PlanetCatfish.com

Or breeding.

I haven't kept fish long, but I have been minorly successfull with breeding a few, although unintentionally. My bronze cories, my multi shelldweller cichlids...even once, my golden wonder killifish. And I don't really cound the myriads of mollies and guppies I kept prior.

I'm wondering, outside of the common bread and butter livebearer (mollies, guppies, swordtails, and platies), are livebearers more difficult, or less to breed than egglayers? I am aware that there are many other species of livebearers, like rays and sharks, that are included in that "grouping," but since they tend to be uncommon in the trade, I don't mix them with the common guppy.

The "Common" livebearers are generally quite hardy and able to reproduce in a wide variety of conditions, both regarding temperature and water quality. This makes them very easy to breed.

Also, you have to remember that evolution made them livebearers for a reason: The babies are relatively self-sufficient when they are born, grow quickly and can soon reproduce [I'm not thinking of whale-sharks here... ].

Egg-layers come in all categories from easy to very difficult, both making them spawn and getting the babies to survive after they have hatched out of the eggs (assuming you keep the eggs long enough for that to happen).

I don't think there is a direct link between "how babies are made" and how difficult they are, but generally, the better parental care [in which I would include "carrying eggs inside females tummy"], the easier the task for the aquarist. If you want to find easy to breed species, look for "good parents". Then combine that with "accepts wide range of water conditions" and "spawns at the drop of a hat".

I'm still wondering what you're actually trying to ask...

--
Mats

yup.

another thing: fish that are livebearers are NOT automatically easier to breed than egglaying fish.

most easy to breed are fish that take care (or even feed) their own young; chances of raising hordes of Convict and Jewel-fry are even bigger than breeding guppies.

try breaking your teeth on for example Brachyraphis spp or even worse; Dermogenys or other Half Beaks wich are notoriously hard to breed.

compared to those breeding barbs, the average Hemigrammus (Characins) or c ichlids is downright easy.

There's no "rule" that livebearing fish are better or easier to breed in captivity or in the wild; it's just another scenario of multiplying.

if it was "better"; you would see much more, or even just (!) livebearing species today, wich is obviously not the case

I would say that the biggest difference, in most cases, is raising the fry. The fry of egg layers (as a general rule) need more care as they usually need small foods for the first few weeks. Livebearer fry can take care of themselves. Goodeid fry are little monsters at birth and could compete with anything. I have a tank right now with several Danios and a male and female Poeciliopsis gracilis. Every 6-8 weeks I have to remove baby livebearers as the tank gets crowded (she averages 12-15 fry evert two weeks). The Danios spawn in there as well, but I never expect to find Danio fry as they can not take care of themselves.
-Shane

I'd have to put convict at the top of my list. Even without specific feeding, the small fry still find enough food. That may be due to my house keeping though... algae infested plants are ok, if it tried to grow. [But low light means not much in the way of green algaes.]

Livebearers can be easy, by there is the whole fry predation issue too. Without a big convict to defend the fry, they wont be long for any of my tanks. I had platies and only had 8 fry in several months, before the julies finally stressed the adults to death In a well planted tank with no predators though, it may be a differnt story.

I havnt had any luck with danios (egg collection still eludes me) or my cories (egg collection, fungus, hungry tankmates)so I would say theyre more difficult for me...

That's what I see as well; other livebearers eating all the fry.

I recently lost a few batches of Characodon lateralis; so now I definitely need a very densely planted tank where I can let a gravid female 'explode'.
ditto Brachyraphis.

Ilyodon on the other hand is quite peaceful, and I'm up to the eyebrows in Ilyodon-fry