AMAZONAS
you can count on seeing the first juveniles in the
right-hand chamber. The breeding animals will have
laid their eggs in the substrate, where they developed
and hatched. Since freshly hatched blue-eyes swim up
to the surface of the water, they are swept through the
overflow into the right-hand chamber, where they are
protected from their parents, who would otherwise see
them as additional food. In this chamber the young fish
can grow up to a size of 0.8 inch (2 cm), then be given
away or released into the left-hand chamber. In this way
the breeding group is maintained or enlarged.Rearing foods
Happy is the breeder who can offer his or her fry tiny
live foods from nature—the best option for the first
days. I make fine foods myself. Using an electric coffee
grinder, I crush dry foods of all sizes into a powder,
which the young fish take from the beginning. If you
want to save yourself this effort, you should purchase
the best fry food you can find in the 0.05–0.1 mm
range. Of course, you can also breed tiny food animals,
infusoria, Paramecium ciliates, rotifers, and so forth.
If you want to culture them in your home, you should
discuss this with your family first—not everyone is toler-
ant of the odors.
When the young fish have reached a size of about
0.6 inch (1.5 cm), I begin to feed them Artemia nauplii,which I consider to be essential. Make sure to find good
quality cysts (“eggs”)—varieties with a hatch rate below
95 percent should not be used. I have had good experi-
ences with the Sanders brand. If you do not need to use
many at one time, the cysts should be stored frozen in
portions and defrosted as required; they will last for
years. After removing them from the freezer, however,
do not open the bag immediately; first, wait 24 hours.
A brine shrimp hatchery should have a capacity of at
least a quart (1 L), more if need be. I use water from the
tap, filling the container up to 1.2 inches (3 cm) below
the edge, and I use only sea salt. To a quart container
you can add a slightly heaping teaspoon of salt, then
a spoonful of Artemia cysts. Many breeders enrich the
nauplii with additives about 22 hours after starting the
incubation. I advise against feeding blue-eyes constantly
with baby brine shrimp, as some species become obese.A note of caution
I do not recommend keeping different species of blue-
eyes in the same aquarium or collecting eggs from such a
tank, because some blue-eyes will hybridize with others.
Therefore, please do not distribute progeny from such
aquariums to other aquarists or the trade. Even regional
variants of a species should not be mixed. These fishes
are in trouble in nature, and aquarists must help preserve
true species.