Breeding Marbled Hatchetfish (Carnegiella Strigata) In The Aquarium

Location

This freshwater species lives in forest streams, fast-moving tributaries of Amazon River with a lot of floating plants in Peru, Brazil, Colombia and Guyana.

Body description

Body of the fish is laterally compressed with almost straight back. Shape of the fish is triangular. The pectoral fins are big and raised upward. They look like little wings. There is also several multi-colour variants of this fish from different habitats. Colour of the base variant is olive-beige. There are gold and black horizontal stripes from the eye to the base of the caudal fin. There is also a dark, mottled pattern on the belly. All fins are clear. There is almost no sexual dimorphism. Female is a bit thicker in the ventral parts comparing to male.

Temperament and behaviour

This is a peaceful species. It can be very easily intimidated by aggressive species. It doesn’t compete for food. It can jump out of the aquarium when it is threatened - it tries to fly. The fish can fly the distance of several meters and it often falls on the side imitating fallen leaf. Fish prefers to live in a group of 6 minimum. It prefers to swim at the top water levels and it feeds from the water surface in the morning and evening. You should keep these fish with non-aggressive and similar size species e.g. tetras, barbs, danios, dwarf cichlids, catfish, corydoras. This species is sensitive to freshwater white spot disease. The fish must be quarantined for a few weeks after purchase.

Aquarium decoration

The aquarium should have a lot of plants, space to swim, floating plants, cover, water level up to 2/3 of the aquarium height, medium water flow. A partial water exchange should be done regularly. You can also keep these fish in biotope tank. Then you need floating plants and pieces of wood, sandy substrate, dry leaves of oak or beech (you should change them every few weeks), twisted roots.

Breeding

This is an oviparous species but breed these fish is not easy task. You should do this in a separate tank with dimmed light, floating plants with soft and fine leaves, peat in filtration system, cover, soft water with pH=5.5-6.5 and 24-26°C water temperature. You should transfer group of the fish to the breeding aquarium (the fish form pairs within the group) and feed them with plenty of live food. The fish spawn below the water surface, among plants. The fish start intense courtships. You should remove the parents after spawning – they eat the roe. The eggs hatch after 1-1.5 days - it depends on water temperature. The fry starts to swim and feed 5 days later.