You want to test for water hardness so
API Liquid GH & KH Test Kit
What is your water quality like at the tap pH and Hardness.
Nothobranchius rachovi.
Beautiful fish and I have kept them for many years.
Firstly You dont need a big tank to keep these. It all can be done in a smaller aquarium.
I use small 12x8x8 aquariums for spawning. They are not too fussy about water statistics, at least not like some aphyosemions and rivulus species.
Your normal tap water will be fine. Fill a 2 gallon bucket and place some Peat moss (not sphagnum moss) in a net bag (leg of a ladies nylon will suffice) and place this in the bucket. Keep running off about 1gallon per day and replace with fresh. do this for a week. After this time has passed the water you have is the water you will be using for the breeding tank. It should still have a slightly brown tinge from the peat.
Fill the 12x8x8 tank with this water and heat it using the heater stat to around 25'f
I like to include a small air driven sponge filter set to a trickle.
Remember the peat you used in the bucket, well bring this indoors and microwave it for around 30 seconds. This is now steralised and is ready for use. Place the peat in a jam-jar and lower this into your tank. If done correctly most of the peat will stay within the jar.
I like to use a trio (1 male to 2 females) for spawning. The breeders must be feed livefoods inorder to bring them into spawning condition (please note N. rachovi turns their noses up at dry and frozen foods) Collect the eggs once a week by lifting out the jar and emptying the peat into a net, now squeeze all the water out until what you have left looks like the consisty of pipe tobacco (not too damp and not too dry. Bag this peat and label with the date collected and the expected hatching date.
For Rachovi it should be around 25'C and the peat can be wetted after 6 months. Use 1lb white ice-cream tubs to wet the peat floated in the main tank, cover the peat with around 1" of water and wait. The fry will hatch and are very very small and will need infusorians for the first few days. Transfer the fry to another clean tub to feed. After a couple of days redry the peat and store for another month then rewet. You may find that you get a larger hatch from the second wetting.
Feed the fry little and often. The fry should not have to go hunting for food it should be in abundance an right under their noses (newly hatches brineshrimp and microworms) Keep your fry tubs clean (use a syringe with some airline attached to remove uneaten food. Perform small water changes each day as you remove uneaten food. Gradually increase the water level in the fry tubs. They should sex out in around 3 weeks and will become sexualy mature shortly after that. Male are quite aggressive with each other so keep the females seperate for one and make sure you have them males graded by size as the smaller ones will get bullied.
I think I've covered most of the info I have on these, if I have failed to provide all the information you require or have other questions then just ask away.
Regards
BigC
