Minors breed in a general aquarium. Features of breeding minor fish at home
Minor (lat. Hyphessobrycon serpae) or serpas - beautiful fish, looking like a small and moving flame in an aquarium. And it’s impossible to take your eyes off the flock of minors. The body is large, red, black spot right after operculum, give them a very noticeable appearance.
HABITAT IN NATURE
The long-finned serpas minor (Hyphessobrycon eques, and earlier Hyphessobrycon minor) was first described in 1882. It lives in South America, its homeland is Paraguay, Brazil, Guiana. A fairly common fish, found in standing water, With big amount plants: tributaries, ponds, small lakes. They stay near the surface of the water, where they feed on insects, their larvae and plant particles. Minors live in flocks, but they often start fights with each other and bite their fins.
What does a minor look like?
Size. It's pretty small fish with a length from head to tail of no more than 4-5 cm and a life expectancy of about six years.
Structure. Their body is slender, tall, laterally compressed, and elongated in length. Distinctive feature minors are dorsal: quadrangular, strictly vertical, sometimes very elongated.
Coloring. A dark longitudinal stripe is clearly visible across the body. On top, the fish is colored olive-brown with green. The underparts (abdomen and sides) are bright red. The space behind the gills and the dorsal fin are covered with small dark spots.
Fin on the back it is black, may have a white border or only the tip, and the rest (except for the fatty one, which is transparent) are plain, deep red. The tail is heavily carved and there are no scales on the body at its base.
The females of the minors are not as bright as the males, but are larger and fuller. They are easily distinguished by their swollen abdomen.
Minors are enough unpretentious fish, which need to be kept in a flock of 6 or more. For such a flock, 50-70 liters will be enough. As with other tetras, the minor needs clean water and dim lighting. It is advisable to install a filter that, in addition to purifying the water, will create a slight current. Regular water changes are required, about 25% per week. And dim lighting can be achieved by placing floating plants on the surface of the water.
Aquarium conditions are considered ideal for minors “ a tropical forest». What will be required?
Long aquarium. Thirty-liter containers are quite acceptable, but the optimal volume is 10 liters for each fish from the school. There must be a lid on top, since these heracins are quite jumpy.
Vegetation. The aquarium should have both abundant thickets of plants and room for swimming. It should be taken into account that minors prefer the lower and middle layers of water.
Plants with roots are planted in the ground, and floating ones are placed on the surface of the water. Echinodorus, Java moss, cryptocoryne, and Thai fern would be quite appropriate.
Water parameters. The water itself should have a temperature of 22-26 ° C (and the fish can tolerate periodic drops well), hardness 4-8 degrees, acidity 6.8-7.
Filtration, aeration. Be sure to install a filter and aerator. Changes can be made weekly, removing and adding one-fifth of the water. Hyphessobrycon minor thrives in peat water.
Lighting. The lighting intensity is quite average.
Priming It's better to take a dark color. This could be sand or gravel. Driftwood is placed at the bottom, which will both decorate the home pond and serve as shelter for the minors.
How and what to feed?
The fish we're talking about we're talking about, undemanding and not capricious in terms of nutrition. There are a couple important points things to consider:
- Feed size. Small fish and large particles simply will not be able to capture them.
- Balance. Feed should be alternated. I think there is no need to explain how important this is for the health and harmonious development of pets.
IN natural conditions Minors eat insects from the surface of the water and various small aquatic animals.
In captivity, you can give all types of food: live (daphnia, cyclops, brine shrimp, crustaceans, bloodworms, small insects, enchytraeus), dry (granules, flakes), vegetable (spinach, duckweed, pinnate, dandelion and lettuce leaves).
COMPATIBILITY WITH OTHER FISH
Aquarium fish minors are considered good fish for general aquariums, but this is not entirely true. Only if they live with large and fast fish. Fish that are smaller than them will become the target of persecution and terror. The same can be said about slow fish with large fins. For example, cockerels or angelfish. They will be constantly pulled by the fins until the fish gets sick or dies.
Good neighbors for them there will be: zebrafish, barbs, acanthophthalmus, ancistrus.
