Besides the well-known Austrolebias nigripinnis there are many more Austrolebias species coming from Northern Argentina, Southern Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. In this article I want to show a selection of those Austrolebias, which are small and have basically similar needs like nigripinnis.

There are also a couple of very large Austrolebias, like A. wolterstorffii, A. elongatus, A. monstrosus etc. Of course these big fish have totally different requirements and they can not be compared with the smaller species of this familiy.

 

The small Austrolebias usually reach a length of just 4-6cm. Females are even smaller. They can be kept very well as couples or trios in the usual standard 12L tank. They are bottom divers and bury their eggs in the substratum of the small ponds in which they live during the rainy season. They are typical annual fish and a dry period is obligatory for the development of the eggs. Adult fish do not live very long. If they spawn a lot, their life might end already after 6-8 months. On the other hand, they grow extremely quick and it is possible to identify males and females after just 4 weeks. With 6-8 weeks they can start to lay their first eggs.

How to keep and breed the fish?

 A pair, trio or even 2 couples or trios can be kept in a 12L tank without any filter or heating. Do water changes very frequently (50% every 5-7 days) and try not to overfeed them. Put some floating plants in the tank and provide them with the usual jar with coco peat in which they lay their eggs. It is important to know that these fish do well in cooler water. In summer, between May and October they can be kept outside in our region. Temperatures as low as 10 degrees are no problem, but above 25 degrees they start to suffer. 18-22 seems to be ideal.

Every 3-4 weeks you can exchange the peat with the eggs. Eggs will mature within 3-5 months at 21-25 degrees. Fry is large enough to eat artemia from the first day and they grow very fast. Within 6-8 weeks the males can be identified and after 3 month they start to spawn.

A typical austrolebias cycle would be:

1) Hatching of fry to maturity 2-3 months.

2) Spawning period ca. 4 months.

3) Eggs storage ca. 4 months at 20 degrees.

4) New cycle.

Some specific remarks based on my experiences (information about geographic distributions taken from Killi Data Online).

Affinis, Duraznensis

Affinis: large range in northern and central Uruguay and neighboring Brasil, duraznensis in southwestern Uruguay.

Easy: Can be kept at standard conditions, exactly like nigripinnis. This can be very cool at only 15-16 degrees. The fish becomes very productive with age. At the beginning some care has to be taken to avoid late belly sliding. So the water quality must always be good.

 Alexandrii

Large range, southwestern Brasil, western Uruguay and northeastern Argentina.

Medium: Rather shy. Slightly larger. This species can be very colourful and the males develop clear black bands and very nice green and blue fins. My first strain of alexandrii (Feliciano-Paso Correa 2) was difficult and I could not bring them into the next generation. Now I have 2 different strains (Franquia+SanJoseFeliciano) and more females, so I hope I can do better this time.

Bellotti, Apaii

Bellotti: large range of distribution in coastal lowlands of northeastern Argentina, whereas Apaii occurs in the Río Uruguay floodplains in Uruguay and Argentina.

Bellotti is the classic “Cynolebias”, which was already known many decades ago. The name then was “Blue Pearlfish”. The different strains can have totally different colours. The “Dolores” strain is blue, whereas many others are brownish or grey and have some patterns. Apaii is very similar and it is currently discussed if it is just a synonym of bellotti.

Both are large, very elegant and calm fish that do very well in cool water. Their productivity can be very high. At least from apaii I could collect many eggs, but I kept several pairs together whereas from my 2 bellotti strains up to now I have only trios.

Viarius

Southeastern region of Uruguay.

This one seems to be more difficult. Although they have laid many eggs I had the impression that the fish did not feel very well most of the time. They were apathetic and laid on the ground most of the time. Still I do not know if they prefer cooler or moderatly warm water. I tried both, but the behaviour did not change much and they were sick sometimes. However, they spawned over a certain period. It takes a lot of time until males and females can be distinguished. For a very long time they all look like males, but then the typical female patterns appear in some of the fish. I have not yet completed a second cycle with them, but eggs remaind stable for months, which is a good sign.

Juanlangi

Southern Brasil and northeastern Uruguay.

Not much to say about this species yet. They were easy to raise, but I got 17 males and no female. They are very beautiful and lively and I hope my next try with another strain will give me a better starting position.

Patriciae

Southern Paraguay and neighboring regions of Argentina.

Easy, as far as I can say now. The fish is calm and not very aggressive and likes to hide somewhere between the plants. But they lay good numbers of eggs already when they are still small and it seems as if they are easy to maintain.

Paucisquama

Southeastern Brasil, inland. Only one location is known, but recently a second strain was offered.

Easy and very beautiful. They grow surprisingly slow, but maybe this is due to the fact that I keep them very cool. But despite their slow growth they spawn early and lay many eggs. This species is not aggressive at all and they can be kept very well in small groups. They get bacterial infections sometimes but most of the time it is possible to cure them.

It has been reported that they survived a couple of days without problems under ice!

Toba

Border of Argentina and Paraguay, only very few (two?) locations.

Unfortunately this one is difficult. Up to now I had only 1 pair and they totally refused to lay any eggs. Friends of mine breed them successfully, so it is not impossible to maintain them. However, they seem to be not very productive and they don´t appear very often for sale. Moreover, this species is highly endangered and close to extinction, so it would be very good, if more breeders can manage to keep and distribute them further.

Periodicus

Southeastern Brasil (Uruguay river basin).

Also with this one I was not lucky. From the first batch of eggs I got 15 males and only one female and she was not interested in reproducing at all. So I was left with just one single egg, which will not take me further. But this species is still available sometimes and I hope to get a second chance soon. They are very beautiful and differ from the others quite a bit in shape.

Conclusion

Although not so well-known as the famous Austrolebias nigripinnis, there are plenty of other small Austrolebias that do very well in small, unheated tanks. Some of them are highly endangered or already extinct in nature, so we have the chance to preserve some of them at least in our tanks. It is not very difficult to maintain them over a long time as long as you are willing to take on the work of collecting, storing, wetting, redrying their eggs again and again.

Because their eggs can be stored in moist peat over 2-10 (or more months), it is possible to exchange them with other enthusiasts worldwide. Even in colder months the eggs can be sent with regular mail as long as it is not freezing.

It can be difficult or even impossible to keep these fish if you live in an area where it gets very warm in summer. You can try to have fish only in the cooler months and store the eggs in summer. This would be very close to their natural life-cycle.