The Fish Guide

Guide of Tropical Aquarium Fish

Climbing Perch (Anabas Testudineus)

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The body colour of climbing perch is a rich brown or olive, and also the fins are generally a tint of brown. On some specimens the tail fin is a beautiful dark red.

Even though these fish are labyrinthic fish, they don’t conform to the usual breeding process of producing a bubble nest, instead the eggs are left totally free to float on the surface, where they hatch in • one day at a temperature of 75°-80°F, that, is if you’re very fortunate. Effective breeding in an aquarium is practically unknown.

These fish are mainly nocturnal, and are invariably pugnacious, as a result they’re not great citizens for the community tank. Food should consist mainly of animal foods, preferably fed in small pieces, but these fish will eat nearly anything.

The climbing perch can survive long periods out of water providing its breathing organs are kept moist by occasional dips in water, or by humidity in the atmosphere.

When travelling overland, the fish supports itself by its strong pectoral fins and moves forward by extending the gill plates and rocking its body. The edges of the gill plates are serrated and this helps the fish to grip when climbing out of a pool.

Anabantids

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Anabantids are the family of labyrinthic fish. They possess unique accessory organs for breathing atmospheric air, and are consequently not so effortlessly affected by overcrowding.

The name labyrinth is derived from the intricate network of capillaries in the auxiliary breathing apparatus, which is comparable to a lung in animals. These capillaries are brought into contact with air really taken from the atmosphere.

Breathing isn’t the slow rhythmical procedure of the regular lung: oxygen is absorbed from a bubble of air taken into the mouth, retained for a although, and then expelled via the gills. A fresh bubble is taken in simultaneously with the expulsion of the old one.

Bubble nesters don’t breathe continually in this manner. Conditions of environment, oxygen content of water, and so on, all affect the use of the secondary organ. They’re not a particularly big family, and most of them are very suitable for aquarium use. As a matter of interest Ospkronemus gourami, one of the largest gouramis, attain a weight of over 20 lb.

As most of the Anabantids are bubble nesters, and breed a lot to the exact same pattern, the following description on breeding could be taken usually, any peculiarity to a species will probably be covered under the species heading to save repitition.

The nest is built by the male, either in a corner of the aquarium, under floating plants, or even under a single leaf. The fish rises to the surface, takes in a mouthful of air, and envelopes it in a Sticky saliva-like fluid, which, when expelled, floats to the surface. By continuing this action the bubble nester forms a dome shaped mound of sticky whitish bubbles.

At breeding time the species generally becomes pugnacious which might result in the death of one of them, and it generally turns out to be the female. For this reason your breeding tank should be thickly planted to provide a refuge to the female. Breeding pairs should be roughly the exact same size, and well fed on live foods. They take very well to dry foods, but prefer something moving.

When the male starts to develop the nest, you know he is ready to breed. If the pairs aren’t already together, it is time to introduce them by putting the male into the tank already occupied by his mate. You are able to recognise courtship by the heightened colour and activity of the male, who uses every wile to attract the female beneath the nest. Eventually she succumbs to his charm. Should she be slow to respond he becomes impatient, tearing her fins and attacking her in a most pugnacious manner. This, of course, is when she is most likely to meet her death. There’s naturally a certain quantity of boisterousness during this period, but should it turn out to be likely to result in death, removal of the male is advised. Give them an additional trial at a later date.

In a regular courtship, when the female is under the nest, the male wraps himself around the female in a nuptial embrace until the spawn is released.

This is instantly fertilised, and drops to the bottom of the tank. Now the male picks the eggs up and blows them into the sticky mass of bubble where they remain.

The spawning consists of repeated embraces and insertions of eggs into the nest, which will eventually number between 100 and 500. At this stage, the female should be removed, for the eggs are now cared for by father, who will resent any interference from her, charging tier away from the vicinity of the nest.

During the next two or 3 days the nest will have the undivided attention of the male, who will renew burst bubbles and replace eggs that fall. The nest will turn out to be noticeably larger.

In approximately two days, the eggs will hatch. The young will then be no much more than small black dots. Some will fall from the nest, only to be rapidly returned by the ever-vigilant father. After about 3 days, the yolk-sac will probably be absorbed and you’ll see the fry swimming about just below the surface. At this stage you should feed infusoria. The fry will now turn out to be much more active, and spread much more widely around the tank clinging to the glass, and also the job of keeping them together will probably be much more challenging for their hard-worked parent.

As the fry develop so the male will lose interest. He is then very likely to forget all of the trouble he has taken to protect them, and eat them, and it is at this time he should be removed. You are able to now rear the fry on infusoria followed by micro-worm, etc.

You’ll find that a cover over the aquarium prevents evaporation of the nest and protects the fry from draughts when they’re at a critical stage of their development, but care should be taken that the cover is suitably tilted to permit condensation to run back into the tank away from the nest, otherwise drops of water falling on the nest will break it up.