In a group, the minor character softens somewhat, as a hierarchy is built and attention is transferred to relatives. At the same time, the males pretend to fight with each other, but do not injure each other.
GENDER DIFFERENCES
It is quite difficult to determine where the male is and where the female is. The difference is most pronounced during the period before spawning. Males minor are brighter, more slender and have a completely black dorsal fin. In females it is paler, and they are fuller even when they are not ready to spawn.
Spawning
Organization of spawning grounds
To obtain offspring, you will need to prepare a spawning tank. To do this, take a small container (10-20 l). A separator mesh is placed at the bottom. It is needed to protect future eggs from parents who might eat them.
The lighting is dim and diffused. You don't need soil, but you do need plants. It is better to give preference to small-leaved, long-stemmed varieties. Additionally, you can place a bush of Thai fern, pinnate or Java moss.
As for water, it is poured in a layer of no more than 10-15 cm. And it must meet the following parameters:
- temperature 24-28 degrees,
- hardness no more than 15,
- acidity 6.2-7.
Water can be used fresh or peated. The latter is prepared as follows: a concentrated decoction of peat is added to distilled water (acidity control is mandatory!) and infused for 7 to 30 days.
Parental choice and spawning
For reproduction, a pair or group of fish is taken. A week before hour X, they practice separate keeping of females and males and abundant feeding. The fish are usually placed in the spawning tank in the evening, and after a few days or even the next morning, spawning occurs. There are from 200 to 300 eggs.
They fall to the bottom and stick to the leaves of plants. After this, the fish should be removed, and the spawning ground should be provided with weak aeration and shaded. It is not recommended to touch the caviar, as it is very sensitive to this.
It also happens that spawning does not occur either in the morning or after 2-3 days. All this time the fish are not fed.
If a miracle does not happen, then the minors are released back into the general aquarium and the attempt is repeated a little later.
Care of offspring.
The fry from the eggs hatch after 1-2 days and hang on glass or plants. They will be able to swim only after 3-5 days. Then they begin to be fed with ciliates, rotifers, cyclops nauplii and small nematodes. Every 2-3 weeks the water in the spawning tank is changed, gradually increasing its hardness.
This fish with a musical name lives in the northern and central part of America, in the Amazon River basin. It has other names: bloody Tetra and Calistus and belongs to the Characin family. The fish in nature prefers standing and forest reservoirs. It is quite popular among aquarists. We will find out how to optimally keep and breed fish in a home fish house, and who to choose as neighbors.
This fish has a small body, 5 centimeters long. It is tall and laterally compressed, red in color. Sometimes there are pink Minors. The fish have transparent caudal and adipose fins, and the Minor's anal fin has a black lower edge. The dorsal fin of the fish is high and black. Females are always fuller and larger than males. Males have brighter body color.
It is advisable to purchase a long aquarium to keep this fish. It should have plenty of space for the fish to move freely, but also sufficiently dense thickets and shaded areas.
By their nature, Minors are schooling fish, which is why it is recommended to keep them in a fish house in a group of at least five pieces. One pair of Minors should require 10-15 liters of water. Since Minors are characterized by jumping ability, it is advisable to cover the aquarium with a lid on top.
As for water parameters, the optimal temperature is 22-25 degrees, hardness should be maintained at 15 degrees, and acidity up to 7.5 pH.
The purity of water when keeping this species aquarium fish ok should be given Special attention. Weekly you need to replace one fifth of the water with settled water. Filtration is also mandatory.
Feeding Minors does not cause any trouble for aquarists. The fish are completely unpretentious in nutrition. They eat live food in the form of bloodworms and daphnia, tubifex and coretra. They also eat dry food. The main thing in Minor's nutrition is a variety of feeds and their alternation.
Minor is considered peaceful fish. You can keep it with everyone peaceful fish similar size. However, it must be taken into account that sometimes Minors are capable of showing aggressiveness towards veiled fish species. At the same time, their luxurious fins suffer. Minors spoil them by attacking. There are also Minors who are aggressive even towards each other. And among them there are populations prone to various diseases, especially infectious ones.
