Between Cichlids: The Blue-Eyed Rainbow
by Jeff Vander Berg
Reprint from GVAC Newsletter 1998 Issue 14
I know what you are thinking, what do cichlids and rainbowfish really have in common? Well this is not an article that is going to tell you how they are similar. Nor is it going to tell you how different they are. It is an article that is going to show you I may have finally grown up (at lease in "the hobby"). After many years of keeping and breeding mainly cichlids, I think I have come full circle. Suddenly there are tetras, barbs, livebearers and rainbowfish finding their way into many of my 60+ aquariums. Oh yeah, some of them are actually reproducing! Even with the cichlids!
I must admit that I'm not a real big fan of some of the superstores, however curiosity will get the better of me more often than I would like to admit. While popping into one of these stores to find some other animal items, I decided to cruise through the fish to see if there was anything worth bringing home. After seeing the same old things, in the same old tanks, I happened upon these attractive little fish zipping back and forth through their small barracks.
The "Pacific Blue Eyes" found their way into one of my ten gallon quarantine aquariums. I found the Pseudomugil signifer to be a very beautiful and charming fish. After a few weeks of 30 percent water changes in the unheated, sponge-filtered aquarium, these fish really began to show their color. In case you haven't paid much attention up to now their eyes are some shade of, BLUE! The fins are a golden color with black edging all around each one. The extended rays in the finnage really make this two inch fish something different! Sexing these fish is simple. Colorful fins = male. Blah fins = female.
The blue-eyed rainbow will accept any type of small food and does quite nicely in small aquaria. Remember to do regular water changes. I do not think these fish would be real forgiving if you were to let the water get the slightest bit funky. When it came to breeding these little gems, I knew they were no mouthbrooders like many African cichlids and Geophagus. I knew that they didn't spawn in caves like many of the other African cichlids nor the Apistogrammas. I knew they spawned in mops like all the other rainbowfish, however after a couple of weeks of frustration I found I did not have the key. Changing their food to mostly live and frozen did not get them to spawn. More frequent water changes (30% twice weekly) did not work. And bumping the water temperature both up and down did not work. I knew that I had two pair, maybe I need a barometer drop (like right before a thunderstorm) like many corys and killies need.
Disgusted after finding no eggs after a major storm, even when my killies, corys and peacock gobies all spawned, I (purposely?) broke the bobber on the end of my yarn mop. A week later, I fished out the mop to discard it. My last attempt to look for eggs in the mop uncovered the key I needed. These fish spawn on the bottom of the tank, where I had assumed they liked to spawn at the top like most the others. The eggs are quite large and easy to hatch. I put them in small Dannon yogurt tubs with a couple of drops of methelene blue. Two weeks later, swimmers in the tub get moved to a ten gallon aquarium. They are fed both powdered APR food or infusoria for two weeks. Baby brine shrimp and crushed flake is the mainstay thereafter. The nice thing about these guys, is the fact that you can keep adding fry to the same aquarium for months. They do not eat each other, and grow much more rapidly than most of the other rainbowfish.
The hint that I have actually grown up in the hobby, is that these fish are first of all not cichlids. Secondly, they have not befallen the same fate as their cichlid predecesors. Meaning they are still in my house, where the cichlids once BAP points were given were escorted out the door. Maybe these beautiful little fish is all you need to grow up too! the end