Austrolebias nigripinnis are pretty easy to spawn and rear. Only probs being they need constant live food and the males do not tolerate on another.
I have bred Austrolebias nigripinnis Sagastome (formerly Cynolebias) on several occasions in the past. They are a beautiful little South American annual, especially under the correct lighting.
A small tank of around 16x8x8 can be used for a breeding trio (1 male : 2 females) No substrate. A small air driven sponge filter can be employed although not essential. A jam jar with peat fibre is placed in the centre of the tank and the fish will dive into this to lay their eggs. Water temp of around 22'C and moderate soft water with a pH of 6.8 will suit them fine.
They are a prolific species (many eggs)so you need to harvest the peat weekly or fortnightly so as you don't get bumper batches of fry to contend with at any one time.
When harvesting the peat remove from the jar and squeeze out as much water as possible until its the consistency of rolling tobacco.
Bag up and label with species name, date collected & date expected.
The diapause for Nigripinnis eggs is around 3 months. Then you can wet the peat in a margarine tub with around 45mm of water depth. A lot of the fry will hatch immediately but some will take a day or two longer. After this time separate the fry and re-dry the peat. Second wet your batch of peat in another fortnight, you may get more fry from this second wetting.
The fry will need infusoria/paramoecium for the first day or so then move them onto newly hatched brineshrimp and microworm.
They will grow quickly being annual sp.
The only downside is as I said earlier, the males are rather aggressive toward one another.
I hope this was of some help to you.
Regards
C
