Common name: Elfin Goodeid

Scientific name: Skiffia bilineata

Family: Goodeid

Origin: Mexico

Maximum Size: Males up to 4cms, Females 5cms.

Care:
Temperature: Do well between 68f- 74f. they will begin to suffea or die above 76f
Water changes: Weekly is best.

Feeding: All goodeids need live foods to do well; whiteworm, grindal worm, microworm, and brine shrimps can be cultured all year round. Daphnia, bloodworm and mosquitoe larvae are only available during the summer months. If live foods are not available frozen bloodworms are very good and a good quality flake food will help.


Sexing and breeding: Females are greyish in colour with a bluish sheen along and around the belly. This becomes more widespread during pregnancy. Fry are born between 6 to 8 weeks the female requires a new fertilization for each brood of young. The males are grey with blackish fins,. (There are some strains without the black fins). Some goodeids will hybridise in captivity so only keep one species of goodeid to each aquarium. Will breed regulary and can soon overcrowd a tank.



Comments: A very peaceful fish and one of the smaller goodeids some strains turn black throughout most of there body. Several new collections have been made in an attempt to secure captive stocks before this species becomes extinct in nature. These fish can be kept in a tank with other small slow moving fish. I prefer to keep mine by themselves in a 2 foot tank with some plants for cover. They breed quite easy and can have as many as 20 fry, but usually less. The adults do not eat their young, so they can all be kept together and left to flock breed. The females of this species will be very thin after giving birth, sometimes looking like the two sides of the fish have been pinched together between a finger and thumb. (She will soon recover if given live foods) To keep these fish in their very best condition they will need some live food in their diet.



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