enough to fend for themselves.

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