Spawning Rasboras and Boraras

[livionakano]

Hi people

I am surprised to find so many species of fishes that successful spawn and breed at the tanks of the users of this forum. Not only killies, but also Corydoras, Pseudomugil gertrudae, Ottocinclus and so on.

So, I am asking about any experience in reproducing these two genus of fishes, as most of the users here seems to be relatively close to their "motherlands" (or should I said "motherstreams"?)

Regards

Livio

[stormhawk]

Livio, most of the rasboras and boraras are egg-scatterers with a handful being egg-depositors.

From info that I have on hand, Boraras species, in this case B. maculatus, are bred by first housing the females (which are less colourful and much fatter) in the breeding tank where they are conditioned beforehand. The males are introduced into the tank in the early part of the day about 1 or 2 weeks after the female has remained in that tank. You should provide mosses, ferns or some other plants like cryptocorynes and an acidic pH. The pair should spawn in the early hours of the day and they should be removed once spawning is complate.

The eggs should hatch in about 2 to 3 days time after which the fry are pretty small. As long as you have some form of infusoria in the tank, they should survive for some time.

Again I must stress I've never bred them before. I do keep them but mine have never shown signs of breeding although the females are extremely fat and the males are a bright red colour. Whatever info I'm providing is from information that I have in the form of spawning articles printed in some magazines. I hope its of help.