How do fish have babies and do they cross-breed?

Answer 1

Some fish lay eggs and some fish bear their babies (fry) alive. The livebearers generally give birth to the fry and forget them from then on.

The egglayers are much more sophisticated. Some will tend the eggs and protect them even after they hatch until the fry are free swimming. Some just scatter the eggs as they are fertilized by the males and forget them. Some of the Africans will lay the eggs, fertilize them and then the female will pick them up in her mouth and hold them until they hatch and can swim on their own. Sometimes this takes up to 3 or 4 weeks. The female does not eat during this time.

Most species will not cross breed. There are some color varieties of the same species that will, but this does not produce desireable offspring.

Some of the African cichlids from the rift lakes will interbreed such as the peacocks and various mbuna from Lake Malawi and Tanganyika. This is not the rule, rather it is the exception.

Live bearers do not crossbreed. No matter what you have been told, it is not going to happen. The males are so oversexed, they will chase anything that remotely resembles a female but species do not mix in the livebearing fishes.

There are many different color varieties and fin styles that make it look like they have been frisky, but those are the results of intensive line breeding and color fixing by commercial breeders and not mixing of species.

Answer 2

Fish fall into two main groups, livebearers that obviously have live babies and eggs layers which, you guessed it, lay eggs. The different methods egg layers use are highly varied from species to species and many books have been written on the subject. It's far more than can be covered here.

Some cross breeding happens between closely related species, but rarely does it give you anything good. Most of the time the results are a worse fish than either parent species.

MM

Answer 3

Some lay eggs like Oscars, some give live birth like Mollies and Platys. Yes they cross breed, a flowerhorn is a popular example of that.

Answer 4

We use to breed fish gold fish feeders and fancy tail guppies. We had a live plant on the top of our tank and we caged a male and female together in a breeding pen and we came out with colored fancy tails and the pet store love it and we sold our guppies too.

Answer 5

if u see that your fish has black dots that means shes pregnant and it takes like a week to give birth

Answer 6

Go fellow mermaid lovers!!!!!