Aquariums Articles How Aquarium Fish Breed Aquarium 1000s of Products at Great Prices. Shop and Save at Pronto. Aquarium breeding can be a very exciting hobby. It is always fascinating trying to watch fish breed and ultimately give birth to a new set of young fingerlings that will grow up into new colorful fish breeds. But you might need to learn and understand how fish breed in order to be successful at it. The first thing that a hobbyist should learn is how most fish breed. In most cases, fish that you can come across in this hobby breed in two ways. There are some fish that lay eggs while there are some that give birth to live young fingerlings. Live bearing fish give birth to fully formed young that are already able to swim. The females are fertilized internally by the males and carry the fry inside for about four to five weeks before delivering them. The small babies then instinctively go and look for food or hide upon being delivered in the outside world. Examples of live bearing aquarium fish include guppies, platies, swordtails and the ever popular mollies. There are other aquarium fish that are fairly easy to breed like the ones that belong to the Goodeid family of aquarium fish. The larger females can easily be fertilized by it smaller counterpart male by using a rod-like anal fin called the gonopodium in order to internally fertilize the female. After that, the female then is able to produce multiple batches of fries without the male present. Aquarium Find and Compare prices on aquarium at Smarter.com. Egg layers on the other hand lay their young in the form of eggs instead of giving birth to live young babies. Egg layers usually take about a week or two to go through the whole process of hatching their young although it can vary widely for most other fish. As the fish hatch into fries, they usually have tiny yolk sacs attached to them which provides them with nourishment after they hatch. This sac disappears as they slowly mature. The Pet Stop Source for marine fish and invertebrates, aquariums, and supplies. Find monthly aquarium specials. Egg laying aquarium fish have different methods of laying their eggs. Some females scatter their eggs onto gravel or weeds as the male tries to chase the females during spawning. The eggs are eventually fertilized during the chase sequence and ready to hatch in weeks once they fall to the ground. Examples of such egg layers include tetras, barbs, rasboras and danios. There are some egg layers that have their eggs attached to a fixed location such as rocks, plants, wood and even the aquarium glass. The males fertilize the eggs as the females attach the eggs on a certain location. Examples of such unique egg layers include some cichlids, killifish as well as many varieties of catfish. Free 3D Fish Screensaver Turn your desktop into a virtual fish aquarium with your free 3D marine aquarium screensaver. Beautiful colors, life-like animations. There are also egg layers who place their eggs on bubble nests blown by the males. The bubbles attract some organisms that become food for the young and keep the eggs above the surface to keep them well-oxygenated. Examples of such egg layers include betas and gouramis. Then there are the mouth brooders that keep the fertilized eggs in their mouths until the eggs hatch. Examples of these are arrowanas and some female cichlids. Ainuddin Mohamad is the Webmaster of the Online Reading Center at http://onlinereadingcenter.com which features online reading resources.