Rasbora Maculata

[Amerce]

As my caption says they are lovely little fish, got some recently for my 2.5 foot tank ... well I got 5 and then went back and got another 10 !!!

They are fantastic for a small planted tank as they are mid to top swimmers so there is always action in the tank now.

Also got some Nannacara Taenia in there but never see them as they spend all there time amongst the plants and also got a couple of chocolate gourami's.

They eat anything I put in the tank and currently I am trying to feed them up, as you can imagine most lfs only feed their small fish (or any other fish) small amounts of flake food or whatever live food is left, so they are a bit skinny.

Once they get to a reasonable size I'll see about giving them their own tank and possibly breeding (as I've now found out that they might be on the endangered list) them like the other rasbora I have in the fish house.

http/www.popular-freshwater-tropical-fis...ra_maculata.htm
http/www.science.edu.sg/ssc/detailed.jsp...140&cat=249

 

[dizzied]

It's actually Boraras maculatus I think. Beautiful little fish indeed.

 

[starrynightxxi]

I set my 20g up with smaller fish and the maculatus were one type on my list to get but they aren't available to me easily - or cheaply! I thoguht about ordering them off the internet but the shipping fee would have been outrageous for just a few fish.

and, wow! someone else with nannacara taenia I tried searching the forums for topics about them but there aren't any -lol- Mine are out quite a bit though, and the female's put her brooding colors on in the last day or so...

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

So jealous! Quite possibly my favorite rasbora, but unfortunately none are available in my area.

 

[Amerce]

Soz but still Rasbora family.

Got 5 for £4 so not too bad a price really, as for the Taenia got them at a cichlid auction for a very good price and within a week of having 2 pairs I had one set up house and I ended up with a tank of 10 youngsters, I stil can't sex them though and they are nearly the size of their parents, I ended up nearly wrecking the tank to get some of the fry out to give to a mate I'm not looking forward to trying to net the rest

I think out of the two varieties of Nannacara I have I prefer the Anomala, the males are just lovely colours, but they are bigger than the Taenia but the Taenia are a little drab in colouration so far, but such quick colour changes the males make are fantastic.

 

[starrynightxxi]

that's not bad, translates to ~8 dollars over here. Franks aquarium (franksaquarium.com) sells them 6 for 6 dollars, but shipping is 20-35 dollars. It's not a crazy amount of money, but really not worth it for 6 dollars worth of fish.

I haven't had the anomala, though i've seen pictures. They're pretty but i like my little brown fish. The only reason I was able to sex them originally was by looking at the fins. The dorsal and anal fins on the male's taper off to a point, and the female's are more rounded. It's hard to trust patterns on these guys because they change so much regardless of sex, but when the male's feeling really good he looks like this, and i've never seen the female wear this one

Supposedly females are bigger, but mine is definately smaller. Could be an age difference, though.

 

[Bufo Bill]

With the R.maculata, what are your water parameters (pH, hardness)? I would love some of these but am a bit worried about the parameters of my water not being suitable.

All the best from Bill.

 

[Amerce]

Sorry for not replying on this issue.

My out of tap ph is 6.5/6.7

Tank is planted so the peat/sand mix may take it down further not checked recently so not sure, I don't do water checks as often as I should for the house tanks but if a fish looks unwell I do a quick water change to assist.

Temp is always at aroudn 25c.

Greedy little fish the rasbora they eat anything I throw in the tank before anyone else gets a chance.

As for the Nannacara only the male goes that sort of beige graduated colour, females don't.

 

[Bufo Bill]

Sorry for not replying on this issue.

My out of tap ph is 6.5/6.7

Thanks for the info. I've looked around on various sites and have a fair bit of variety on the subject of "the prefered conditions" for these guys, so it's good to hear what a keeper thinks.

Greedy little fish the rasbora they eat anything I throw in the tank before anyone else gets a chance.

Always good to hear!
Many thanks, from Bill.

 

[Amerce]

Yeah as for food, they love grindal worms which sit in a tub ontop of the tank, and if there are any brineshrimp left after feeding the fry down in the shed they get some as well.

I believe in variety and was quite surprised that such small fish would attack anything like beefheart, but I always put a small amount in their tank for the nannacara and I was gobsmacked to see the rasbora have a go at any small piece that was mid stream, they prefer mid to top water floating food, never see them attack anything on the ground it has to be moving so place any food in the water current so they think it is alive.

As for sexing based on all things I've read so far with the male being more brightly coloured (deeper red etc) it looks as though in my shoal of 14 I appear to have been lucky enought to get around 5 of them with the rest appearing duller or just a shade of dark brown/red.

Once they have been fed up and put on a bit of weight I might see about giving them their own tank to see how breeding goes on, wish me luck.

 

[Bufo Bill]

Once they have been fed up and put on a bit of weight I might see about giving them their own tank to see how breeding goes on, wish me luck.

Good luck with that. Let us know how it goes.
All the best from Bill.

 

[jayneg]

I've got 24 of the little beauties in my tank along with 12 Boraras brigittae and 9 Sawbwa resplendens.

I'm no photographer and they are difficult little devils to catch on film but here are a couple of them:

 

[Thirdfloor]

Very pretty little fish!

 

[Amerce]

Wow better photo than I can get, very heavily planted I see, how big is the tank ?

 

[jayneg]

Wow better photo than I can get, very heavily planted I see, how big is the tank ?

The tank is 50" x 20" x26"(deep).It has a sump underneath for filtration.Here is a full tank shot:

I use a mixture of RO and tap water to keep the water soft.