Livebearers

Livebearers are all very hardy and are considered to be a good fish for beginners. Even so, the Livebearers are a lot of fun and many experienced fish keepers continue to delight in keeping them! There are lots of different varieties with lots of different colors readily available. Many livebearers are tank bred and readily available. Rare species and wild caught species, however, are usually only available through aquarists' societies such as the American Livebearers Association. The livebearers are not found on all continents, only on the Americas and in Asia. Livebearers appeared late in the evolutionary process about 44-38 million years ago during the Oligocene and Miocene periods. Livebearers have an advantage over the egg laying fish in that the young can immediately hide from predators from the moment of birth. The young of these fish are born live and almost fully developed, but watch the parents as they will eat their fry.Livebearing aquarium fish belong to several fish families. What they all have in common is that they do not lay eggs. They give birth to live offspring. There are some very beautiful wild forms of livebearers, but there are also a great many cultivated varieties that are very popular. Through selective breeding their colors and fin shapes have been changed to create some unusual effects. To view some statistics on many individual fish, just click on any picture.