Spawning pinktail chalceus fish to some level is impossible. You need first differentiate between the male and female, and this task is rather hard.
If you are looking for active aquarium occupants, pinktail chalceus fish or also known as Chalceus macrolepidotus will be a perfect choice. This agile fish with a striking bright pink tail and blazing characin loves to play around the surface layers and even jump once in a while to catch food. With the high demand for this species, many are fascinated by spawning pinktail chalceus fish. Interested as well? Keep reading.
Sexing the Pink Tail Chalceus
How to sex pinktail chalceus fish is rather difficult. The male and female pinktail chalceus fish have almost no distinction. Maybe that is one reason that makes spawning pinktail chalceus fish somewhat challenging, most of the time hard.
However, there is one slight pointer to separate between male and female pinktail chalceus fish. The females usually have a slightly bigger belly than males once they turn mature or grow to twenty centimeters in length.
Breeding Pinktail Chalceus Fish
As already mentioned earlier, mating pinktail chalceus fish is very difficult, if not impossible. In fact, there are only a few records on successful spawning pinktail chalceus fish. Most of the information is too little and hard to find.
Some successful spawning details require very big fish tanks. Thus, if you are fortunate enough to have these pinktail chalceus fish mating, you will catch sight of many small eggs clinging to the plants in your tank. According to one lucky breeder’s details, the eggs sized 1.5mm in diameter will hatch within 48 hours, depending on the water’s degrees.
Four days after the eggs hatch, they will turn into free-swimming. The size of baby pinktail chalceus fish is fairly big. That is why once these free-swimming gobble their yolk sacs, you can feed them with brine shrimp nauplii or Artemia nauplii. For almost all hobbyists, breeding this species can’t be contemplated practical.
Water Condition
Since you wish for successful spawning, make sure to prepare a very large tank. Water condition is also crucial. Since pinktail chalceus fish is highly-oxygenated species, good water quality is important. There are some parameters to attain that. First, the ideal water pH is 7.0, with a water hardness level is 12. As for the temperature, the optimal condition is 25 degrees Celsius.
Tank Set-Up
During the mating, pinktail chalceus fish love to scatter their plenty of eggs over thick and shaggy vegetation over the course. This is why decorating the mating tank with water plants is important. You can also add some floating branches.
But avoid setting too much vegetation or ornaments because they still need a lot of space for being active species. Besides aquatic plants and branches, you may also add dark-colored gravel or sand. On top of that, you should confirm that the aquarium is highly oxygenated.
So are you still determined to breed this active fish? Make sure your mating tank meets the entire above requirement. And because sexing their sexual differentiation is not distinguishable, asking for advice from expert breeders is very much recommended. Good luck with spawning pinktail chalceus fish!