Breeding Gold Tetra (Hemigrammus Rodwayi) In The Aquarium

Location

This freshwater fish lives in slow-flowing rivers floodplains, estuaries of rivers in Brazil, Peru and Guiana.

Body description

Colour of the body is silver-olive with copper shine. Gold shine of the fish very rarely appears in the aquarium because this colour is caused by parasites - kind of flukes. These flukes cause colour reaction on the skin of the fish. There is poorly visible stripe along the lateral line. The forked caudal fin has a dark stripe in the middle. Female is thicker than male. He has red fins and his anal fin has white border.

Temperament and behaviour

This is active, peaceful and shoal species. It can be timid and stressed when it is in too small group and it may often hide among plants and decorative elements. The fish prefers to swim at all water levels.

Aquarium decoration

You can keep these fish in "black water" biotope aquarium or in a general tank. Biotope aquarium should have sandy substrate, roots, branches, twigs, dry leaves of oak or beech (you should replace those leaves every few weeks), peat (you may add it to a filtration system or you may put it in a net and immerse in the aquarium water), dimmed light, floating plants. You must put the fish to chemically stable water when all water parameters are stable. The general tank should have plants at the back, space to swim and dark substrate. You should keep these fish with peaceful and similar size species. This species is sensitive to diseases and parasites.

Breeding

This is an oviparous species. You should breed these fish in a separate aquarium. This breeding tank should have soft water with slightly acidic pH and higher water temperature, dimmed light or without light, fine-leaved floating plants or fish hatchery, gentle but effective filtration system. You should separate males from females before spawning and you should feed them with plenty of live food. You transfer selected pair (the thickest female and the most colourful male) to the breeding tank in the evening. The fish should spawn next day in the morning, after intense courtships. You should immediately remove parents after spawning. The eggs hatch after 1-1,5 days. The fry starts to swim and feed 3-4 days later. The roe and fry are sensitive to light and water quality.