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Read the article on how to tell the difference between male and female livebearers, and it does appear that I've got mixed sexes of my black mollies and my red wag platies.

Looks like I have 1 male, 3 female mollies, and 2 male, 3 female platies. Decent ratios, it appears. I'm thinking they'll most likely breed without any intervention on my part, and I really wouldn't mind, but I don't want them to overbreed. On the other hand, I do want them to breed some. So here's my tank setup, and I'll happily take suggestions to help me try to find a balance between new baby fish and new live fish food!

55 gallon tank: 4 black mollies, 5 red wag platies, 8 zebra danios, 5 tiger barbs, 1 small algae eater, 1 giant common plec that I'm trying to find a new home for.

I did a water test the other day, and I don't have the numbers right in front of me but it was right around normal, except the pH was between 6.2 and 6.5. Nitrates, Nitrites, GH KH all normal.

I don't currently have any live plants in the tank, although I did buy some bulbs at walmart (stop laughing) and dropped them in the other day to see if they actually grow as advertised. I do have one large silk plant in the back corner, a "driftwood log", several various sized rocks, and a cave all on the bottom of the tank. I have a square of "breeding grass" that I finally gave up keeping planted at the bottom of the tank that's floating at the top (because the pleco keeps uprooting it).

Do livebearers breed better with live plants? Or does it matter? Is there a certain pH range that will trigger them?

Thoughts/suggestions welcome. Just watch your tone of text, longhairedgit!

Listen! Do you smell that?

I can only comment on the wal-mart bulbs. I bought a package & gave one each to two relatives. Two of mine came up & are still alive but not doing really good cause there is so little light & I keep playing in the tank moving things around.

Both bulbs came up in the relatives tanks & are doing great. They have smaller tanks.
We all planted ours in the gravel though. But if you do that, mark the spot somehow....cause I kept forgetting where I planted mine & would vacuum one up sometimes. But for the money I think those bulbs are great.........maybe not for my tank, with low light, but great non the less.

Attached Image:

The pack I got actually had I think 6 bulbs in it, for like $2.30 or around there. I tossed them in the water, and 2 of them went ahead and sank, some floated. I went and ahead and pushed several of them down into the gravel, but tomorrow night the gravel gets vacuumed and a water change is happening so they're gonna get replanted.

Listen! Do you smell that?

hi,
i once had black mollys loved em but they dident do so well for me but a female is longer the stomach is smaller than the male and theres kind of hook and thereback fin but thats all i can realy help with

welcome to fp

33 gallon 7 neon tetras-5 platys-3 bleeding heart tetras-2 corys-1 rainbow shark-2 L83 gibby plecos

Though I have heard that certain ranges of ph will produce more offspring, that should not effect them having fry. Keep your stocking as it is and you will have plenty of fry soon enough. Be prepared to separate those males and females because it can get out of control real fast. Unfortunately in my case I had to get rid of the breeding grass and anything the fry could hide in because they were breeding too much. Now they get eaten which though it is natural is sad. The fry are really cute. I wish you the best of luck.

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