If you have tropical fish, you will probably hope that they will breed.  But you can speed up the process if you follow these very brief simple  words of advice...

Which fish are livebearers (in other words, give birth to fully formed, live young)?

• Guppies
• Mollies
• Platies

The aforementioned fish are popular and readily obtainable livebearing fish.  Guppies are enthusiastic breeders and you can easily ask for male and female guppies from your local aquatics shop.

After male and female mate, how long do I wait?

Male and female will chase one another and the male will swing his anal fin to fertilise the female. Fish pregnancy lasts about a month on average... colder temperatures and lessening daylight may affect the length of the breeding cycle in a negative way (in other words, it slows down.)

How do I stop them being eaten?

Finally, you can buy a breeding container for catching the fry as they are born... only do this when you can see that a female fish has a larger, protruding belly... the container may stress her for too long in confinement.

Lots of weed (natural or artificial) helps for a place for fry to hide if they pop into the world too early!

Please ask any unanswered questions that you may have or let me know if this was helpful by clicking on the relevant icons below.

Happy breeding ...