Spawning Hemigrammus hyanuary
by Charles Drew
From the Monthly Bulletin of the Hamilton Aquarium Society
Aquarticles
Hemigrammus hyanuary, also known as the Costello Tetra, comes from the central
and upper Amazon. They are a peaceful little fish an inch and a half long and somewhat
resembling the Head and Tail Light Tetra. The body is green with a gold line leading to a
black spot at the tail base. The spot is edged with white on the top and bottom. They are
a lively and active fish that are best kept in small schools and prefer a sunny or well
lit aquarium with plants.
I had these fish many years ago but they did not live long enough for me to spawn them.
During the past winter I happened to visit 'The Fish Place' in North Tonawanda. There in a
tank I found them under their trade name Costello Tetras. I bought six and brought them
home.
Always careful with new fish I knew I had to quarantine them. Not having a tank ready I
decided to put them in one that had had other tetras in it that had been reluctant to
spawn. The water was quite soft and very slightly acid and the bottom was covered with my
old saran spawning strips. I was not too surprised a day or two later to find that they
had spawned. The eggs hatched in twenty-four hours and the fry became free swimming in
another five days.
The first food that I gave them was Wardley's liquid fry food. I put two or three drops
into a shot glass and stirred it with my finger so that it was well mixed. It was then
poured across the top of the water. After a couple of days I started to feed micro worms
and live newly hatched brine shrimp.
Although it was not a very large spawning at present I have several dozen fry a half an
inch long. They have been no trouble to raise and I will be spawning them again soon as I
am sure that they are capable of producing large spawnings. I highly recommend this
not-too-often seen fish for your tetra tank or breeders program.
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