Breeding Fact Sheet No. 23

Marosatherina ladigesi Ahl 1936.

Commonly known as the Celebes Rainbow fish, it is a native of southern Sulawesi in Indonesia. Fortunately, the fish we see these days, are captive bred as wild fish now feature on the 'Red List' as being 'vulnerable'. (Nothing to do with the recent Tsunami as Sulawesi is to the East of Indonesia).

It is a fish that is not difficult to keep or breed. It will quite happily live in hard water with a pH of 7.5. It much prefers live food but will also take flake and frozen foods. It is at its best, when it is in a planted tank. I bought a pair (they were the only two left in the shop tank), and set them up in a 10 x 8 x 8 inch tank. The usual sponge filter was in place and a large spawning mop was added. Inspection of the mop showed just one egg and no further eggs were observed for several days. I then noticed two fry swimming around. Still there were no eggs in the mop so the sponge filter was looked at. Sure enough, they preferred the sponge and there were plenty of eggs on it. At the same time, I did a water change and a small clump of tubifex worms was siphoned out. This also had numerous eggs buried in it and it was one heck of a job separating eggs from tubifex. From then on, I used a mop that reached to the bottom of the aquarium. The incubation period seems to vary between eight and twelve days. I cannot give a reason for this as the temperature in the fish house did not vary during this period. The fry were transferred to a small tank and fed with ZM000 dispersed in water. Ramshorn snails were added to mop up the excess food. Within one week, they were accepting newly hatched brine shrimp. Growth is much more rapid compared to the Pseudomugil species of Rainbow fish.

A shoal of these fish in a planted tank look absolutely superb. A species well worth keeping.

© Pete Cottle 2005. This fact sheet may not be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author.