White Cloud Mountain Minnow (Tanichthys Albonubes)

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This is sparkling small fish is fondly referred to as ‘the poor man’s neon tetra’. The coupling of its name with such an aristocrat isn’t surprising, for even though it is not so startling in colour, it has the neon high quality of iridescence.

Body colouring is usually between a silvery olive and violet-blue, with a fluorescent line of electric blue-green running from just behind the eye along the side of the body to the tail. Further enchantment is added by a red base to the dorsal fin along with a streak via the tail.

The White Cloud Mountain minnow is fairly a hardy species. It can stand a considerable tem-perature range of 40°- 90°F, but don’t attempt to maintain them in such varying conditions. Peaceful, attractive, and simple to feed, they do prefer just a little and frequently, instead of one large feed a day.

The average length for a fully grown specimen is 1.25 inch, but regrettably, as they increase in size; their brilliance diminishes. They’re at their greatest when only ten to fourteen weeks old.
The dorsal fin could be utilized as an indication to sex; it is longer in the male.

The very best breeding temperature is between 68° and 75°F. Courtship is a lot the exact same as with the danios-the male chases and also the female scatters eggs freely.

The very best technique of preparing the aquarium for spawning is with a fine-leafed plant, like Myrio-phyllum, loosely anchored with thin strips of lead to form a dense mat on the bottom of the tank. Water depth should be no much more than 6 inches. It is feasible to spawn this species with out any plants, even though as a safety measure planting is most likely most advisable.

Breeding traps for the White Clouds are the exact same as those for danios. In specific these traps could be utilized if your fish are likely to spawn whenever you won’t be accessible to remove them instantly afterwards.

Scissortail Fish (Rasbora Trilineata)

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Aquarium scissortail fish rarely exceed three inches, even though in the wild they’ve been discovered up to 8 inch. They’re peaceful, hardy, and make outstanding community fish. The body is silver-white and somewhat translucent, with a dark line running along the middle of the side, and an additional line from just in front of the anal fin to the base of the lower lobe of the caudal fin. The distinctive tail is forked, frequently orange in colour, and tipped on every lobe with a black and white bar. When the fish is swimming the tail action is scissor-like, hence its well-liked name.

This fish has been bred in captivity and it would seem that a water depth of about 5 inch is perfect, with a pH of 6.6 – 6.8. The temperature should be about 80°F and also the tank should be big and well planted.

A number of males should be utilized to a single female. Eggs will hatch in five to six days and also the fry will grow rapidly on infusoria. When two weeks old, the fry could be given screened daphnia.

Harlequin (Rasbora Heteromorpha)

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Rasbora heteromorpha is just an additional example of nature’s versatility in colour design. The silvery forepart of the body graduates into a rose pink as it nears the centre, which then carries correct via to suffuse most of the tail. The dark marking, shown in the illustration above, from which it gets the well-liked name of harlequin, forms a triangle from the tail, ending in a curve over the spot where the pink and silver combine.

The sex could be determined in a fully developed fish by a golden line running along the top edge of the dark triangle. This is much better coloured and much more pronounced in the male. A further indication is the fuller belly of the female near breeding time.

Feeding on prepared foods keeps the harlequin in reasonable condition, but live foods should be given as frequently as feasible to maintain them in the greatest feasible condition.

Breeding this species is very challenging; even the specialists have not really mastered the method. The unknown quantity has yet to be discovered. The technique as far as recognized is as follows. The temperature should be between 78° and 82° F, and old slightly acid water should be utilized in an aquarium containing broad-leafed plants like Sagittaria gigantea or the larger Cryptocorynes. Courtship should commence within a day or two after the fish are introduced. The female will take up an inverted position, touching her belly on the underside of the leaves. Presently the male will join her, clasping her by curving his body around hers. During this embrace, one or two eggs are discharged on to the leaf, the female remaining in the inverted position.

The action is continued for about two hours and during this period somewhere between 30 and 80 eggs should be laid on the leaves of the plants. The eggs will hatch approximately 18 hours later supplied that the water is kept at a temperature of 80° F.

Black Shark (Labeo Chrysophekadion)

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One of the few truly black tropicals, the black shark has a very attractive shark-like outline which is enhanced by the big dorsal fin which is invariably carried erect. As the fish ages, it has a tendency to lose its rich black colour and turn out to be a golden tint, starting at the caudal fin.

Aquarium specimens are fairly hardy and can turn out to be fairly big, 10 inches long, in reality, and in their natural environment grow up to 2 ft.

The black shark has a small, sucker-like mouth, and is virtually harmless to other fish. It likes to scavenge on the bottom among the rocks and crowns of the plants. Regrettably it has not as yet been bred in captivity and, as a result, the breeding habits are unknown.