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I am gonna convert my 20 gallon tank into a livebearer tank and was wondering what livebearers would be okay in it. I have heard that swordtails are very active and need a decent sized tank and didn't know if mine was okay. I was thinking of putting in some guppies, mollies, and swordtails/neons. The current stock is one male Betta who is pretty mellow, so if he doesn't mind them I'll let him stay in the 20, but I just bought a 1 gallon for him that he can move to if he doesn't.

I know that livebearers are notorious breeders so I was gonna leave the fry in the main tank and any that survive can stay, unless a ton live, then I'll give them away, or feed the fry to the fish in my 55 gallon.

A 20G would soon be well and truely over populated with that amount selection to start of with. I would stick to Guppies only as I think it would be far to small for all the others. Stick to live bearers only do not add the neons as they do prefer a different water conditions.
Adding the Betta I would certainly not, but others would say yes, that is totally up to you.
I would also have plenty of floating water sprite for the fry. Star of with only a few 3-5 Females and one Male remembering they will drop fry even if there is no Male with them to start of with.

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Keith

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After giving it more thought I have decided to either go with mollies only or guppies with a school of neons and remove the betta if he doesn't get along with them. There doesn't seem to be a big difference between the water conditions of guppies and neons, at least to me. I'll start with 3 livebearers and get rid of most of the fry born.

Unless you plant it to the eyeballs, they'll eat the young anyway. You might have the odd one survive, but they can easily be fished out. I had 8 platies in a 20 as my first community tank, it was by far the most brilliant setup I've ever had. I'm sure they bred, but I never saw more than about 3 fry the entire time.

Mollies will be way too big, they are quite hefty fish in comparison to most of the other main livebearers. You might be able to do swords if you want, maybe if you get swordxplaty so you essentially have platies with a bit of tail.





For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Okay, the mollies are out, maybe I'll put some in the 55. Right now it looks like I'll be doing a guppy tank with an ADF, and maybe the betta, I'll keep my eye on him and move him if he's aggressive. I've liked the idea of a guppy tank since I saw one at my local library, I just wish they took better care of it, they have at least 50 guppies in a 20 gallon and don't have the filter running! But the tank does look amazing as far as the fish go, not clean though.

Callatya, the tank isn't planted except for one plant that was sold to me as a sword but doesn't look like one I've seen before. I have 2 plastic plants and a waterfall ornament that the frog likes. If they have too many fry I'll get rid of them or put them in the 55 South/Central American tank.

I think you'll be right, especially if the betta works out. If you had just livebearers you might see a few more fry, but with other fish in there you should be right.

If it wasn't for the betta going gaga at all the pretty (tasty) tails you could even just do an all male tank

And don't forget to quarantine As a general rule, the fancier something is, the weaker it is (a *very* general rule, considering the sheer number of species) so watch them carefully before you introduce new additions to your main colony

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Yeah, I've been lucky so far without a quarantine tank, but that might be because I have only had pretty hardy species of fish before now. I'll have to get one soon.

I hope that the betta works out, he loves the extra room in the 20 and I'd feel bad putting him back in a small tank.