Orizias latipes

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With this fish I started backwards from my normal breeding. Usually one starts out with a pair of fish, spawns them, and raises the young. Not this time.

This time I got a vial filled almost completely to the top with tiny eggs at a BAY AREA KILLIFISH ASSOCIATION meeting on February 26th, 1993. I thought I was crazy bringing a vial of eggs home that I knew nothing about. Oh well, I thought to myself I might as well find out what they would look like. None of my books have this species.

Out of this vial I collected 70 fry! I had placed a net in a 20-gallon tank and as the fry hatched I released them into the 20 gallon. The fry were able to eat newly hatched brine shrimp when free swimming and all stayed at the surface.

On March 6th (two weeks later), the fry had tripled in size and were able to eat ground flakes. On March 15th the fry were 1/2" long and occupying all levels of the aquarium.

On April 15th I had placed the fry in a 2' x 2' x 1' glass rearing tank containing a sponge filter for filtration, a heater to keep the tank at 76° F. There were also some Guppies, Platies, and Swordtails in the tank. Definitely a colorful mix.

The Rice fish stayed a creamy white.

On may 1st as I was getting ready to feed flakes to the flat holding the Rice fish one of the fish caught my eye. I thought at first that the fish had some disease. I went for a net to take a closer look but I couldn’t find it in all those fish. I put some of their water into a "Pal Pen" plastic container and caught at least 20 of the Rice fish. Now a yellowish tint. I still didn’t find the one I was looking for but I figured I might as well take a closer look at the other fish. Some were quite swollen and I figured those had to be the females. While looking at the fish I did figure out how to sex the fish. The males had more yellow in their fins and the fins were more pointed. From the top I couldn’t see any difference, only from the side.

Well, I didn’t find what I was looking for and released them back into their tank.

The next day as I was preparing to feed this tank I noticed a lot of the fish had these growths that I had seen previously! I thought to myself that I had just wiped out my whole tank and I did not have the slightest idea of how. The net was close at hand this time and after I set up the container I scooped about another 20 Rice fish. I’ll be darned!!

Those weren’t growths on the females belly area - they were eggs! Not a disease!

I was completely shocked. I had never seen anything like this before. As I continued to watch the fish in my little prison the females didn’t appear to be bothered by the eggs clinging to their bodies.

Apparently the plump females I saw the day before were actually full of eggs and it is also surprising that so many females had spawned at the same time!

Five days later I noticed the females once again had another batch of eggs attached to their body. The other occupants didn’t appear to bother these egg carrying females. The eggs hatched in 10 days.

This may be one of the Rice fish’s way of protecting their soon to be replicas from being eaten too early. This might give them a chance to survive in the wild.

They grow to 1 1/3". Not large at all and they grow quickly. Can be kept with similar sized fish with mild temperaments.

My pH is 7.2 and is slightly alkaline. I do 50% water changes twice a week. I keep the water at 76° F.

The data I did collect on the Rice fish says they are difficult to breed (yea, right!), and that they prefer 64 - 75° F. These little jewels are doing great even when my water temperature reaches 80°F. They do prefer to stay in groups so it would be best to keep at least six or more together.

If you are interested in a different spawning type of fish try these Japanese Rice Fish. They don’t eat their eggs or fry.

I may have begun this project a little backwards but it’s come full circle.

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