Breeding
Breeding Minors is also not difficult. A 10-20 liter aquarium can serve as a spawning ground for them. It must be thoroughly disinfected. The water level in the spawning tank should be 10-15 centimeters. The spawning substrate is small-leaved plants. It is recommended to lay a spawning net on the bottom so that the producers do not destroy their own offspring. They are prone to this. Water parameters for propagation must correspond to the following indicators: temperature - 28°C, acidity - up to 6.5 pH.
2-3 days before spawning, the spawners should be seated and fed more abundantly. It must be live food. After the female and male have landed to spawn in the evening, spawning begins in the morning. It happens that this does not happen. Then the producers need to be separated again for several days or a third of the water needs to be replaced with fresh water.
The female Minora lays up to 300 small eggs. After this, both she and the male are separated, the aquarium is darkened thick paper, remove the spawning net. Then you need to lower the water level to 8-10 centimeters and install weak aeration. Caviar matures in 24-36 hours. After 5-6 days, the young Minor begins to swim. Starter feed rotifers, cyclops nauplii, or boiled egg yolk can be used for it.
The minors grow quite quickly. The fish reach sexual maturity at 8-10 months.
Minor or serpas (Tetra Hyphessobrycon)
Tetra minor or serpas (Tetra Hyphessobrycon) is an aquarium fish, tetra from the characin family. Serpas was found in wildlife, brownish, with a transverse dark spot behind the gills. The sickle tetra has a black dorsal fin with a white edge. Minors were bred through breeding and selection from serpas. Brownish to blood red in color, with a black spot on the side. These are all beautiful schooling fish that sparkle in the aquarium and attract the eye. Their distinctive feature is a black spot just behind the gills. Representatives of the Serpas can be found under different names: sickle tetra, red minor, red small tetra, bloody minor, tetra callista, red phantom tetra and others - all these names and names have a common history.
Scientists described this species as Hyphessobrycon callistus, hence the name “callista,” which means “very beautiful.” Evolved from the original source, fish with long fins are called long-finned red tetras. And don't confuse the red minor and the red ornatus - they are both sometimes called "phantom", but they are different species.
A school of Red Minor is a real eye-catcher in an aquarium. In addition, minors are easy to care for and get along well in general aquarium, however, they do not get along well with smaller aquarium fish; the minors will tirelessly chase them and bite their fins. It is best to keep red minors in a group of their own species, at least six individuals. They will also get along well with active aquarium fish of the same size.
Origin
Tetra serpas (Tetra Hyphessobrycon eques, previously called Hyphessobrycon callistus) was described by Franz Steindachner in 1882. Habitat a habitat South America, Amazon River Basin and Guapore. Most common in northern Paraguay. Serpas, red minor, bloody minor, red tetra minor, serpas tetra, red phantom tetra - all these are names of the same species. A variety with long fins was also bred in captivity; it is not found in the wild.
Minors often live in stagnant water of tributaries, in ponds and small lakes densely overgrown with vegetation. They live closer to the surface of the water among plants. They feed on worms, crustaceans, insects and plant foods. Schooling fish, they live in groups and often bite each other’s fins while eating.
Description
The minor fish has a tetra-shaped body, elongated and oval. They usually reach 4 cm in length. On average, they live in an aquarium from 3 to 7 years. Behind the gills, the minor has a distinctive black diamond-shaped spot, and the body is brownish to garish red. The minor and serpas have a black dorsal fin with a white edge, the remaining fins can be colorless or with a black outline or black with white tips. The coloring of the fins is slightly different in males and females.
The Red Minor is a very hardy aquarium fish. great choice for keeping by beginning aquarists, but they should not be kept with passive, slow neighbors - minors are too active, noisy fish, they can infringe on the rights of their neighbors in the aquarium.
It is best to keep a flock of six fish in a 75-liter aquarium. In order to create an imitation of them natural environment habitat, black water, it is best to add peat granules to the filter as a filter material (can be purchased at pet stores). The filter itself must be of high quality, not creating a strong current, since minors live in stagnant and slowly moving waters and prefer weak movement water. The lighting in the aquarium should be dim, since in nature, ponds with minors are found in forested areas with dense foliage that hides the light. You can “dim” the lighting with the help of plants floating on the surface.
