Breeding Boeseman's Rainbowfish (Melanotaenia Boesemani) In The Aquarium

Location

This is endemic species to Ayamaru, Hain and Aitinjo Lakes. The fish lives in shallow areas of the lakes with a lot of plants, wetlands and tributaries of the lakes. These lakes have hard, mineral-rich water with neutral pH. This is endangered species.

Body description

Body of the fish is long and fusiform, laterally compressed. The species has big eyes and two dorsal fins. Colour of the body depends on light intensity. Half of the body is silvery-blue with neon shine (from the head to the second dorsal fin). Second half of the body can be red, orange or yellow. There are poorly visible dark, transverse stripes on the sides of the fish. Fins have neon blue-white borders. Female is smaller and less colourful than male. Male has elongated rays of the dorsal fins compared to female's dorsal fins.

Temperament and behaviour

This is shoal species. Fish prefers to live in a group of 6-8 minimum. They are less timid and shy then and males show their best colours when they compete for females attention. You should have more females than males or at least the same amount of each sex. Males can torment females during the spawning season. This is an active, peaceful, inquisitive fish which likes to be on the move. It swims very fast from one end of the aquarium to another. You shouldn't overfeed these fish because they may get ill (intestinal disease). So you should feed them 2-3 times per day with the amount of food that the fish can eat in 5 minutes. The food should be varied.

Aquarium decoration

This species prefers a spacious tank. Aquarium should have space to swim, a lot of plants, floating plants, dimmed light, hiding-places among roots, branches, effective filtration system with medium water flow and sandy substrate. The fish needs clean water so you should systematically do a partial water changes and clean the substrate. You must cover the aquarium because this fish might jump out of the aquarium. This species is sensitive to sudden changes in water parameters and also young fish are very sensitive to accumulation of chlorine. You should keep these fish with similar size species e.g. danios, dwarf cichlids, corydoras, botias, tetras.

Breeding

This is an oviparous species. Breeding these fish is an easy task when they are sexually matured. You should breed the fish in a separate tank. Breeding aquarium should have slightly hard water with pH=7.5 and 27-29°C water temperature, fine-leaved plants (e.g. java moss), hiding-places for female. You should feed the fish with plenty of live food in the general aquarium before the spawning. You may also separate males from females before spawning. Pair of the fish (the thickest female and the most colourful male) you then transfer to the breeding tank. You can stimulate the fish to spawn through increasing the water temperature. The fish spawn for a few days. Female lays portion of eggs on the leaves of plants every day but the most eggs are deposited on the first and the last day. The parents shouldn't eat the roe and offspring and you should remove them after spawning. The eggs hatch after 7-12 days and the fry starts to swim close to the water surface.