Dwarf Livebearers

[AnotherFineMess]

Just thought I would toss a picture or two of my Heterandria formosa in here to mix it up with the guppies and platies!

These are lovely US natives and so very tiny. Females max out right around 3 cm (that's a smidge over an inch for my fellow Americans!), males a bit smaller. They may not have all the flashy coloration of some of the more popular livebearers, but in their own way they are fabulous little fish! And, my goodness, the fry are unbelievably tiny! They are also hard to find in the tank, it's been my experience that unlike guppy fry who swim through the water, these fry seem to like to hang out at ground level, blending in well with the substrate. Also, unlike most other popular livebearing species, the females do not drop an entire batch of fry at once, they produce them 1 or 2 at a time over a few days or so. I'm still fairly new to them and still working on getting all the specifics down of their habits and reproduction. They seem to appreciate more subdued lighting and love to be in among live plants. I have another order of plants coming in for their tank this week, hoping to encourage them to be a bit more outgoing.

If anyone else has had experience with these little fish, I'd love to hear your thoughts about them!

 

[slimeneo]

Wow, they are adorable!

I don't think I've seen those in my LFS, are they expensive?

 

[wirralbull]

what is ther preferd water perameterz

 

[AnotherFineMess]

Thanks Slimeneo, I think they are cute too! And I highly doubt you will ever find them in a shop, I only found them on aquabid. I wouldn't call them expensive, I paid $8 for 10 wild caught fish...the shipping adds to that though, of course.

As far as their preferred parameters, it's my opinion that the info you find on the internet needs to be taken lightly in most cases. And quite frankly, I haven't had these guys long enough yet to feel truly comfortable speaking about their care as fact. I can, however, tell you how I am currently keeping them.

Right now, they are in a 20L that sits at 78-80 degrees F. We have high pH (7.8) and hard water here, so when they came in I gave them a long and slow acclimation (drip) period which they seemed to adapt right to. I'm also using the tank they are in right now to grow out some guppy fry, and in my opinion, the presence of these bold fry seem to draw the formosa out a bit. When the guppies are crowded around something, the formosa eventually drift over to investigate as well...like my daughters finger tips the other day, lol. They don't appear to like to feed from the surface, but feed mid water, and don't seem to be particularly picky about food. They love to pick at plants, so I assume a decent amount of vegetable matter in the diet would please them. They love plant cover, and I think I mentioned earlier, I'm bringing in even more for them. I'm using sponge filters in this tank due to the small size of their fry and the fact that I plan on adding RCS into the tank after I move out these guppy fry, hopefully the shrimp will breed as well! I have a naturalist friend from down south who called these fish 'ditch fish', which leads me to think they are probably fairly adaptable and would explain their apparent desire for subdued lighting...that's speculation though. The fry that I have so far seem to like to remain in among the plants and along the gravel, so they are a bit hard to follow. They seem to me to be growing a bit slower than guppy fry, but it may be a bit early to tell for sure. I love the fact that they show striping at such a small size though! Oh, and most of the adults I have are showing orange in the dorsal fin now, not sure if this is sexual coloration or just that they have settled in as not all of them seem to have this.

Well, that's about all I can think of for now. But I've only had these fish for a little over a week now, so all these observations are pretty new. Only time will tell. I'd be most happy to post a few updates on them as I learn more! And, of course, if my fry grow well I'll have some to share with others in the future too!

 

[slimeneo]

Ooh, interesting. So the adults don't eat their fry?

 

[allan078]

Lovely little fish! Very small. Any idea how they get on with the common livebearers?

 

[OldMan47]

I like them too AFM. These are some pictures of mine, blown up to an incredible amount, which made the pictures a bit grainy.

Male

Female

Female being followed by a pygmy cory

 

[AnotherFineMess]

OMG, that little cory is adorable, lol! Glad to see another with some formosa as well! Also, glad to see your pictures as I had suspected that I was sent an entire batch of females but wasn't 100% sure. But after seeing the picture of your male it's fairly obvious that I'm running a sorority house here. Perhaps I will have to pick up a few more in hopes of bringing in some males now, *sigh*.

As for how would they get along with other livebearers...I would think since they are so much smaller they would end up being bullied and picked on by the more boisterous and larger species. But I haven't tried so I cannot say for sure.

 

[OldMan47]

You may well find that you have females that are carrying fry. Unlike most of the common livebearers they drop their fry 1 or 2 per day for several days before they are done with a drop. Do feed them a high protein diet that includes some live foods. In the wild they live on insect larvae so the heavily vegetable content of typical livebearer foods really does not match their needs very well.

 

[Jeser]

ok, i loooove these lil guys/gals. incredibly fun to watch (remind me of pea puffers in movements) seem very fast to take to whatever water conditions i have thrown @ them, including going from 10 gal to 75 and back. they breed well, love the moss strong eaters, and adaptability, beautiful stripes and dots on dorsal and pectoral fins!
not @ all uncommon here in FL in the small creeks and rivers (or drainage ditches)they love mosquito larva and i think help a lot with reducing the population on the water traps around where i live. (golf course) would love any more info i can get from people keeping these amazing lil fish! they do not bother even the small shrimp in my tanks.