Tank Busters

by Joe Berberich

You guys with your Oscars (Astronotus ocellatus), Red-headed Cichlids (Cichlasoma synspilum) or just plain Pacus can eat your hearts out. I've got one of the seven biggest in the world and I have bred it to boot. It's even a livebearer, plus it's a native fish to the good old USA. The book says it is found in South Carolina and that's close enough to be in the USA. Isn't it?

But now that your all excited I have to tell the truth. Everything above is true except that this fish is one of the seven smallest fish in the world. You can read about it in Aquarium Atlas No 1 by Baensch on page 592. The name of this little giant is Heterandria Formosa, also called the Dwarf Top Minnow or mosquito fish [or least killi or least livebearer]. I swiped these giants from Joe Nadolny and Fish World. I want to thank him for getting them for me. In the atlas it says males grow to 3/4" long and females grow to 1 3/4" long. Well, they don't tell you how long it takes to grow that big, but I've had mine now for over three months and they are still the same size. The male is maybe 3/8" and the female is 3/4" and this is after two spawnings. Sad to say the first spawn died. Not knowing whether it was due to my not feeding them small enough food (I was feeding powdered flakes and some medical thing I can't say) or not. But bless their little hearts, they spawned again. This time I am being more careful and watching closer. The females only has one or two live fry per day and the male doesn't seem to bother them at all. So far each spawn has produced a different number of fry. Ten being the largest so far. So from a tank buster to a "hunt the tank for them," keep breeding.

P.S. When spawning, feed the fry very small food or a well-cultured sponge will also help.