Rice Fish (a Couple Of Pics)

[denis coghlan]

Thought I would post a couple of pictures for show and tell purposes.

I recently acquired 10 of these fish from a fellow hobbyist free of charge. He was downsizing his tanks and all he asked in return was some offspring when he had more space. Providing the offspring will be no problem as the fish have already spawned and it has only been two weeks. The fish are commonly called rice fish. There are a number of different species but this one I believe is called Oryzias latipes.

If the females lays again I will make sure to have the camera ready as it is quite impressive how she holds onto them with her anal fin before she releases them onto plants or other objects in the tank.

 

[CAC]

Very cool
Got any more info on them?
Are they commonly available?
Do they school?

Thanks, Mikey

 

[denis coghlan]

I have very little information other than what I have read on the Internet and what I have experienced with them so far.

Nmonks had this to say about them a couple of months back

Ricefish are Oryzias spp., sometimes sold as "medakas". They look like killifish, but are actually members of the same large group of fish as halfbeaks, flying fish, and needlefish (the Beloniformes). They perform a variation of internal fertilisation, and though they lay eggs, the female carries them around on her anal fin for a while, rubbing them off, one at a time, on plants.

The common medaka, Oryzias latipes is a hardy, coldwater species. There are some tropical species, but oddly, they are very delicate and not often kept. Oryzias latipes is an important fish in science, being used for all sorts of experiments, from developmental biology to genetics.

http/www.fbas.co.uk/Ricefish.html

and according to "The Wolf" its the only fish to have been in space.


I feed them with tetra-tropical flake food, they do school around the upper level of the tank. They are not a hugely active fish but they make a nice addition to the tank.

Regarding their availability, I have never seen them for sale in any shop in Ireland (not sure about other countries) and the guy I got them from got them through the postal service from somewhere in Europe.

 

[CAC]

Oh right, thats pretty cool, but its a shame that they're often experimented on, as a species, but i spose some fish have to be

Nice fish

Mikey

 

[wei0204]

It is a nice cute small fish. It has activated my interest in rearing it. Thanks for sharing "Tanks A Lot".

 

[stang1]

They are beautiful fish. I have seven of them which I brought from my local Maidenhead aquatics, I've never seen them anywhere else.
At night they all gather together under one of my plants and pretty much stay together most of the time.
Unfortunately, I think all of mine are females but I'm tempted to see if I can get a couple of males and try breeding them.
Great photos, tanks a lot.

 

[wei0204]

They are beautiful fish. I have seven of them which I brought from my local Maidenhead aquatics, I've never seen them anywhere else.
At night they all gather together under one of my plants and pretty much stay together most of the time.
Unfortunately, I think all of mine are females but I'm tempted to see if I can get a couple of males and try breeding them.
Great photos, tanks a lot.

Are they easy to rear? They like acidic or alkaline water?

 

[helterskelter]

You need plenty of newly hatched brine shrimp for these rearly.

To collect the eggs you need then to be a plain tank as the lay their eggs on plants and other objects.
What u need to do is hang a spawning mop (synthetic wool is best) and when the female produces eggs they look like bunches of grapes hanging down fro the female.
She will after an houre shead them on to the spawning mop.

The eggs are easy to see and what i do is get a clean butter tub. add some tank water to this and then hand pick the eggs off the wool and place them in to the tub.

The float the tun in the tank till the fry hatch after hatching allow them to use their yolk sac up which takes 3 days, then you'll need to feed newly hatched brine shrimp.

It should take around 4-6 weeks and you'll be able to place the fry back in with the parents.

Helter

P.s. my water is hard with Ph of 7.2-7.5 their very hardy fish and almost anything goes for them as long as it's not in the extreams ofcourse.

 

[wei0204]

Thank you helterskelter, they don't eat their own fry? Very interesting fish...