Eight Ameca Splendens juvies (4-12 weeks), $30 shipped via priority mail or $25+shipping for express mail.
Adult size is ~3.5" for the males and 3.5-4.5" for the females.
They like water between 65 and 75 degrees, but are fine at temps as high as 80 or 82 provided there is sufficient oxygen in the water.
A tank of at least 20long should be used, with a 40g or larger being best as they are active fish.
They require clean water, but are not very picky about PH or kh/gh.
They are algae and plant matter eaters in the wild, so a plantish food should be used (they love spirulina flake). This also means that they eat most types of algae they can get in their mouths, including hair algae and black fuzzy-hornish algae and cyanobacteria.
The only live plant i have seen them attempt to eat is duckweed on the surface, which they rather like. They will eat dead leaves on most plants, but not live ones.
Surface algae such as spot algae and diatoms they ignore.
Adults sometimes take offense with corys, though if they are put in with the corys while young they generally ignore them for the rest of their lives.
Aside from corys (and some other bottem dwelling fish aside from plecos) they are fairly peaceful towards others. The males chase eachother around as livebearers tend to, but i have never seen any damage done.
Ameca splendens is a member of the goodeid family, which gives it a fairly interesting reproductive system.
They are livebearers, but rather then the guppy style of releasing clouds of tiny fish, goodeids have a placenta of sorts and umbilical cords.
This allows a smaller number of fish to spend substantially more time inside the mother, and by the time they are born (60-90 days) they are quite large, with the average size of the newborn fry being about .75"!
The fry keep their umbilical cords for a few minutes to an hour after being born, then they dissolve.
Typically 10-15 fry are born at a time, but there can be as few as five or as many as 30.
The fry are large enough that the adults do not eat them.
These are the best pictures i've managed (also note my avatar, that is the same male as the below picture), these are active fish and they don't sit around for the camera very often.
Male: Blue iridescent scales on the side, and the tail has a black band followed by a bright yellow band
Female: Somewhat more drab, still slightly iridescent blue.
Fry: Spotted like the females, they start to show their sex ~2"
Adult size is ~3.5" for the males and 3.5-4.5" for the females.
They like water between 65 and 75 degrees, but are fine at temps as high as 80 or 82 provided there is sufficient oxygen in the water.
A tank of at least 20long should be used, with a 40g or larger being best as they are active fish.
They require clean water, but are not very picky about PH or kh/gh.
They are algae and plant matter eaters in the wild, so a plantish food should be used (they love spirulina flake). This also means that they eat most types of algae they can get in their mouths, including hair algae and black fuzzy-hornish algae and cyanobacteria.
The only live plant i have seen them attempt to eat is duckweed on the surface, which they rather like. They will eat dead leaves on most plants, but not live ones.
Surface algae such as spot algae and diatoms they ignore.
Adults sometimes take offense with corys, though if they are put in with the corys while young they generally ignore them for the rest of their lives.
Aside from corys (and some other bottem dwelling fish aside from plecos) they are fairly peaceful towards others. The males chase eachother around as livebearers tend to, but i have never seen any damage done.
Ameca splendens is a member of the goodeid family, which gives it a fairly interesting reproductive system.
They are livebearers, but rather then the guppy style of releasing clouds of tiny fish, goodeids have a placenta of sorts and umbilical cords.
This allows a smaller number of fish to spend substantially more time inside the mother, and by the time they are born (60-90 days) they are quite large, with the average size of the newborn fry being about .75"!
The fry keep their umbilical cords for a few minutes to an hour after being born, then they dissolve.
Typically 10-15 fry are born at a time, but there can be as few as five or as many as 30.
The fry are large enough that the adults do not eat them.
These are the best pictures i've managed (also note my avatar, that is the same male as the below picture), these are active fish and they don't sit around for the camera very often.
Male: Blue iridescent scales on the side, and the tail has a black band followed by a bright yellow band
Female: Somewhat more drab, still slightly iridescent blue.
Fry: Spotted like the females, they start to show their sex ~2"
Last edited:
