Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Livebearers are fish that retain their eggs inside the body and give birth to live, free-swimming young. They are especially prized by aquarium owners. They are especially prized by aquarium owners. Among aquarium fish, livebearers are nearly all members of the family Poeciliidae and include: guppies , mollies , platies and swordtails .
The guppy (Poecilia reticulata), also known as millionfish or the rainbow fish, [3] is one of the world's most widely distributed tropical fish and one of the most popular freshwater aquarium fish species. It is a member of the family Poeciliidae and, like almost all American members of the family, is live-bearing. [4]
The sailfin molly is a tolerant species, as it can exploit the thin film of oxygen-rich surface water with its upturned mouth, so is able to survive oxygen-depleted habitats. A euryhaline species, the sailfin molly may be found in a variety of saline environments, tolerating salinities as high as 87 ppt [10] and breeding in brackish waters.
Due to release of aquarium specimens and the widespread use of species of the genera Poecilia and Gambusia for mosquito control, though, poeciliids can today be found in all tropical and subtropical areas of the world.
Platies are easy to keep and well suited to a community aquarium. They prefer water with a 7.0–8.0 pH, a water hardness of 9.0–19.0 dGH, and a temperature range of 18–25 °C (64–77 °F). [5] In captivity, they reach maturity in three to four months, and breed readily, the females giving birth to about 20–40 young at a time.
Poecilia vivipara, sometimes called the southern molly, is a small euryhaline livebearer fish distributed along the Atlantic coast of South America. It is most frequently found in standing brackish water. It has been introduced outside its native range to control mosquito populations and is occasionally kept in home aquariums.
The front half of the fish is mostly silver but the rear has alternating gold and black vertical bars. Like most poeciliids, Neoheterandria elegans is a livebearer. The male uses his modified anal fin, or gonopodium, to deliver sperm to the female. The fertilized eggs grow within the female until they hatch, and the young are released free ...
Such algae covered aquarium tanks, are not always a pleasant sight, so the young fish should be raised in a separate algae covered tank and not in the parent's aquarium itself. After a 24 days gestation period, from five to ten, and rarely up to 15, young are born, each measuring 2 to 2.5 mm. Sexual maturity occurs after the third or fourth month.