Harlequin Rasboras Spawning?!

Fishfriend1 · Apr 3, 2014

So, these fish are about 2 years old right now, give or take a few months, and all appear to be fully grown. They are in a 75 gallon heavily planted and overfiltered community tank with about 50 other fish, ranging from a school of cories and 3 plecos to 3 species of tetra and a school of neon rainbowfish. I went downstairs earlier today to eat a sandwich and while eating I observed my fish doing what I thought to be some kind of battle for dominance, Rasbora-style. Thinking more on it, I noticed that they seemed to be differently patterned. I was then busy for a while and only just now got to looking up their breeding habits. *Apperently*, if my sources and a youtube comparison are correct, they were spawning, or attempting to spawn.

So my questions regarding this are:

Will anything at all come of this? My tank is very well planted, with loads of space for tiny fish to hide if they're clever about it, but otherwise isn't exactly a fry-tank. Will the eggs even be able to survive, assuming they lay any?
Speaking of eggs, what do they look like?
What kinds of plants do they lay the eggs on/under?
I'm assuming that fish attempting to spawn is a good thing here, so I'm basically asking with this: is it a good thing or just a possibly good possibly bad thing?
Could these fish just be doing what fish do and being weird? Or would they only be doing that tapping thing to one another if they were spawning?
Should I be worried about the other fish in the tank? (aka, will this cause aggression from the rasboras, cause side-effects that harm other fish, ext?)
Should I be worried about eggs getting stuck in the filter and clogging it, or are they too small to hurt a nice sized canister filter?

If anyone has other comments or suggestions to make, feel free to do so. I'm not sure whether to be physicked that my fish are spawning or terrified I'm going to be loaded up with fry soon... haha.

Anyway, thanks for reading!

Byron Amazonas · Apr 4, 2014

The behaviours could be spawning, or they could be interaction between fish within the group. This is common to many if not all species in the characins and cyprinids (rasbora are in the latter group), some catfish, etc.

To the spawning: most cyprinids are egg scatterers, but not the Harlequin Rasbora. Just so you know, for the egg scatterers, the male will "drive" the female into the plants and the female will expel the egg mass which the male fertilizes, and the eggs scatter and adhere (being sticky) to the plants. Bushy plants are best for this, and floating plants like Water Sprite are ideal and the fish use the dangling root masses. I've never maintained these fish in tanks without such plants, so I've no experience of what they do in the absence of plants. Spawning mops can be used artificially. When this spawning occurs in a tank with other fish, including others of the same species, the fish understand what is happening and will readily snap up the eggs usually before they ever come into contact with plant leaves. Sometimes a few survive, and fry can survive too if the plants are thick enough (natural microscopic foods on the plants sustain the fry that survive).

Your species, Trigonostigma heteromorpha, spawns differently. Here the male drives the female under a plant leaf (broad leaf plants) and the eggs are attached by the female to the underside of the leaf. Other objects will be used too. Here again the eggs will usually be devoured by the fish.

The eggs are very tiny and clear when first laid. They darken as they develop to hatching. No filter problems, as chances are the eggs will never get that far.

Spawning is always a good sign with these fish. Unlike some species (cichlids or anabantids) there is no parental care in most species so nothing to worry about with fish defending their eggs/fry. If these fish spawn, they must be happy, meaning satisfied with their conditions. I see the activity all the time in my tanks, though fry rarely survive for the reasons mentioned above.

Byron.

Fishfriend1 · Apr 4, 2014

Thanks Byron!

rufioman · Apr 4, 2014

I have had 15 rasboras of about the same size, and I have never seen them go at each other. Sounds like you have a mating dance going on, congrats!!!

Fishfriend1 · Apr 5, 2014

Thanks for the clarification rufio.


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Harlequin Rasboras Spawning?!

Fishfriend1

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Byron Amazonas

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Fishfriend1

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