In its natural habitat it lives in very clean, soft, slightly
acid water. Aquarium breeding is very easy.
Select a dozen fish to begin with. Keep them in pure water to
which no chemicals have been added. I have found that rain water which has been
aged for several months in the dark is an ideal spawning solution. The pH of
such water is usually less than 6.0 and it doesn't matter if it is as low as 4.8
since the fish thrive in it.
Keep the males and females separate. If kept in adjacent tanks
the females may spawn in excitement just seeing the males in the next tank.
After feeding the fish well on live and freeze-dried foods for a
month, I set up bare tanks which are almost completely covered with spawning
grasses. Artificial spawning grass serves well as
do the usual fine leaved natural plants.
Place a very active male and a very full female in a small tank
of about 2 1/2 gallons and fill it with unused rain water and the spawning
grass. Introduce the pair of fish in the early evening
immediately before sunset, giving the fish the entire night to
acclimate to their new surroundings. The fish almost always spawn within the
next 48 hours. The majority of them spawn the second morning. Spawns are small,
usually about 100 eggs, and may take up to about five hours with the regular mad
dashes into the spawning grasses. The breeders should be removed on the evening
of the second day, whether they have spawned or not. The eggs hatch, in a water
temp of 78 F, in 30 hours and the fry are very small and very sensitive. Many
males seem to be sterile. ( out of 27 spawnings, 14 males were unable to
fertilize the eggs ) The fry require copious amounts of infusoria, and when you
get the food right for them, you will have remarkable success.
Remove the spawning medium carefully, but as soon as the fry are
free swimming. This gives the young a better chance at catching the infusoria. (
leave a light on in the corner of the tank and the infusoria and fry will
congregate there to feed. After two weeks the fry may then be fed newly hatched
San Francisco Brine Shrimp. After the young are free swimming, raise the temp to
about 82 F for more rapid growth. Make sure that their bellies are well rounded
( a sure sign that they are finding enough to
eat ) Always keep the sexes separate. They are excellent fish
for any
community aquarium.