Gambusia Breeding

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ccdoido38

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 30, 2007
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Lately I've been finding tiny fry in my tank, which the family members quickly eat up but today I decided to set up a breeding tank.

Currently the tank temp. that I found the babies in were 78~80F
I will now be placing the pregnant fish in a un-heated tank but will they still breed?
I'm not sure if it'll work out in a room temp. tank at this time of year.

Are they breeding because the tank is warm, thus making the fish think that it is spring or summer? Since I think they're coldwater fish since I have caught them outside. Or do they still breed even in the cold winters?


By the way, these are some kind of mosquito fish, or some kind of gambusia.


Should I heat the breeding tank?

Right now I just have a 10gallon tank set up with a pump faced upwards to get aggitation and a bio media above it and a heater.

do these mosquito fish or whatever need to be heated to breed?
 
I dont know much about them myself but this is probably the wrong forum to be asking for help on to be honest since the rare fish this forum tends to specialize in are huge cichlids, not small livebearers :). Helterskelter at fishforums.net is a British fellow who knows his stuff about livebearers, I'd bet he could be a lot of help.
 
Gambusia breed whenever and wherever they can, and they can have up to 7 broods after one mating. I caught 10 or so pregnant females on Tuesday and it was 30F outside. They're development is faster at higher temps, but higher than 80F can slow down birth rates, because the babies can't survive higher temps like the parents can (up to 95F). At room temp, gestation seems to last somewhere between 3-6 weeks, depending on the size of the fish (smaller fish have smaller broods). Just fix a 5 gallon tank that's heavily planted, and put the female in there when she looks due (about to explode) and she'll have her babies in the tank where the babies can hide. Take her out after she's given birth and you can feed the babies crushed flake food and frozen foods.
 
i've seen the other fish et the fry but do the mothers also eat the fry like guppys do?
 
Yes, but the females won't eat for up to 24 hours after giving birth, so the quicker you get her out, the better.
 
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