Guppies, Mollies and Platys

[EweSheep]

OK that should not be too hard!

 

[Moxiechick]

What kind of live plants are you considering?
Different species have different lighting needs. If you just have a regular light, you might be able to keep low light species such as Anubias and Java fern. Most plants would benefit from a light specifically meant to promote plant growth. (Florasun, Flora gro, etc.) Some plants won't make it without this sort of lighting. If a plant can't get enough of the light, in the spectrum it requires, it may die which would pollute the tank. Poor lighting may provide the minimum for a plant to live, but be fine for algae. If the lighting is good, your plants will be able to successfully compete with the algae for available nutrients, allowing the plants to thrive and giving the algae no foothold.

 

[EweSheep]

I have NO idea what kind of plants but I like to have some TALL ones, short ones and a few in between, not a whole lot but enough for fishes to get away or produce fry (or fries).

 

[Moxiechick]

Quote:
Well.... that's kind of like wanting to know what kind of chickens to get, and only specifying that you like large fowl and bantams!

 

[EweSheep]

LOLOL Exactly!

I do not mind those TALL mossy ones and the hosta looking plants for ground cover.

 

[ConchRepublic]

Try amazon swords. I have some and they look amazing.

 

[Moxiechick]

Quote:
Ok. Tall mossy ones could include Cambomba, and Myriophillia. Both like high light conditions.

"Hosta" looking ones could include Amazon swords (medium to high light), Anubias, and Java fern (Low light).


Hope that helps!

 

[DaKid]

I started having tropical fish since I was a pre- and teenager years , I’m now close to 50 years young and I have been married for almost 30 years (1980’s ) , when I re-got back into it heavily about 25 yrs ago from being a teenage and at that time I own my own pet shop ( in da 1990’s ) specialize Shop in tropical fish and MOST OF ALL Quality Reptile & Exotic Pets ( which was my name of my company) during that time I was into wholesaling and retailing and also breeding all kinds of Fish but mostly I was into reptiles and exotic pets like all kinds of : lizards – snakes – hermit crabs – ferrets – dwarf rabbits - all sort of birds ......................

Back then 25 yrs ago I started out with a few tanks in my home for me – da wife and the kids , well 10 yrs past by and I ended up with more them 100 tanks in my basement ranging for 10 gallon to 100 gallon tanks , then I started build these 200 / 500 and a few 1000 gallon ponds in the basement with all sort of tropical fish . so it can get way out of hand .I raise all kinds of fish down there some altogether and some had there own tanks or mini pond . Then I ended up getting into Koi and fancy goldfish and build and outside 6000 gal. pond with a 1000 gallon filter system .
That’s when


But As for ur livebearers
All the fish you listed will get along fine.
platy and swordtail they can interbreed too -also The other livebearers don’t interbreed as much as the others( Guppies –n- mollies along w/ the platys or swords ) and if they do the off spring would be infertile and the young would not be able to reproduce . You can also add some tetras to the mix but tetras need to be in groups at lease of 6 or more , and would be fine with the live bearers , ......... the livebearers do best as 1 male and at lease 3-4 females , the more the merrier, but most Livebearers male are more colorful then the female- especially in the guppies - as the tails are wider and more colorful and in Mollie’s the male have a huge sail fin and in the swordtail well the males have the sword-like tails


Would live plants create ALOT of algae, yes and no it depends on how much light they have , but algae is good -the fish love it- I had tanks set with the whole back and side glasses full of algae -I only scrape off the front glass so I could see them ,

As far as salt- yes the livebearers such as Guppies –mollies- swordtails and platys love a pinch of salt in they water but not to much----- they can live in a 50% salt water to 50%fresh water tanks or what we call brackish water tanks But would not recommend it as the offspring would be infertile and also if you had live plants in there they would die . So a pinch of salt is good or for a 55 gallon I would place only about a level table spoon in .

As for plants I had some fake and some live one in each tank , all the mini pond type tanks had all live pond plants plus all had duck weed ,
I had a separated tank just for growing duck weed , all fish lot it plus it gives the newly hatch fries a place to hide .

Make sure you set up ur tank and filter system a month before you add any fish. Then only add a few fish at a time over- say a month so the filter system came adjust to what it needs to do on getting the water quality just right , most people set a tank up and a few days later spend 25 to 50 dollars on fish with in a week time at lease ½ are dead or maybe more .....WHY CUZ THE FILTER SYSTEM HAS NOT HAD TIME TO GET THE GOOD BACTIER GROWING IN THE FILTER OR FILTERS TO EAT UP THE BAD BACTIERS .


Remember the more filtration the better , live plant also help with cleaning and so does algae .
Also you will need a tropical fish test kit so you can watch ur WATER QUAILTY for the PH – NITRATE – AND SALT ,,most pet shop carry these test kits , also you well need some type of air pump to add extra oxygen to the tank also , you will need a heater also cuz tropical fish like there water temp.’s around 78*F TO 80*F


I WOULD also SUGGEST FOR YOU TO BUY A BOOK OR TWO ON TROPICAL FISH KEEPING AND READ THEM THEN SET UP TANK AND ADD UR FISH LATER AND A FEW AT A TIME ..

Remember you can always add as much fish to ur tank as long as you have a good filter system to take away the back dirty water plus at lease 10 -20 % water changes each week will help and every 6 months a good gravel cleaning with a 30-50 water change if you have a heavy fish flow , meaning a guppies is about an 1” long so 55 guppies to a 55gal. tank but if ur filter system is double and you do what I said above you could have over 100 to 200 guppies in that 55 gallon take .

A sword is 2.5 to 3” long so one sword per 2-3 gal. of water w/ one filter but if double filtration and water quality is perfect you could get away with 2 swords per 2 gal. of water


Get the Picture ------Hope this information helps
And good luck



Alan

 

[silkiechicken]

Oh, a fish place online that I really like to order from is called BigAl's. I've had good experiences with them and they have an excellent price on substrate.

 

[incubatingisfun]

guppies have babies like crazy so be prepared to give some away