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Live-bearing aquarium fish


Live-bearing aquarium fish, often simply called livebearers, are fish that retain the eggs inside the body and give birth to live, free-swimming young. Among aquarium fish, livebearers are nearly all members of the Poeciliidae family and include guppies, mollies, platies and swordtails.

The advantages of livebearing to the aquarist are that the newborn juvenile fish are larger than newly-hatched fry, have a lower chance of mortality and are easier to care for. Unusual livebearers include seahorses and pipefish, where the males care for the young, and certain cichlids that are mouthbrooders, with the parent incubating the eggs in the buccal cavity.

Species of interest to aquarists are almost always members of the family Poeciliidae, most commonly guppies, mollies, platies, swordtails, Endler's livebearer, and mosquito fish. Most of these are ovoviviparous, with the developing embryos receiving no nourishment from the parent fish, but a few are viviparous, receiving food from the maternal blood supply.

Live-bearing aquarium fish, often simply called livebearers, are fish that retain the eggs inside the body and give birth to live, free-swimming young. Because the newborn fish are large compared to the fry of oviparous fish, they are easier to feed than the fry of egg-laying species, such as characins and cichlids. This makes them much easier to raise, and for this reason, aquarists often recommend them for beginners to fish breeding. In addition, being much larger makes them far less vulnerable to predation, and with sufficient cover, they can sometimes mature in a community tank.


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