Location South Asia, endemic to Lake Inle, Myanmar (formerly Burma).
Temp 72 – 74°F is ideal
Size Max size 2cm to 3cm, females slightly larger than males
Food Newly hatched brine shrimp, Grindal worms, or Micro worms. They will also eat some dried foods if crushed. Freeze-dried bloodworms, freeze-dried and frozen Cyclops, and tiny pellet foods are all eaten.
Date Bred 21November 2010
Brief Description Of Fish
The Microrasbora erythromicron is a very peaceful fish. It has 15 emerald green bars along its side and a black spot at the base of the caudal fin. Males have reddish orange in their fins. Females are slightly larger and have clear fins and are a bit less colourful. They are best kept as a small shoal of 10 to 15 fish in a well planted 18″x10″x10″ tank with a dark substrate. They also prefer to be kept in a tank on their own.
Breeding
I found the Microrasbora erythromicron rather different than other rasboras in as much as they do not require soft or a lower ph. The ideal conditions are pH of 7.2 to 7.4, with moderately hard water (150 ppm to 300 ppm total hardness). I also found it necessary to do frequent water changes of 25 percent every 2 days with aged fresh tap water (nothing added).
The fish were conditioned in a 36″x15″x18″ tank with a strong power head filter & other small fish. They were bred as a group of 14 fish in a 6″x8″x24″ with a fluval 1 pump at one end & black sand as substrate with loads of plant (java moss & java fern).
They are continuous spawners that lay several eggs each day. They also enjoy eating the eggs & fry. Whilst in the spawning tank they were getting fed twice a day on brine shrimp. After 10 days I removed the plant into a large show jar & to my delight found approximately 4 eggs. At this stage I removed the adults & changed the fluval pump for a sponge filter and returned the plant into the breeding tank. I left the eggs that were in the show jar to watch their progress over the next 7 days. The eggs (1mm diameter) seemed to disappear 1 by 1 but as they are very difficult to see even in a show jar & using a magnifying glass they would then reappear a few days later simply because I had failed to see them.
As I found them I removed them with a pipette & returned them to the breeding tank. At this stage they are about 1mm in length for the first week they are fed twice a day on paramecium & given a 10% water change daily. Water should be removed using sponge from filter so as not to remove any fry. After the first week I started introducing ZM 000 grade fry food (very good food) I also added rams horn infusoria snails to eat any uneaten food.
The fry are now 3 weeks old and seem to be doing well even at this age they are growing at different rates. Will keep you informed on how they do.
