Hello again!
I'm not aware of anything in the literature that's explicitly about breeding this species. I have two males and two females living together, but haven't made an effort to spawn them yet -- I'm really not a big fan of anything with tiny fry that needs live foods! The older of the two females is very dark and very round, and those two traits may be associated with sexual maturity; the younger of the two females has hardly grown in a year, and remains the relatively pale colours you see on them in the shops. I'm not sure why the younger female hasn't grown much, but perhaps the species matures slowly, or there's some sort of social thing going on that keeps her size down? It's not as if she doesn't eat and doesn't look healthy. The other odd thing is that the older of the two females is extremely shy, whereas the younger female swims about in the open all the time.
Anyway, yes, Fishbase would seem to suggest these fish come from blackwater habitats. But with that said, Carinotetraodon lorteti isn't particularly fussy; Baensch suggests 5 degrees dH, pH 6.5.
Cheers, Neale
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