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Rasbora Tetras
By guppylvr1003 from the me department, Section Diaries Posted on Tue Jul 11, 2006 at 06:36:52 PM PST

Hey I'm sorry I justed entered a diary yesterday but I just bought two Rasbora Tetras and I have some questions...

Basically, I just want to know a lot about them. And also I'd like to know about breeding them. I almost bought a pair of angels today but I decided to wait until I have more room and buy another tank. Thanks!
gl1003

< Fry with sac on stomach | The tail of one eye..eeep >

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Rasbora Tetras | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 hidden)

Your pet shop is probably marketing those (none / 0) (#1)
by unclescott on Tue Jul 11, 2006 at 09:16:19 PM PST

fish as Rasbora tetras. I've heard of that and seen it before and really wish the shops and wholesalers would either (A) stop defrauding customers with bogus names or if it was an honest mistake, (B) learn the names of their fish.

Tetras are in several families of fish from South America and Africa. They are a part of an even larger group of fish call the Characins. Many of them come from rainforest waters and, because of convergent evolution (where similar conditions encourage the development of similar creatures) they do somewhat resemble the Rasboras (a while genus of fishes) in what they eat, they way they school and in their needs for water with a low mineral level in order to breed. (In a lot of rain forest areas seasonal winds bring rains which literally will trigger spawning as the water gets genuinely softer. Up to that point, adults of some species don't even have fully developed gonads because there is little point in spawning in the dry season.)

The Rasboras are a part of the huge group of fishes called the Cyprinids - a group which has all sorts of minnows, carps, Labeos (most of the so-called freshwater sharks), the barbs, Danios, white clouds and many other fishes. The Characins (if you follow the patterns of continental drift) seem to have developed after Africa and South America drifted apart. However connections with Asia continued and the Cyprinids spread from there to Europe and America (which were united in what has been called Laurasia.)

Do a Google image search for Rasbora. I'll bet if you sort through the images, you will find what species your really have. Then you can Google that species and also bring it up here. One other thing, two Rasbora will do ok together, but as schooling fish, they would be more comfortable if there were a few more of them. (Maybe later, if the tank is still cycling.) :)

You don't have to mention it to them, but if it comes up at your LFS (live fish shop) and they hold to their identification, offer to tell them about your guppy Betta or your Cory sunfish or your beagle-cat. ;)

All the best!
unc

Re: Your pet shop is probably marketing those (none / 0) (#2)
by guppylvr1003 on Wed Jul 12, 2006 at 01:07:50 PM PST

Thanks! I didn't know that was a wrong name. They also labeled them as Rasbora Hets...maybe that's right? Im not sure. I've googled the breed a lot and now I know much about them. Im just still trying to tell their gender because I know for sure that one is a female because she is about as big as a pregnant guppy ready to drop(but I know she isn't because she's an egglayer), and the other is skinny, but "he's" a little smaller. Can you help me on this? Also I've heard that their stripes are different...is that correct? Thanks
gl1003
"When life hands you lemons, throw them in the face of the person who gave em to you"
[ Parent ]

Tetras and Rasbora have a number of similarities. (none / 0) (#3)
by unclescott on Thu Jul 13, 2006 at 08:13:04 PM PST

Live or rinsed frozen foods, fed once in a while, may need to be fed to Rasbora more often than to tetras. Obviously conditioning most any fish for spawning, maybe excepting some vegetarians, involved as many or much live foods as is reasonable.

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!

All the best!
unc

[ Parent ]

A correction to some of the above details: (none / 0) (#4)
by unclescott on Fri Jul 14, 2006 at 12:56:44 PM PST

The characins developed before Africa and South America split. In the last million years or so (since my freshman year) when North American developed the Panama connection with South America, tetras and especially the genus Astynax (Mexican tetra, blind cave tetra) have colonized north.

Characins seemed to have developed either in Africa or Asia and spread back and forth wgile they were pretty closely connected and after South America (look at the Western outline of Africa and the Eastern Shore of S.A.) had split off of Africa. That same group spread north and west across first Europe and then what would become N.A.

[ Parent ]

Rasbora Tetras | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 hidden)

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