By Simon Onabowale, BFAS
Having successfully spawned swordtails I was ready to step up and try another more obscure live-bearer. The Red-tail Goodeid is not widely kept in the aquarium hobby but is a beautiful fish for a community tank. Color varies from a dull grey to a bright yellow depending on its mood and water conditions. As the name suggests the tail is a nice reddish-orange color. A native of Mexico and Central America this species is hardy and can endure wide ranges in both pH (5.5-8.0) and temperature (13C to 32C). It stays small (grows to about 6cm) and is relatively peaceful - getting along with other live bearers as well as gourami and smaller cichlids.
Food
It isn’t fussy about food either and will eat flakes, frozen or live
food. As it has a small mouth it is best to feed crushed flakes and small live
food like brine shrimp. The occasional bloodworm treat is gobbled up. The Red-tail
will eat primarily from the top level but occupies all levels of the tank and
will scavenge food from the bottom.
|
|
|---|---|
| Male | Female |
Sexing
Sexing is easy once the fish is mature. Females will be slightly rounder with
a gray patch on the stomach just in front of the anal fin. I have found the
males to be smaller and to have a brighter red tail. They also tend to be
pinker around the gills.
Breeding
As this is a relatively peaceful fish getting them to breed is not extremely
difficult. Like mammals, the male impregnates the female and she carries
the fry to term (about 60 days depending on conditions). The typical ratio
of 1 male to 2 females works well and reduces the male sparring that can
occur. I started with a group of 5 juveniles – 2 males, 3 females in
a 20gallon community tank shared with gouramis, swords and snails. As they
grew it became apparent which were females and which were males and I kept
a close eye on the condition of the females. As the fry grew in her abdomen
the female seemed to become incredibly swollen until it appeared that you
could almost see the eyes of the fry through her skin.
Although I watched closely, I missed the initial spawning. I woke up one morning
to find that the most pregnant female had released the fry during the night.
She was looking fit and trim, but there wasn’t a sign of any fry. Apparently
the others in the tank were opportunistic feeders and must have mistaken the
fry for brine shrimp!
As the second female approached term I decided to remove her to a separate
breeding tank. I used an ordinary 10 gallon setup with a corner sponge and
plenty of hiding places for the fry: rock caves, java moss and some castles
and things with openings too small for the adult. Water conditions were identical
to the community tank: pH 6.8, Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates <20ppm, Temp
24C. To induce the female to release the fry I raised the temperature slowly
to 27C and performed 20% water changes twice a week. I’m not sure if
it helped or not, but after about two weeks I noticed a handful of tiny fry
peeking out from the java moss and the caves. The female was still gravid so
it seemed that it would take some time for her to release all of the fry. After
about 24 hours she appeared back to normal and there was a noticeable increase
in the number of fry. At best count there were approximately 30 little guys
each less than 1.5cm long.
Caring for Fry
As I previously found out, the fry make little snacks for other fish including
the adults so I returned the female to the community tank. The nice thing
about live bearers is that the fry are very well formed, free swimming and
able to seek out their own food. I started with very fine crushed flakes
which they took readily from the surface. I also added some floating duckweed
which naturally contains minute organisms like infusoria. I’ve found
that this works well for fry especially when I can’t get home to feed
them their three full meals per day. The duckweed provides a sort of constant
feeder if they get peckish. If you don’t have floating plants or are
afraid of bringing in bad bugs, the local fish store sells Liquifry which
(I’ve heard) does the same thing in providing microscopic food. While
the fry will get most of the food, they are messy eaters and care must be
taken to maintain water quality. I did weekly water changes of 20% making
sure to siphon the debris off the bottom. A small caliber siphon is best
to ensure no fry get sucked up.
Conclusion
To summarize, breeding the Red-tail Goodeid is not extremely difficult as long
as you can care properly for the fry. To maximize the spawn size, isolate
the female and provide plenty of hiding spaces. For feeding, use finely ground,
high quality food in combination with infusoria. Water quality should be
maintained with (at least) weekly water changes of up to 50%. If all is done
right, just sit back and enjoy this hardy, pretty fish.