The aquarium needs to be well planted with aquarium plants. aquatic plants, tall plants at back wall and at the side ones, leaving space in the center with open water for swimming. Minors value shelters and hiding places very much. For these purposes the best way driftwood from trees is suitable, especially from those that will color the water and make it additionally “black”. Use river sand or very fine soil as soil. Also to give the aquarium natural look You can add dry tree leaves; alder or oak leaves are best.
Water parameters:
Temperature: 22 - 28 ° C, spawning temperature from 24 to 27 ° C
Overall hardness: 5 – 20 dGH
pH: 5.5-7.5
The water in the aquarium with minor fish must be kept clean, then you will not have any problems with these aquarium fish. In any aquarium with living inhabitants, decomposing materials accumulate over time. organic matter, nitrates, nitrites and phosphates, and hardness will increase due to evaporation. In order to avoid these problems, regular water changes are necessary, especially if your aquarium is very densely populated. Do water changes every two weeks, 25-50%, depending on the population.
Compatibility
Minor fish can complement the community of other aquarium fish, provided that the neighbors are the same size or slightly larger. Contain them better in group 5-6 fish or more - in a school, minors feel more comfortable and will show less aggressive behavior. If there are several males in a school, it may seem to you that they are having a showdown, but these fish do not hurt each other.
Minors will chase smaller fish and bite their fins. It is also not recommended to keep them with slow-moving fish. The best neighbors will be tetras and rasboras of the same size or slightly larger (cuneiform rasboras, red and black neons, rhodostomus and others), zebrafish, rainbow fish, as well as barbs and corydoras.
Feed and feeding
Aquarium fish minors are omnivores; they will take any fresh, live, frozen or dry food. It is best to feed minors with high quality dry flakes for small aquarium fish, especially for beginner aquarists, as these foods are less likely to spoil the water. If possible, additionally feed the fish with live food (brine shrimp, bloodworms) or frozen.
It is better to feed several times a day in very small portions, so that the food is eaten in a matter of minutes - this way you will be sure that the fish will not remain hungry, and the food will not spoil the quality of the water.
Differences between a male and a female
Males of minors are brighter than females, their dorsal fin is almost completely black. In females, the lower part of the fin is almost colorless. In addition, females are plumper and rounder.
Reproduction
Red minors, like other tetras, lay eggs and reproduce easily in home aquarium. If you are a beginner aquarist and want to try your hand at breeding aquarium fish, the Red Minor is ideal for this.
Minors are ready to breed at about 8-10 months of age. These fish do not show parental care for their offspring, so the parents must be removed immediately after spawning.
For spawning, use a 10-20 liter aquarium with dark soil. Place small-leaved plants or Java moss in the spawning tank, as females often lay eggs on the plants. You can also place a net through which the eggs can pass, but not the fish - this will protect the eggs from their parents. Lighting should be low, you can use floating plants for shading.
The temperature is increased to 27 - 29 ° C, pH 6.2 - 6.5, hardness 10 ° dGH (0.714-1.071 mEq/l). You can place a small sponge filter with a gentle flow of water.
Minors can spawn in pairs or groups; the ratio of males to females should be 1:1. The fish are pre-fed with live foods. For spawning, a pair or group is selected and placed in the spawning tank in the evening. It is better to choose the fullest and roundest females, the most brightly colored males.
Spawning begins early in the morning. Females lay 200-300 eggs among plants. After spawning, the parents are removed and the aquarium is shaded.
The larvae begin to hatch after 24-28 hours. The fry are formed and will go to free swimming in 3-5 days, and until then it will feed on the yolk sac. After the larvae have turned into fry, the aquarium is opened and the smallest living dust is released.
During the first days, the fry are fed ciliates bred in bright light or liquid food, and when the fry grow up, they can be offered Artemia nauplii bred in salt water.
Minora / Serpas (Hyphessobrycon eques, Hyphessobrycon callistus)
accessory note:
Alternative names: Serpae Tetra, Jewel Tetra, Callistus Tetra, Blood Characin.
