The Fish Guide

Guide of Tropical Aquarium Fish

Argentine Pearl Fish (Cynolebias Bellottii)

by

This attractive species is also recognized as the blue chromide. The male has a general body colour of dark slatey-blue which changes to blue-green on the fins. The body and fins are speckled with pearly-white spots.

Females are ochre or yellow-green, marked irregularly with brownish stripes comparable to the graining on marble. The margins of the males anal, caudal and dorsal fins are dark. Both sexes have a dark stripe via the eye.

Under natural conditions these fish breed in ditches and puddles during the rainy season. The male makes a little depression in the mud, and into the depression the female deposits a single egg which is instantly fertilised and covered by the male. This performance is then repeated. When the pools dry out, the parents perish, but the eggs are protected by the damp mud and remain dormant until the next rains come. The eggs then hatch out and also the cycle is continued.

Breeding in an aquarium requires a temperature of 72°F and slightly brackish water (one tea-spoonful of sea-salt per gallon should be added to the aquarium).

After spawning, remove the adults and drain the aquarium gradually over a period frequently days. Leave the sand moist and also the tank empty for about 3 weeks. Then refill over a period of 3 to four days with clean rain water. The young should hatch in about two days. Feed with brine shrimps or sifted daphnia.

Rearing the fry isn’t especially challenging; supplied they’re well fed with live food they’ll reach adult size within eight weeks.

Yellow Gularis (Aphyosemion Gulare)

by

This fish is very comparable in numerous respects to the blue gularis, in reality the blue gularis is considered to be a larger sub-species of a Aphyosemion gulare. The latter is only about 2.5 inch long when adult.

Body colour is yellow to pale brown marked by dark reddish brown mottling on the fore component of the body, which modifies gradually into vertical bars at the rear of the body. The dorsal fin has a red line and carmine flecks. The anal fin is pale yellow, flecked with carmine. The caudal fin is red, streaked with red-brown on the lower component.

Females are usually less colourful with less mottlings and have colourless fins.

It breeds in a comparable manner to A. coeruleum, but not so readily.

Live foods should be the staple diet of this species, as it is strictly carnivorous. Nevertheless, it may occasionally take a mouthful of dried food.

Blue Gularis (Aphyosemion Coeruleum)

by

Blue gularis vary somewhat in colour, but usually the body is a yellow-brown that darkens on the back, and lightens to a blue white on the belly. The lips and gill covers are blue but the gill covers are also marked with red streaks. These streaks are also present on the fore component of the body. The rear of the body is marked with red dots, together with a couple of vertical bars. The dorsal fin is green-blue and tinged with red at the base, the somewhat big anal fin is greenish, dotted red, and blue fringed. The caudal fin is reasonably big and has 3 ‘tails’. The upper is blue marked with red dots and streaks; the middle is red and yellow; and also the lower is blue-green streaked with red. Females are paler in colour.

An overall colour effect of blue is experienced when viewing this species in a great light. This isn’t strictly a community fish; it prefers rather unique conditions, and even though it is not a troublesome species, it has a decided liking for fish little sufficient to be eaten.
It a lot prefers old water at a temperature not in excess of 74° F. It doesn’t like to be subjected to very strong light.

Aquariums containing blue gularis should be covered to stop the fish jumping out. Adult fish grow to about 4.5 inch.

Keep in mind this species is carnivorous and should only be fed with live foods.

Breeding temperature should be about 70°F. Eggs are laid singly either on, or near, the bottom, and can take a long time to hatch. Fry aren’t challenging to raise.

Banded Fundulus (Aphyosemion Bivittatum)

by

The body colour is yellow-brown marked with crimson spots. There is a dark stripe extending from the nose, via the eye, and along the body to the tail root. A second stripe extends from below the eye, along the lower part of the body and terminates also on the tail root. The dorsal fin is beautifully marked with crimson spots near the base, and streaked with the exact same colour on the tip. The anal and caudal fins are marked similarly.

