Friend's live bearer had babies!!

[sainthogan]

I was over at a friend's house today, and when I walked past her tank, I noticed a tiny little fish swimming around near the bottom. Turns out one of her brand new live bearers had babies!! They blended in perfectly with the orange plants, so we couldn't see how many were there, 2 for sure, one of them was twice the size of the other. The littlest one was only about this big __. They were so cute!! The adults were hovering around the orange plants like they were protecting the little ones from the much bigger fish of different breeds in her tank. The bigger of the 2 babies was swimming around, over and under the male adult that was staying by the plants.

I couldn't get pictures because she's having a problem with algae on the glass of her tank, but I did try.

[Fabian]

Livebearers are easy to breed if given cover like live plants.
You were saying that the adults were hovering?
Adult livebearers will eat their young.This is why the fry hide in the plants.

[MaisyDawgThirteen]

Cool! What breed of livebearer are they? Guppies, Mollies, Platies, Endler's?

[sainthogan]

Not all live bearers eat their young. Generally the female will, but not the male. (My uncle used to have only live bearers and he raised the fry to adults) The baby was swimming around the adult male, and he wasn't trying to eat him, but he was chasing away the bigger fish in the tank if they came too close, including the female. There are 2 males and 1 female, and both males were hanging close to the orange plants - 1 on each end of the tank. Both were chasing off the bigger fish.
I think they were platy fish. I'll have to ask her for sure though.

[aokashi]

My female heterandria formosa drops babies as regularly as she poops. lolol
they're too big for mommy or daddy to eat

[Fabian]

I know some but most of them eat their fry.

[Maddybelle]

LOL, yep my "feeder" guppies, look close to the wild type, drop babies almost every day! The fry grow very quickly, too. I've never had a problem with the babies getting eaten.

[MaisyDawgThirteen]

Originally Posted by aokashi

My female heterandria formosa drops babies as regularly as she poops. lolol
they're too big for mommy or daddy to eat

Why tank do you keep the Dwarf Livebearesr in? :)