Melanotaenia pieruccia Allen & Renyaan, 1996
NO IMAGE AVAILABLE
Heiko Bleher, Paola Pierucci and Patrick de Rham discovered this species in 1995
It has been named in honour of Paola Pierucci.
On an annual club visit to Holland in 1999, I was able to get some nice
specimens of this species of Rainbow fish. All survived the journey home with
no apparent ill effects. They were placed in a 24 x 15 x 12 tank that was planted
with a couple of Amazon swords. At this stage, they were about 2.5 inches long.
They were fed live foods, daphnia, tubifex etc and dried food. As they came into
condition, the females were moved to a tank containing two large spawning
mops. Live food feeding continued and after two days, the male fish were
introduced. This was done in the late evening prior to the lights being turned out.
The next morning, the fish were busily diving in and out of the spawning mops
and within 12 hours, there were many eggs apparent. The eggs were gently taken
off of the mops and placed in a small container with some of the original tank
watcr. Any fungus eggs were removed on a daily basis. After 12 days the eggs
hatched. As the fry hatched, they were transferred to a 10 x 8 x 8inch tank filled
with water from the spawning tank. After 24hours, they were looking for food.
The fry are extremely small, as with all rainbow fishes. I fed liquid fry food,
diluted with water: At the same i introduced a sponge filter. diluted
food was fed at almost a drip-by-cirip basis ensuring that food was available at all
times. Growth was slow and it was some time before they were able to take
micro worm. At approximately 0.25 inches, they were put into a larger tank,
After several weeks, they were taking finely chopped tubifex worms and at this
stage, they started to put on size. After about 3 months of age, they were in the
region of 0.75 to 1 inch long. I only raised about 12 to 2 inches the remainder
were given away to fellow aquarists. Unfortunately the adults did not survive
very long. They came out in boils, bumps and became very sick looking fish. I do
not think it was the dreaded rainbow disease as no other rainbows that I was
keeping at the time or since have shown the symptoms and no special
precautions have been taken.
There are some excellent pictures of this species to be found on the internet.
© Pam Boyle, 2003. This fact sheet may not be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author.