Fish cardinals in a home aquarium

Cardinal is the name of a fish popular with aquarists. It belongs to the family of cyprinids, genus Tanov. It lives in the south of China in numerous rivers and mountain streams with a rapid current. Very beautiful, bright color have these aquarium fish (photo). And they got their names thanks to the presence of red in color.

The body of these fish is narrow, elongated, flat from the sides, about 3-4 cm long. The color of the fins is lemon yellow, partly with a red tint, pectoral fins with a black edging. The abdomen is silvery, the top is brownish-yellow, and in the middle along the entire length there is a strip of golden-red color. Like most fish, males are somewhat brighter, smaller and slimmer than females. The female has a more rounded abdomen and smaller fins.

Contents in the aquarium

Fish cardinals live in packs, therefore in an aquarium it is better to contain more than 5 individuals. Sexual maturation occurs after reaching 4 months, it can be determined by the disappearance of a longitudinal flickering strip along the body.

Cardinal - a fish (photo is in the article), care of which will not cause much trouble for the owners. For 5 individuals, an aquarium of rectangular shape with a volume of about 15 liters will suffice. For the soil it is best to choose river sand or pebbles. To the bottom of the aquarium was well lit, do not plant the algae too thick, it is better to additionally float on the surface of floating plants. As a submarine flora fit fern, ludwigia, elodea.

Peaceful character and small size allow cardinals to peacefully coexist in one aquarium with other fish. Very well they get along with neon and zebrafish. But the scalars, the Lalius and gurami because of the calm nature will not be able to exist normally with high-speed cardinals.

Aquarium, which contains cardinal fish, should be placed near natural light sources, but you must protect fish from direct sunlight. In winter, pay more attention to artificial lighting. Organize good filtration and aeration systems, and do not forget to change a third of the water once a week.

As the practice suggests, it is best to buy live food, then the coloring of fish will be much brighter. Well suited tube man, coretra, daphnia and bloodworm.

Breeding of Cardinals

Fish live cardinals somewhere 2 years, you can do their breeding at home. The spawning period lasts from March to October. There are two ways of breeding: spawning or common aquarium.

Breeding in a common aquarium is possible if you have a species aquarium. The number of fry will be much smaller, but this is enough to maintain the total number of fish. The breeding process does not require your intervention and lasts about a month.

For the spawning will need a well-lit aquarium with a capacity of 10 liters, at the bottom of which it is necessary to pour large-grained dark sand. Optimum water parameters: temperature 21-24 ° C, pH 7, dH 4-15 °.

Producers two weeks are abundantly fed. Then two rounded females and one male are placed in a spawning aquarium. If everything is correctly organized, then the female will save from 30 to 40 eggs every day, and for one spawning their number can reach 400 pieces.

Ripen eggs for about two days. When the young fish cardinals sail, they need to feed the "live dust" and infusoria. Rotifers, nauplii artemia and Cyclops will accelerate the development and growth of fry.