Orange Goodeid

Orange Goodeid is a livebearer. Its native place is Mexico and Central America. Streams and rivers in the Mexican central highlands have this fish. Orange Goodeid can live in streams which have high pollution. The temperament of Orange Goodeid is semi aggressive. Its life span is 3-5 yrs. The following account harmonizes more about Orange Goodeid.

Designation: Tropical, but can withstand temperatures at the lower end of the tropical scale and the upper end of the cold water one.

Geographical distribution-Central America, North-west and south-east Mexico

Habitat

North America: Rio of Santiago, Rio Tamazula and Tuxpan, Mexico

Diet

It is not a finicky eater so you can use flakes or tiny pellets as staple diet. Also give them live or frozen foods. It relishes eating algae. It will accept most foods but requires a regular vegetable supplement.

Breeding

It is a livebearer and it is very easy to breed Orange Goodeid. They are dissimilar to other livebearers because females cannot amass the sperm so breeding takes place at regular intervals. This is a viviparous fish which delivers 10-50 young fishes every 2 months. The young fish is fed on fine crushed dry food and Artemia-nauplii. Orange Goodeid is cannibal towards its offspring.

Description

Mature males develop a pronounced hump which gives them a most impressive appearance. Being atypical Goodeid species, Xenotoca eiseni feeds its embryos by means of trophotaeniae which are almost completely reabsorbed by the time the fry are born. A second, slimmer and less colourful, but nevertheless very attractive, species of Xenotoca, X. variata, is also occasionally available.

Physical Characteristics

Males are very attractive. They have glistening spotted flanks which are blue-green in color. The underside of males is orange. A perpendicular and strong band is on its tail which is black and bright yellow in color. Female is not that colorful. It has a spotted body which is colored with silver color and a rounded tail.

Social behavior

For a community tank, they don’t make perfect tank mates. The reason is that they can turn into aggressive fin nippers and even kill their tank mates. They attack catfish in the tank. Thus, it is wise to keep them in a species tank.

Tank set up

A heavily planted tank containing a dark substrate should be used. It will aid in displaying their coloration at its paramount. A wide range of water parameters can be tolerated by them. Tank size should have the capacity to hold minimum of 20 gallons of water. Sides and background of the tank should be densely planted. See that you are using floating plants also in its tank. Orange Goodeid can withstand temperature from 15 degree C to 33 degree C. This fish needs ample swimming space. A powerful filter is necessary for aquarium of this fish.

You must be cautious to properly care for the fry of Goodeid. Minimum 50% of water changes must be done per week. Feed this fish well and its fry, take care of everything it demands and you can enjoy this appealing and enduring fish.