Synonyms: Cheirodon eques, Chirodon eques, Hemigrammus melasopterus, Hemigrammus serpae, Hyphessobrycon callistus, Hyphessobrycon serpae, Megalamphodus eques, Tetragonopterus callistus.
Callistus or Bloody Tetra (Hyphessobrycon callistus), lives in the Paraguay River basin and in the waters of the state of Mato Grosso (Brazil). It has never been established when this species was introduced to Europe (apparently in 1953 from the USA), because callistus is often confused with its relatives. Indeed, it is so similar to its relatives - the minor (Hyphessobrycon minor), the sickle tetra (Hyphessobrycon serpae).
Coloring Callistus or Minors is a symphony of black, red and white flowers. Most of its body is tomato red with a slight brownish tint, and on the back of the head there is a blackish tint. Bottom part the sides are somewhat lighter, the abdomen is reddish-white, the gill covers, head and iris of the eyes are blood-red. Large oval or comma-shaped dense black spots on the sides contrast sharply with the main color, although with age they sometimes fade or disappear completely. Dorsal fin ( important sign of this species) is mostly dense black, only the base and edges or the very tip may be milky white. Anal fin blood-red, its front rays and edges are blackish to deep black, and this border gradually expands, covering the entire back of the fin, the front tip is milky white. The ventral fins are also bright red with white tips, while the pectoral fins are a calmer red color. In terms of richness of color, males are undoubtedly superior to females, who are easily distinguished by their fuller abdomen.
You can successfully hold two dozen Minor in a 50-liter species aquarium. The water should have a temperature of about 22 ° C, a hardness of no more than 6 - 7 ° and a pH of 6 - 6.5. The edges of the aquarium should be densely planted with plants such as pinnate, cabomba and ludwigia (these are only recommendations, you can choose other species). The center of the aquarium should remain free, because the callistus needs room to swim, but to prevent the middle from looking too bare, use driftwood or stones (not containing calcium) for decoration. In the bright light of the lamps, the beautiful colors of the callistus fade, so it is better to shade the free part of the aquarium with some floating plants. The unusual, beard-like roots of these plants are not only very decorative, but also provide shelter for callisti, which love to trace elegant circles around them.
Since in nature callistus lives in clear streams and rivers, it is necessary to maintain the purity of the water in the aquarium using powerful filters. I recommended keeping callistus in a separate, species-specific aquarium, and there are reasons for this, since in the community it is characterized by quarrelsomeness, every now and then showing hostility towards fish of other species and biting their fins.
In a mixed aquarium Minors hide in plants and then suddenly jump out, attacking their neighbors. It seems that the fins of neon and erythrozonus (flaming tetra) are especially attractive to them. Having bitten an enemy, the robber disappears into his hiding place with lightning speed. If you nevertheless decide to keep callistus together with other species, select neighbors of more impressive size for it.
To successfully propagate callistus, do not purchase adult individuals, but raise the producers yourself under the conditions described above. For breeding, I use a 20-liter aquarium with a suitable spawning grid, although the bottom can also be lined with glass beads. In soft water (3-4° hardness) with a pH of 6 to 6.5, I was able to get good results. Every time I tried using harder water, the eggs turned white and died within a few hours.
As a spawning substrate, I use a large bunch of Java moss, placing it in the center of the aquarium, and bring the water temperature to 26 ° C. Having deposited the spawned fish, I darken the aquarium on all sides and top using sheets of cardboard, leaving only the upper half of one of the aquariums exposed. narrow sides. At the same time, the lighting conditions for raising offspring are quite favorable. I place the male callistus in the spawning tank a day earlier than the female. The mating procedure begins with the male defiling in front of the female, making circles around her and swimming to the spawning ground, returning back.
Then both fish press against each other, sometimes the male brings caudal fin under the female's body, and they simultaneously release eggs and sperm. The fish immediately disperse, and the eggs spiral down to the bottom or into Java moss. This process, so fast that it is almost impossible to follow, occurs approximately twenty times over the course of two to four hours. When the female’s supply of eggs is depleted, transfer the mating pair to another container (Callistus are fish that eat their own eggs), remove the spawning grid and now completely darken the aquarium by turning on a weak blower.
