Needs soft, acidic water. Is sensitive to ammonia and nitrate. Water must be clean and it should be at around 80 or more Fahrenheit (sorry using phone and can't think of Celsius right now). Live foods preferred, but dried foods are OK.
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I have four, this is one of my males:
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I have two males and two females, the females have red bellies and shorter fins, also somewhat smaller fish. That photo is several week old at this point and the fish is a bit bigger and more filled out now. Gorgeous fish and lots of personality.
I keep them in a 50 gallon planted tank, kept at 79-80 degrees (it's like 79.7 or something like that) they're really lively and interactive, come to the front of the glass begging for food when I get home from work and walk past the tank. The two males display and squabble but don't seriously hurt each other or anything.
They are territorial and need their space, a square foot of territory per fish is a good rule of thumb.
I might end up loosing one of my females, she got bitten in a fight early on before they settled into their territories and it's an infected ulcer now. She eats fine and has good colour still and behaves as if nothing's wrong. I tried separating her out into a hospital tank and medicating etc. for a while but the ulcer didn't go down at all and she was unhappy there. Moved her back after the medication round was over and she was much happier (better colour and more active).
Anyway absolutely gorgeous little fish though, I have no idea where mine are in terms of wild caught, or how many generations from wild. I'm assuming not wild caught, I, not doing anything special with the water, it's fairly soft naturally but at ph 7.2ish
I have two males and two females, the females have red bellies and shorter fins, also somewhat smaller fish. That photo is several week old at this point and the fish is a bit bigger and more filled out now. Gorgeous fish and lots of personality.
I keep them in a 50 gallon planted tank, kept at 79-80 degrees (it's like 79.7 or something like that) they're really lively and interactive, come to the front of the glass begging for food when I get home from work and walk past the tank. The two males display and squabble but don't seriously hurt each other or anything.
They are territorial and need their space, a square foot of territory per fish is a good rule of thumb.
I might end up loosing one of my females, she got bitten in a fight early on before they settled into their territories and it's an infected ulcer now. She eats fine and has good colour still and behaves as if nothing's wrong. I tried separating her out into a hospital tank and medicating etc. for a while but the ulcer didn't go down at all and she was unhappy there. Moved her back after the medication round was over and she was much happier (better colour and more active).
Anyway absolutely gorgeous little fish though, I have no idea where mine are in terms of wild caught, or how many generations from wild. I'm assuming not wild caught, I, not doing anything special with the water, it's fairly soft naturally but at ph 7.2ish
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