Pamelajo
Nov 9th 2008, 02:48 PM
My Experiences with Heterandria Formosa
I received a trio of these dwarf livebearers from a friend of mine who is a big fan of livebearers as part of a trade. These little guys survived their long journedy from B.C. to Ontario. When they first got here I put them in a little 2.5 gallon tank, with no heater and a small plastic plant for decoration. After a month or two I still had no fry from this trio. I then did some rearranging and moved them to a 10 gallon planted drop/nursery tank. I was starting to see a few more fry but still not as many as I thought I should. I had purchased some mollies from one of the clubs auctions that had some hornwort in the bag with them, and decided to throw that in the tank with them. This worked like a charm and I started to see a few fry being born every few days. I moved them again at the beginning of summer to a 35 gallon tank in with some White Clouds. Was not sure how many babies would survive with their new tank mates, but added lots of hornwort for protection. Last week when I was removing the adults to put into a basement tank for the winter I found about 10 fry hanging out in the hornwort.
They originated from Florida and it surrounding regions. They can be kept with peaceful community fish close to the same size. The females can grow to 3 cm, the males are smaller about 2 cm. They like brightly lit planted tanks. Formosas are omnivores and need finely crushed food. I use a variety of flake food, blood worms and krill. They do well in outdoor container ponds and will eat mosquito larvae. They are a schooling fish and prefer temperatures of 18 - 24 C. Mothers bear only 1 - 6 young every 1 - 4 days during their reproductive period.
I have kept mine colony of these little guys going for a few years. Earned a Breeders Award for them. Sadly I recently sold my colony to make room for other breeding projects. But some day when not working on Breeding Awards will start another colony to keep.
I received a trio of these dwarf livebearers from a friend of mine who is a big fan of livebearers as part of a trade. These little guys survived their long journedy from B.C. to Ontario. When they first got here I put them in a little 2.5 gallon tank, with no heater and a small plastic plant for decoration. After a month or two I still had no fry from this trio. I then did some rearranging and moved them to a 10 gallon planted drop/nursery tank. I was starting to see a few more fry but still not as many as I thought I should. I had purchased some mollies from one of the clubs auctions that had some hornwort in the bag with them, and decided to throw that in the tank with them. This worked like a charm and I started to see a few fry being born every few days. I moved them again at the beginning of summer to a 35 gallon tank in with some White Clouds. Was not sure how many babies would survive with their new tank mates, but added lots of hornwort for protection. Last week when I was removing the adults to put into a basement tank for the winter I found about 10 fry hanging out in the hornwort.
They originated from Florida and it surrounding regions. They can be kept with peaceful community fish close to the same size. The females can grow to 3 cm, the males are smaller about 2 cm. They like brightly lit planted tanks. Formosas are omnivores and need finely crushed food. I use a variety of flake food, blood worms and krill. They do well in outdoor container ponds and will eat mosquito larvae. They are a schooling fish and prefer temperatures of 18 - 24 C. Mothers bear only 1 - 6 young every 1 - 4 days during their reproductive period.
I have kept mine colony of these little guys going for a few years. Earned a Breeders Award for them. Sadly I recently sold my colony to make room for other breeding projects. But some day when not working on Breeding Awards will start another colony to keep.