Harlequins

Photo By: Andy

These fish are Rasboras and come from Asia. They are small shoaling fish that are ideal for the community aquarium. They are slightly more fussy about the conditions they are kept in than a lot of other comminty fish. Hard alkaline water must be avoided the temp should be in the high 70s, and they will eat high quality flake food along with live food and freeze dried food.

Harlequins are one of the most difficult community fish to breed. The sexes can be told apart by the fact that the female is slightly bigger and plumper than the male. The water quality is very important when attempting to breed this fish, it should be very soft 1 to 3 dh, and quite a low pH at 5.5 to 5, filtering the water through peat helps to or using a product like Waterlifes Humiquat, But keep an eye on the pH when using this and measure it constantly.

The sexes should be seperated and aclimatised to the water conditions by slowly making the adjustments over a week or so. At the same time they should be brought into condition in the usual way with lots of live food and freeze dried food, at 82f.

The spawning tank should be set up with some broad leaved plants and subdued lighting and a bare bottom for easy cleaning, in a quiet area where they will not be disturbed, then introduce the pair to the tank and leave them alone, for several days if need be. They should have spawned within a week if not, remove them. And either try again later or try with another pair.

The eggs are laid on the underside of a plants leaf about 200 usually. If the pair have spawned remove them. The fry will hatch after about 30 hrs or so, and become free swimming after a further 4 days. A mature sponge filter should be put in the tank now and the fry should be fed on infusoria or liquid fry food, The trick is to feed small amounts often, The fry will eat newly hatched brine shrimps after a few days, After two weeks begin to make some very small water changes, And use water that is the same hardness, pH, and temp that the fry have been reared in. The water changes should gradually be built up until 25% of the water is being changed.

At 8 weeks old you can begin to harden the water slightly and carry on doing this until they are 12 weeks old at which point they should be big enough to sell. These fish though are not suitable for hard or alkaline water even when adult.

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