After about thirty hours, depending on the temperature, the larvae hatch and remain lying on the bottom of the aquarium, resembling small fragments of glass. In low light, they move along the entire bottom, trying to hide from irritating rays, and very quickly disappear into the darkest corner. On the fifth day, I remove half the sheets of cardboard, and a day later, using a 5 mm glass tube, I suck out all the larvae and transfer them to an 8-liter container. In this case, firstly, the spawning area is freed up, where other producers can be immediately placed, and, secondly, it is much easier to observe the larvae in a small aquarium, where they quickly find food for themselves. After placing the larvae in the nursery aquarium, try to feed them correctly. They are large enough to feed on Artemia nauplii right away. Young callisti swallow small and delicate nauplii without any difficulty, and yet at this time it is worth observing them through a powerful magnifying glass. If after 15 minutes the babies still look skinny and hungry, then the nauplii are too big for them, but if the bellies are full and pink, then they have eaten with appetite.
Now you can aerate the aquarium, light it evenly, and on the third day install a foam filter. Thanks to this, the water remains clean for a long time, since it is so enriched with oxygen that Artemia nauplii remain alive for four hours. In addition, in such water the growth of juveniles is activated. Twice a week I take out the filter, rinse it under the tap, squeeze it thoroughly and then boil it for a few minutes to disinfect it from ciliates. When cleaning the aquarium daily, do not forget to remove any remaining food using a siphon and add water of the same quality. In the fourth or fifth week, young Minors begin to acquire color, and, therefore, the time comes to transfer them to a more spacious aquarium. If the quality of the water differs little from the previous one, the “moving” will take place without losses and very soon you will enjoy a spectacle that pleases everyone: a full aquarium of these charming fish.
In this article we will talk about another fish that is ideal for beginner aquarists. Its name is minor. This small fish has gained its popularity because it does not require complex care, it is quite unpretentious, but at the same time, it is very interesting to watch the active and playful flock of minors. Despite the simplicity of maintenance, it is impossible to allow conditions to deteriorate, since these heracins’ growth slows down, the brightness of their color is lost, they begin to reproduce poorly, and their life is shortened.
Minor in nature
What does a minor look like?
Character and compatibility
How to create conditions?
How and what to feed?
Reproduction of minors
Organization of spawning grounds. To obtain offspring, you will need to prepare a spawning tank. To do this, take a small container (10-20 l). A separator mesh is placed at the bottom. It is needed to protect future eggs from parents who might eat them.
The lighting is dim and diffused. You don't need soil, but you do need plants. It is better to give preference to small-leaved, long-stemmed varieties. Additionally, you can place a bush of Thai fern, pinnate or Java moss.
As for water, it is poured in a layer of no more than 10-15 cm. And it must meet the following parameters:
- temperature 24-28 degrees,
- hardness no more than 15,
- acidity 6.2-7.
Water can be used fresh or peated. The latter is prepared as follows: a concentrated decoction of peat is added to distilled water (acidity control is mandatory!) and infused for 7 to 30 days.
Parental choice and spawning. For reproduction, a pair or group of fish is taken. A week before hour X, they practice separate keeping of females and males and abundant feeding. The fish are usually placed in the spawning tank in the evening, and after a few days or even the next morning, spawning occurs. There are from 200 to 300 eggs.
They fall to the bottom and stick to the leaves of plants. After this, the fish should be removed, and the spawning ground should be provided with weak aeration and shaded. It is not recommended to touch the caviar, as it is very sensitive to this.
It also happens that spawning does not occur either in the morning or after 2-3 days. All this time the fish are not fed. If a miracle does not happen, then the minors are released back into the general aquarium and the attempt is repeated a little later.
Care of offspring. The fry from the eggs hatch after 1-2 days and hang on glass or plants. They will be able to swim only after 3-5 days. Then they begin to be fed with ciliates, rotifers, cyclops nauplii and small nematodes. Every 2-3 weeks the water in the spawning tank is changed, gradually increasing its hardness.
The fish grow quite quickly and at 8-10 months they are ready to reproduce.