The fins are much more developed and much better marked on the male. This is particularly true of the caudal fin which has extending filaments on the upper and lower lobes.
This species should be kept in old water, pH 7.5. The fish won’t take kindly to even slightly new water, and they do need a carnivorous diet, preferably live.

They’re just a little challenging to maintain successfully and not too simple to breed. Nevertheless, neither is impossible.

Eggs are deposited among clumps of plants and hatch in about 12 days. The perfect breeding temperature is about 72° F and also the water should be slightly saline.

Lyretail (Aphyosemion Australe)

by

The male lyretail is a especially handsome fellow. The general body colour is a light brownish-green, darkening on the back to sepia, and lightening to bluish-green on the belly. The body is spotted with irregular carmine marks. Both the dorsal and anal fins are edged with a carmine and blue-green stripe. As might be expected, the tail is most stunning, the outer rays are pink to orange terminating in white suggestions and within the outer rays two broad stripes of carmine form a box-like pattern encompassing a blue-green panel and this is spotted with carmine dots. The outer rays of the tail, dorsal and anal fins decrease into filaments.

The female has a comparable body colour, and is marked with a couple of carmine spots on the body and unpaired fins, otherwise she is fairly plain.

This species grow to about 2.5 inch in length. They should be kept in slightly acid old water of pH 6-8. The breeding temperature should be 78°F, and also the eggs hatch in 12-14 days. The eggs are unlikely to be eaten by the adults, but remove them when the spawning has been completed as a precautionary measure.

Egg-Laying Tooth Carps

by

The egg-laying tooth carps are effortlessly distinguished from the live-bearing tooth carps by the absence of the external sex organ, the gonopodium. They’re not fairly so effortlessly bred, but the satisfaction of a great spawning gives a greater sense of achievement.

The following description of spawning by the egg-layers could be taken as a generality, for, in most instances, the spawnings are comparable, but where particular departures from this happen, they’ll be dealt with under the heading of the species.

For the egg-laying tooth carps, your aquarium should be prepared with dense thickets of fine-leaved plants with lots of open space to permit them to chase.

Willow root is an outstanding medium for protecting eggs in the spawning tank, it forms a dense mat into which the eggs can fall. Make certain that the root is boiled prior to introducing it into the breeding tank. The benefit of willow root is that it could be stored and utilized whenever needed.

Sexes that have been kept separate are much more likely to spawn readily, but if accommodation is so limited that it prevents this, separate them 3 or four days prior to introducing them to the breeding tank.

Healthy strong fish produce the very best offspring, so feed them rather much more often than usual for about a week prior to mating with scrapings of raw meat, daphnia, shrimp, earthworm, and little quantities of dried prepared food.

Introduce the female a day in advance of the male to let her acclimatise herself to the new surroundings. When the male is put in he might seem rather shy at initial, but it’ll not be long prior to courtship takes place. This takes the form of repeated dashes about the tank accompanied by numerous actions like fin nibbling, and quivering side by side.

Eggs dropped amongst the plants by the female are fertilised by milt ejected from the male. At the completion of the spawning, both parents or the plants to which the eggs are attached should be removed to an additional tank, bearing in mind the temperatures should be consistent. This prevents the parents eating the eggs.

The incubation varies with various species. When the eggs hatch the young look like an egg to which a fine body is attached to the top, and as the fish develop, the egg-like appendage, which is the yolk-sac, becomes absorbed. The yolk-sac offers nourishment in the initial stages prior to the fish are able to swim and invest their time keeping out of harm’s way hopping about on the sandy bottom, or clinging to the glass sides of the aquarium.

It is this stage, the early feeding period, that’s the most critical. It is as well to begin a culture of infusoria as soon as the spawning takes place, to ensure that it is available when required. It is challenging to state how a lot infusoria should be given as it varies so a lot in high quality. Experience will offer the very best guide. Nevertheless, the feeding should be frequent, to ensure that the bellies of the fry visibly bulge.

You’ll notice that some of the youngsters will develop much more rapidly than other people. Most likely some are born much more energetic, and get the original benefit by eating the most and greatest food.