Family:- Goodeidae. Jordan, 1923.
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Habitat Range;-
Once found in many of the habitats in the Rio lermae Basin in the Mexican states of both Michoacan and Jalisco. These days however they like many others have been in decline throughout there range. In fact when we went looking for them in some of their normal habitats in Lake Orandino and Lake Camecuaro but found none. We tried again in 1999 but we could only find them in one private pool at a Cafe where the proprietor raises Carp.
Description :-
The specimen shown is like those from Lake Camecuaro. It is a male and if you look at the first few jagged rays of it's dorsal fin it is easy to see why this fish has been given the common name of The Sawfin Goodied. If you have a colony of these you will find that not all will disport such a magnificent coloration, however most will have it to some degree.normally the females are rather drab by comparison but at the location below left
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You can find the odd female as shown above right. Should the excessively colorful males be removed in a while others will begin to shine and take their place.Also the amount of gold and the black blotches on the body will vary from fish to fish. The dorsal ray count is from 15 to 17. The males grow to around 5cm and the females which have very little color to5-5cm and her dorsal rays are not shortened.
Maintenance:-
Like many of the other goodieds of this area the fish is found in water that is nearly neutral i.e.:- 7-3ph and 3gh and 3kh. In the aquarium they seem to thrive best when kept in a colony on there own with temperatures in the low 70's Fahrenheit. A word of warning though if you do colony breed fish. Then once in a while take a gravid female to a brooding tank, then let her have her young and return her to the colony. Raise these young on a good protein and live food diet for about 12 weeks changing 100% of their water as frequently as you can but at least twice a week.This will give these particular fish a boast to life and when you return them to the colony they seem to pass this resilience on to their tank mates when they breed. This I have found will offset to a very great extent the so called affects of what is called inbreeding depression.
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Mail to:- ivandibble@blueyonder.co.uk