Do pet store fish reproduce?
Fish stores get regular shipments of fish from fish breeders – that’s why they always have so many. Some fish breed extremely easily in almost any tank conditions with no effort required from their owners – and indeed, I’ve seen fry (baby fish) of these types in fish store tanks, so yes, if they stayed in the store long enough, they’ll breed. The easy breeders are the livebearers – they have live babies instead of laying eggs – such as mollies, swordtails, platys, guppies, etc. If you get any of these types of fish, you’ll probably wind up with babies before long. With most species of fish, it’s difficult to downright impossible to tell which fish are male and which are female. A few species are clearly different – example, male swordtails have a sword on their tail and female swordtails don’t. Male bettas have big long fins and bright colors, females have shorter fins and more brown colors. And so on.
