Breeding the Sailfin Goodeid - Girardinichthis viviparous
 

Breeding the Sailfin Goodeid - Girardinichthis viviparous



If you have well-kept, healthy Sailfin Goodeids, you should definitely consider breeding them because this fish is critically endangered in the wild and should not be caught for the aquarium market. When the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species classifies an animal as Critically Endangered, it means that it is facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild in the immediate future. The Giant Panda is for instance only listed as Endangered, not Critically Endangered.

Sailfin Goodeid description

The female Sailfin Goodeid can grow up to 2 ½ inches in length while the male stays around 2 inches. The female Sailfin Goodeid can easily be mistaken for several other goodeid species since she has no explicit characteristics that distinguish her from them. The males have black dorsal, caudal and anal fins, and sport a dark longitudinal line through the body.

Sailfin Goodeid habitat and range

The Sailfin Goodeids lives in canals, ponds, pools and small lakes in Mexico. Its habitats are located on the high plateau of central Mexico and this fish can for instance be found in ponds around Mexico City. The temperature of these small bodies of water can vary from nearly freezing temperatures to over 30 degrees C.  

Pairing Sailfin Goodeid

The easiest method is to keep a group of young Sailfin Goodeid together and let them form their own pairs.

Breeding Sailfin Goodeid

The aquarium should be well planted with many suitable hiding spots. Ideally include some floating plants that will dim the light. A key element in coaxing the Sailfin Goodeid into spawning seems to be its diet. Refrain from flake food and give your fish a lot of live meaty food instead, such as brine shrimp and daphnia. Frozen brine shrimp has also been used successfully in the past. Since Sailfin Goodeid live in ponds and pools in the wild, it can actually be a good idea to turn the aquarium into a green water pool and cultivating large numbers of daphnia or similar directly in it.

Giving your Sailfin Goodeids their own aquarium without any other fish might also be beneficial, but more research is necessary before we can know for sure whether or not this is the case.

If you decide to set up a separate fry raising aquarium, it should be filled with green water. Feed your fry daphnia and newly hatched brine shrimp.

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