Iris: types of aquarium fish and features of their content

The underwater world is large and diverse. Water paints with bright colors that on land looks gray and nondescript. The warm waters of the southern hemisphere of the Earth are especially rich in bright colors. Many colorful aquarium fish come from the southern regions. Among the bright and colorful beauties there is a fish carrying a rainbow on its scales. The name of this amazing little fish is the iris. Having settled in the aquarium a flock of such fish, you can enjoy this natural wonder every day.

In the warm waters of rivers and lakes in Australia, New Zealand and some islands of Indonesia, they meet small fish playing with all the colors of the rainbow. People did not remain indifferent to the beauty of this fish and transferred the living rainbow to the aquarium. Unpretentious fish easily adapted to the new environment and began to spread among aquarists, gaining popularity.

The size of the iris, the full name of which is Rainbow melanotenia, is small. An adult reaches a length of 5-16 cm, depending on the species, of which there are about 70 in nature.

But for maintenance in the aquarium, only a few types of melanotenia are most often taken. We list and briefly characterize them.

• Rainbow Melanotenia McCulloch. A small fish 60 mm long is found off the coast of Australia. Males of this species are painted in a light shade of olive with brown. On gill covers spots of red color are noticeable. The tail is bright carmine red.

• Neon iris - a native of New Guinea, where she can be found in the overgrown with dense vegetation waters of the Mamberamo River and the surrounding swamps.The bluish color of the scales has a neon effect, noticeable only in the diffused light that aquatic plants provide. The length of an adult fish is about 80 mm. Males differ from females in slightly larger size and slightly brighter color of red fins and tail.

Fish prefer to stick in a flock of 6-8 pieces and love fresh, neutral, not too hard water in inactive reservoirs. For such a flock, an aquarium of 60 liters is enough.

• Aquarium fish Turquoise iris (Melanotenia lacustrine) hailing from Papua New Guinea. It lives in only one small mountain lake Kutubu and the small river Soro that flows into it, which are located in the southern province of Highlands. The size of the fish does not exceed 120 mm. The body color, blue with a yellowish tint, during spawning acquires an orange tint on the back. The color intensity of the fish depends on the nutrition. Blue melanotenia prefers fresh, relatively hard, very inactive water with a temperature of 20 ° -25 ° C. For a flock of 6-8 fish, you need an aquarium with a volume of at least 110 liters.

• Boesman's melanotenia relatively recently became known to the general public. At home, in West Irian on the territory of Indonesia, Boeseman’s iris lives in only three rivers and is threatened with extinction. The first fish brought to Europe served as the basis for obtaining hybrid individuals. The length of the adult iris is from 80 mm to 110 mm. The fish is painted in two shades: the blue color from the head to the middle of the body flows into orange-yellow on the back half.

• Three-way iris distributed in all freshwater bodies of Northern Australia. In the natural environment, the fish is about 150 mm long, while the aquarium’s three-strip reaches only 120 mm in length. The color of this small fish varies depending on the habitat and diet. Of the shades, blue, green, red and yellow colors predominate. But regardless of the color of the scales, all fish have red fins and dark longitudinal stripes. For one school of fish from 5-6 individuals, an aquarium of at least 150 liters is needed.

• Red iris (Aterina red) lives in Lake Sentany and adjacent bodies of water located in New Guinea. A bright fish up to 150 mm long is distinguished by a red color in males and yellow in females. The most striking color has the alpha male of the pack. It is noted that as the temperature decreases to the lower permissible boundary, the red color becomes brighter for all males of the flock, while with increasing brightness, only the alpha remains. The aquarium needed for this variety should be at least 150 liters. Fresh water is needed, medium hardness, with a temperature of 22 ° -25 ° C, inactive.

• Iris Popondetta (Wilder-Tailed Blue Eye) looks like an albino with big blue eyes. The body of the fish is translucent with yellow fins. Abdomen of a color of ripe raspberry. In its natural environment, it is endemic to the eastern tip of the island of New Guinea. Small fish - only 40-60 mm long. Prefers fresh, hard waters with a slightly alkaline reaction. Water temperature in the range of 24 ° -28 ° C. The volume of the aquarium for a flock of 8-10 individuals needs at least 60 liters. The movement of water should be weak.

The whole variety of iris is unpretentious in content. For a comfortable stay, a flock of iris from a minimum of 6 individuals requires a fairly spacious aquarium, as the fish are very mobile. Best use capacity containers from 100 to 150 liters. To protect against accidental jumping, the aquarium needs to be covered.

The soil is better to use a dark, plain. The light must be diffused.

Plants for iris are better to choose with hard leaves. Anubias, Echinodorus or Lagenander Meebold are suitable so that the fish can not eat them. There may be a lot of greenery at the bottom and on the surface, but it is better to arrange it in groups, leaving open areas of water.

Mostly iris live in a sedentary aquatic environment, therefore you need to choose equipment for the aquarium, focusing on this fact.

In the diet, melanotenia is unpretentious, they can eat almost everything. Any dry, live or frozen food is suitable for them. With pleasure, the fish absorb the soft leaves of aquatic plants. When feeding is best mix different types of food to give fish a choice. With such a variety of rainbows reveal their most beautiful colors.

Caring for the iris is easy. All care is in timely feeding and purification of water.

Iris - small-loving, schooling fish. They easily get along with any non-aggressive fish that are similar in temperament and size to them. They can coexist next to the scalars, provided that they have grown together, but the juveniles in this case are guaranteed to suffer.

Melanotenia well side by side with zebrafish, barbs, guppies, swordsmen, mollies, and other species of pecillia that prefer hard water.

Bottom calm fish, for example, catfish corridors, bots and ancytruses will occupy the empty lower zone of the aquarium, since the iris prefer the upper layers of the aquarium for life.

For slow-moving fish, the iris will be inconvenient because of its mobility. The iris does not get along with cichlids, goldfish and catfish.

The iris is an absolutely non-capricious fish, therefore, it can spawn in a separate spawning and in a common aquarium.

The most favorable conditions for stimulating reproduction are as follows:

• frequent replacement of part of the water;
• quite a sharp increase in temperature by a couple of degrees;
• medium hard water;
• pH is neutral or slightly alkaline;
• enhanced nutrition for future parents.

After mating, the female swallows eggs collected in tapes with adhesive thread. The total number of eggs is up to 600 pieces within 2-3 days. Spawning can continue longer, but not so actively. Ribbons of caviar settle on the leaves of aquatic plants.

Caviar is transferred to an incubator, where the water level is 15 cm, and its composition does not differ from spawning grounds. Remove dead eggs that differ from live eggs in white. After 5-7 days, larvae hatch from the fertilized eggs, which become fry within 2 days.

Juveniles are fed with infusoria and liquid fodder for fry until they grow up to the ability to consume microscopic worms, brine shrimp, tubule, egg yolk and very small granular compound feed.

After 1.5-2 months, the fry become adult in color and are ready for breeding by 7–9 months.

On the contents of the iris see below.