I purchased 6 young of this species from an aquarist in
the South of England in the autumn of 1988. They arrived
safely by post and I duly housed them in a 15 gall tank
in my fishouse which I had set up and matured a few weeks
previously.
As they grew and matured they sexed out as 3 males and 2
females as one unfortunately died after a month in captivity.
About three months after purchase the females were quite
swollen looking, so I decided to place one of the females
into a 16" x 8" x 8" tank with plenty of
java moss for cover. After a considerable length of time
she didn’t drop any fry and the other females in the
main tank were in the same position: fry less!, so I decided
to put her back in with the rest of the colony.
In April of the next year I attended the annual Scottish
Aquarist Festival in the Motherwell Civic Hall and met up
with the editor and founder of Viviparous, Derek Lambert,
and mentioned to him about my failure in producing any fry,
he informed me that it would be a good idea to drop the
temperature by at least 5°f. and to isolate the fry
again with plenty of java moss.
The next month I got round to doing just that as I switched
the heater of in the tank ( at that time my fishhouse was
not space heated) and made a cool water change allowing
the temperature to drop from 75° F. to 66° F.
Three days later I discovered 4 fry in the java moss with
the female trying to hunt them down, success at last! I
took the fry out right away to a smaller tank on their own
as the parents are very cannibalistic. I surmised that there
must have been more fry and the parents must have had a
field day hunting them down and eating them.
Brachyraphis Roseni
at eight weeks |
I went to the next stage in my plan and set up a
large tank 24" x 12" x 12" and stretched
a plastic netting over the top, I then placed a gravid female
on top of the net in about 2-3ins of water and waited developments.
I didn’t have long to wait as a few days later she
dropped 6 fry and they dropped straight through the mesh
and into the main part of the tank. I had success from there
on in with this species using both methods of dropping the
temperature and or moving the female
to this larger tank which was located on the bottom of the
fishhouse and was therefore in a cooler position relating
to the tanks further up.
This is a very beautiful livebearer with the females dropping
fry every 8 weeks. I found that they give birth with
only a few at a time and you have to have plenty of plants
in the tank and to be able to rescue the fry.
In hindsight a few years later I don’t know whether
the females were too young to deliver fry when I first tried
them and maybe later on at about 7 months of age the time
was just right for them. Either way the advice I was given
worked at the time and one of the fry that was produced
at the time ( a male) went on to give me 2 Best of Shows
in the following year on the Fish Show circuit.
Adult Brachyraphis Roseni female
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Information:
Distribution: South-Eastern Costa Rica
and Western Panama.
Size: Male : 5cm. Female: 6.5cm.
Colour Pattern: The body colouration is pale brown
becoming white on the belly. The back and sides are overlaid
with a dark net-like pattern caused by the pigmentation
being concentrated near the edge of the scales.Towards the
rear of the body there are dark vertical bars. The gonopodium
of the male is black and this colouration runs into the
body below the dorsal fin. The dorsal, anal and pelvic fins
are reddish/orange with a hint of electric blue on the edges.
The caudal fin is edged in blue as well.
Remarks: This is a strong and boisterous species
which is best kept on its own or with fish of a similar
temperament.
Family: Poeciliidae.
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