Charles Grima Malta Fish and Art | It is nice to be important but more important to be nice

Galaxy Rasbora Microrasbora sp. Galaxy
A Breeding Project - A success in the Maltese Islands. First time Bred here in Malta

25th February 2007 my friend Mr. Martin Vassallo gave me three females and two males, I housed them in two different aquarium males by their own and females by their own females aquarium 24degrees and the males 22 degrees at around 15.00hrs I gave the fish some mosquito larva

26th February 6.00am checked temperature of both aquariums males 20 degrees females 25 degrees ,feeding crushed tropical gran, crushed earth worm sticks and live mosquito larva

27th February 7.00am checked temperature of both aquariums female 20 degrees males 20 degrees, decided to lower female temperature because they where showing stress with higher temperature, feeding today was encapsulated brine shrimps imported from Tim Addis. Began to prepare spawning tank (supplied by Jason Pisani) as I used to breed the danios and other egg scattereres

27th February 11.00am fitted filter and heater and fed encapsulated brine shrimps second time, close inspection of specimen, females getting rounder, males swimming round the java moss supplied by Jonathon Theuma.5.00pm changed filter to sponge type and fed fish on spirulina powder .Heater adjusted to 25 degrees.

6.15pm introduced in the set up tank 2 males and one female will check what happened in the early morning. At around 6.30pm I went to inspect the situation and lucky to me I found out that the males where trying to escape from the breeding trap so you can imagine me removing them from the holes (when I am used to handle Koi ) but the operation was a successful one, replacing the trap with java moss.

28th February 6.00am all fish are fine swimming in the java moss feeding spirulina encapsulated brine shrimps ,temperature 24 degrees ,at 3.00pm gave them some mosquito larva.(newly hatched larva )

1st March 2007 6.00am this morning I found out that the males turned bright colors, made a small water change and fed them mosquito larva and granulated spirulina.

At 2.15pm I went to check the fish and to my amassment I found some eggs, this is the first time ever in Malta, removed parents to other tank, now let us wait and see if they hatch or not?

This evening two of my friends Jason and Martin came to see the eggs and I wished you could see their face. On close inspection we could see some fungused eggs and noticed that the eggs where of a significant size for such a small fish.

2nd March 6.00am went to inspect and photo the eggs and fish, camera used Canon Power Shot A100,I wished I had a better camera for the job, but it did her work as you can see from the photos .All photos where adjusted with Corel draw auto adjustment ,thanks to this program these are the results.

This morning I was given a micro worm culture by Mr. Charles Zammit and prepared the culture with all bran.

Well friends I would like to dedicate this breeding program to all the fish breeders and keepers in Malta and I dont want to forget the importer who got them to Malta. I will keep you updated as soon as any progress is done

It is nice to be important but more important to be nice.
Charles Grima

For more information and photos visit www.maltaaquarist.com

Galaxy the day after

Well done Charles. Once the fry have absorbed the yolk sac I recommend you use Java Moss, maybe from the parents tanks. This plant holds a huge amount of infusorians & is a good food source for the young fry.

We had the Galaxy in the UK some months ago. We were due to breed them but a friend housed them with a pair of Apistogramma, being short of tank space. The Apistogramma decided to spawn & the male of course killed all in his path to defend the young.

Conservation is very important. The Aphanius on Malta is currently a hot item in the world of Ichthyology. I understand work is being undertaken to raise the issue with the Maltese Government. This is a great step forward.

All the best... Tim (UK)

Well Charles, glad to see, a real breeder at work, and well done, its times like this that I wish I could have kept my breeding programmes going, but that was not to be, again Charles well done, regards,

All the best John Snow

Hi Charles

Good to hear from you.

Wish I was nearer as I would like some of these Galaxy Rasboras

John Exton (UK)

PROSIT HAFNA CHARLES!!!!!! :D A GOOD NAME FOR THE SOCIETY FOR SURE!

John Caruana

Hey!!! Well done mate!!! Congratulations. Cant wait to see the fry.
This is a great step towards conservation of the species. Hope
you'll be able to supply the local market.

Keep us updated.

Ray Caruana

Hello Charles

Thank you very much indeed for taking the time to produce a breeding report on these fish. We will definitely publish it on the site especially given the precarious situation these fish currently face in the wild.

The additional information I would like at some stage is how many eggs were produced and the hatch rate and of course how many you manage to bring on. It will also be interesting to see how quickly you can get these fish to spawn again. Can you also let me know the pH of your water?

Anyway many thanks again and I look forward to the update.

With kind regards

Andrew Collins

Dear Martin,

Thank you for very much for the information and we are really glad for this email. Well done!! For the good news and more to us to fill with courage and keep us searching for the rare species in next coming shipments. We also success with the sea horses (hippocampus reidi) that we brought to Ray Carauna . We are trying to receiving some new rare species in pairs; we will inform you upon its arrived.

Thank you and keep it up!!

Regards

Robert and Charmaine