http://www.petsforum.com/MAS/masart61.htm is an account by Minnesota's Randy Carey of the two breeding types of Rasbora. Randy is one of the more accomplished aquarium fish breeders in the hobby and an all around good guy. A visit to his web site, a reading of his articles in TFH or clubs pubs, are all very likely to leave you a much better informed aquarist.

He notes that there seem to be two different styles of breeding among Rasbora (and since that article and Brittan's second TFH Rasbora book there has been some shifting of some of them to other genus). The bigger ones seem to be more like the egg scattering tetras. The smaller ones, including the "Hets" or RASBORA HETEROMORPHIA, tend to be "plant-spawners" who hang their eggs on plants.

In response to comments in "Fry eaten already?" at the top of the page I allude to a neat article on breeding Rasbora espe (which has been confused with heteromorpha by aquarists). Both the other Rasboras and heteromorpha may not spawn until their water's mineral content has been diluted (something also true for so many rainforest tetras, cichlids, killies and others). Please look at that summary and if you want to read the article, drop by a big-box book store, pick the latest TFH off of the magazine rack and browse it.

You mentioned almost buying a pair of angelfish. Were they proven breeders or just two angelfish? :)

Even I can often identify males (with their slightly humped foreheads) in pairs of angels a few years old. It is hard to sort the genders of younger angels. I visited the Peoria area Tri-Counties Topical Fish Society and a couple of homes yesterday and this morning. I asked one person if they knew the gender of a young long-finned gold angel. The aquarist still wasn't sure of a fish whose fins extended 10 inches top to bottom!

I've inherited spawning pairs of angels [obviously a sign of running with bad company. ;) ] Those angels soon proved that they were spawning pairs with viable fry. (Once an a while two females will spawn together - really frustrating the aquarist if they were not able to observe - with a whole lot of infertile eggs.) A couple of times I have been party to asking the seller of a "pair of angels", or some other fish, if they were proven spawners. Sometimes the fish were reintroduced to the auction as two angels. Caveat Emptor!