Livebearer and predator tank.

[Daan281]

Dear MFKers,

I am currently building and scaping a Red Sea Reefer 425xl and was thinking of keeping livebearers with a species that lightly predates said livebearer.

I am contemplating JDs and variatus platies for this purpose and was wondering if a pair of JDs and 20-30 variatus platies is too much for the 4x2ft footprint at around 90 gallons.

Please share your thoughts on this and experience with JDs it would help a lot.

Also i have been thinking of wild type guppies (poecilia reticulata) as alternative base for the tank with maybe c. Frenata as predator? I do not want to overstock.

I have a built refugium with full spectrum lights built in the sump of about 60 liters for housing the livebearer colony breeding stock.

Kind regards and thanks in advance,

An amateur biologist and avid fish keeper.

Daan

 

[tlindsey]

pair of JDs and 20-30 variatus platies is too much for the 4x2ft footprint at around 90 gallons.

Welcome aboard!
I personally would add no more than ten variatus platies but that's me.

 

[tlindsey]

Dear MFKers,

I am currently building and scaping a Red Sea Reefer 425xl and was thinking of keeping livebearers with a species that lightly predates said livebearer.

I am contemplating JDs and variatus platies for this purpose and was wondering if a pair of JDs and 20-30 variatus platies is too much for the 4x2ft footprint at around 90 gallons.

Please share your thoughts on this and experience with JDs it would help a lot.

Also i have been thinking of wild type guppies (poecilia reticulata) as alternative base for the tank with maybe c. Frenata as predator? I do not want to overstock.

I have a built refugium with full spectrum lights built in the sump of about 60 liters for housing the livebearer colony breeding stock.

Kind regards and thanks in advance,

An amateur biologist and avid fish keeper.

Daan

View attachment 1566674

View attachment 1566675

Nice aquascape.

 

[Deadeye]

I would go with mollies if it were me. The babies will be eaten but adults are big enough where a Dempsey won’t pay them much attention. Mine doesn’t mess with Buenos Aires tetras at all, but I haven’t tried livebearers.

 

[Daan281]

Deadeye tlindsey Thanks for the responses, you do not think that JDs are too big as a pair in this tank? I do not like aquaria that seem small for the fish. Or genuinely are…

 

[tlindsey]

Dear MFKers,

I am currently building and scaping a Red Sea Reefer 425xl and was thinking of keeping livebearers with a species that lightly predates said livebearer.

I am contemplating JDs and variatus platies for this purpose and was wondering if a pair of JDs and 20-30 variatus platies is too much for the 4x2ft footprint at around 90 gallons.

Please share your thoughts on this and experience with JDs it would help a lot.

Also i have been thinking of wild type guppies (poecilia reticulata) as alternative base for the tank with maybe c. Frenata as predator? I do not want to overstock.

I have a built refugium with full spectrum lights built in the sump of about 60 liters for housing the livebearer colony breeding stock.

Kind regards and thanks in advance,

An amateur biologist and avid fish keeper.

Daan

View attachment 1566674

View attachment 1566675

Nice aquascape

Deadeye tlindsey Thanks for the responses, you do not think that JDs are too big as a pair in this tank? I do not like aquaria that seem small for the fish. Or genuinely are…

I think your good with the pair.

 

[Gourami Swami]

I think you will need more cover, likely thick plants, for a shot of it working. The tank isn't that large, won't provide much room for the livebearers to run. I do think that a pair of adult JD's and 20-30 platys would eventually be a bit much for 90 gallons, though it would be fine for quite a while if the cichlids weren't fully grown. You could do lots of maintenance or use a sump with plants etc. to offset this. The Molly idea above might work better than platys, but keep in mind they get quite large and will add to the bio load.
Overall I think the idea is good but you would have better luck with a bigger tank with much more cover, and larger numbers of both fish. It may still work to some degree in this setup. Best of luck

 

[duanes]

It´ll be interesting to see in a tank that small, if the live bearers have enough space to not be cornered.
In nature Rocio keep mollies populations in check by easily capturing semi adult fry, but the smallest fry spend a lot of times in the mangrove thickets in shallows ( water only a few inches deep, and only venture out when sufficiantly grown to avoid predation.

Once older the adults can avoid being captured in almost limitless space of hundreds of gallons available unable to be cornered.
In such space the JDs miss 9 out of 10 attempts are missed, but .even in 6 ft tanks with hundreds of gallons, cornering the live bearers, seems to be childs play.

In open water, the mollies and Gambusia are more than half the size of JDs, and are quite formidable..