As you can see, there is nothing difficult in caring for and breeding minors. The main thing is to remember the character traits of the fish and keep the water clean. Then these creatures will frolic peacefully and delight their owners. appearance and fertility. Good luck!
Minor or serpas aquarium fish care spawning photo video compatibility.
External description
Aquarium minors: content
Minors feel calmer if they are not alone in the aquarium: they like to swim in a school of 6 individuals (this is the minimum). This rule is important to follow for the reason that the minor can become aggressive when living alone in a common aquarium. It is possible that he will start attacking others aquarium inhabitants. The minor also has this peculiarity: it is not recommended to keep it with fish that have long thread-like fins. The fact is that minors can confuse them with plants and nibble them.
Minor loves space very much, so its maintenance involves the purchase of quite large aquarium or use what you already have. The water temperature in the aquarium should be at least 23-26 degrees, pH – 7.5, and hardness – 20 dGH. And, naturally, the content of minors is permissible only in clean water. To improve aeration, the compressor should be used at least twice a day: morning and evening, leaving it running for 10-20 minutes.
When thinking about what kind of soil to buy, opt for river pebbles small size. If you wish, you can purchase a colored version of pebbles: such an aquarium will give not only peace, but also cheerfulness. You can buy both slender and lush plants, but again you need to remember: minor loves space, which means there should not be too many plants. Small-leaved plants are perfect for the bottom of the aquarium. Minor fish will not mind if you place them in an aquarium freshwater snails: they will help create an optimal climate in the water kingdom.
Minors love light, but if it is not intense, it is soft. In winter the fish will definitely need additional source Sveta.
Let's not forget to talk about food. However, there is no need to rant for long: aquarium minors everyone eats. They love live food, dry food, and various vegetation. But he especially loves the minor daphnia. The fish will enjoy this food, and you will have a lot of fun watching the aquarium minors chase daphnia throughout the aquarium.
Tip: The yolk can be used as a natural vitamin supplement. Boil the egg, cool it, grind it thoroughly and pour it into the aquarium in small portions.
Successful breeding is impossible without proper maintenance, and therefore you should be attentive to all of the listed rules.
Minor fish: breeding
Minor: How and what to feed?
MINOR: COMPATIBILITY WITH OTHER FISH
Aquarium fish minors are considered good fish for general aquariums, but this is not entirely true. Only if they live with large and fast fish. Fish that are smaller than them will become the target of persecution and terror. The same can be said about slow fish with large fins. For example, cockerels or angelfish. They will be constantly pulled by the fins until the fish gets sick or dies.
Good neighbors for them will be: zebrafish, barbs, acanthophthalmus, ancistrus.
In a group, the minor character softens somewhat, as a hierarchy is built and attention is transferred to relatives. At the same time, the males pretend to fight with each other, but do not injure each other.
Minor: how to create conditions?
The conditions of a “tropical forest” aquarium are considered ideal for minors. What will be required?
Long aquarium. Thirty-liter containers are quite acceptable, but the optimal volume is 10 liters for each fish from the school. There must be a lid on top, since these heracins are quite jumpy.
Vegetation. The aquarium should have both abundant thickets of plants and room for swimming. It should be taken into account that minors prefer the lower and middle layers of water.
Plants with roots are planted in the ground, and floating ones are placed on the surface of the water. Echinodorus, Java moss, cryptocoryne, and Thai fern would be quite appropriate.
Water parameters. The water itself should have a temperature of 22-26 ° C (and the fish can tolerate periodic drops well), hardness 4-8 degrees, acidity 6.8-7.
Filtration, aeration. Be sure to install a filter and aerator. Changes can be made weekly, removing and adding one-fifth of the water. Hyphessobrycon minor thrives in peat water.
Lighting. The lighting intensity is quite average.
Priming It's better to take a dark color. This could be sand or gravel. Driftwood is placed at the bottom, which will both decorate the home pond and serve as shelter for the minors.
MINOR: SEXUAL DIFFERENCES
MINOR: HABITAT IN NATURE
What does a minor look like?
Size. These are fairly small fish with a length from head to tail of no more than 4-5 cm and a life expectancy of about six years.
Structure. Their body is slender, tall, laterally compressed, and elongated in length. A distinctive feature of the minors is the dorsal fin: quadrangular, strictly vertical, sometimes very elongated.
Coloring. A dark longitudinal stripe is clearly visible across the body. On top, the fish is colored olive-brown with green. The underparts (abdomen and sides) are bright red. The space behind the gills and the dorsal fin are covered with small dark spots.
Fin on the back it is black, may have a white border or only the tip, and the rest (except for the fatty one, which is transparent) are plain, deep red. The tail is heavily carved and there are no scales on the body at its base.
The females of the minors are not as bright as the males, but are larger and fuller. They are easily distinguished by their swollen abdomen. VIDEO MINOR.
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Minor is a bright and unpretentious inhabitant of your aquarium
Minor is schooling fish, which belongs to the characin family. Otherwise, the minor is called the red tetra or bloody tetra. The name, however, is not related to the character: minora fish are peace-loving and are not among the predatory representatives of aquarium inhabitants. IN scientific literature this creature can also be found under the name hifessobrikon, callistus. The habitat of the minor in natural conditions is the Amazon River basin.
Red tetra or minor fish: features of keeping in an aquarium
Among large variety aquarium fish, people prefer beautiful and unusual specimens. The rarest and exotic species mined in remote corners of the planet, where nature creates ideal conditions for their existence. Among them, the minor is a fish that belongs to the characin family and lives in the reservoirs of Brazil (from Guyana to the Paraguay River).
Description
Minors live and breed in southern regions Amazon basin (South America). Their length reaches 5 centimeters. The body is elongated in length and compressed at the sides. The back of the fish is colored brownish-olive, the side has a rich red tint, and a small black spot may be observed behind the gill cover. The dorsal fin has a black outline along the edges, the tip of which remains white. Other fins are painted ruby red.
Females are much denser than males and have a less bright and saturated color. Aquarium fish minor has another name - red tetra. These are gregarious and peaceful representatives of the underwater world who love to swim in the lower layers of water.
Peculiarities
Minors have a playful nature and prefer to rest in dense thickets. The fish enter sexual maturity at 8 months, but do not create pairs. But in a single copy, a minor fish can become aggressive. She begins to hunt smaller representatives or gets into a fight with calmer fish.
The red tetra is unpretentious in food: minors happily accept any type of food. They can be offered live bloodworms, brine shrimp, daphnia, cyclops, and dry gammarus. You can include dried dandelion leaves, lettuce, spinach and duckweed in your diet. It is optimal to alternate these feeds.
Minor is an active fish, and therefore it requires a similar environment or fish that will be stress-resistant to its mobility. You can choose barbs, rasboras, catfish, platies, labeos and rainbows.
A flock of minors (5–6 individuals) can be kept in an aquarium 60 centimeters long. It is better that the container contains live algae, thickets and floating plants that will create shady places. The red tetra loves to rest in them. But water accessories should not clutter up the space available for swimming.
The unpretentious fish minor, whose maintenance is limited to minimal comfort, prefers weekly water changes (25% of the total volume). The temperature in the aquarium should not be lower than +22ºC. There should be about 10 liters of water per fish. The water in the aquarium should be filtered.
For minors, it is better to choose dark soil, which is recommended to be decorated with Thai ferns, Java moss and echinodorus.
Shy and sedentary fish may not feel well in the company of the red tetra. And all because minors love to start fights and bite the long fins of their neighbors.
IN good conditions and if properly maintained, the red tetra can live up to 6 years.
Breeding
Varieties
Minor is a fish, photos of which are presented in various sources about underwater world, may become unrecognizable. The point is that minors can easily pair with similar species fish The result is unusual specimens, the type of which can only be determined experienced aquarist. Some hobbyists are able to breed veiled and albino forms in aquariums.
Minors have the following varieties:
- Hyphessobrycon serape.
- Hyphessobrycon haraldschultzi.
- Hyphessobrycon minor.
They differ in the size of the black spot and the height of the body itself.
The red tetra is a real decoration of the aquarium. The playful nature of the fish and their exotic colors delight the eye and lift your spirits.