Breeding chili rasbora presents some challenges.
These tiny fish spawn just a few treasured eggs at a time in overgrown tanks, taxing your observation skills.
The sensitive fry that follow barely cling to life.
Yet with some care, you can get them to a thriving school of young rasboras.
Providing the Ideal Planted Tank Habitat
Chili rasboras hail from shallow, overgrown pools in peat swamps and blackwater streams.
Recreate the heavily tannin-stained, gently flowing waters they thrive in by starting with a small, densely planted tank.
An aquarium decorated with floating plants, mosses, leaves, and branches suits them perfectly.

Use rainwater or reverse osmosis water mixed with tap water to achieve an acidic pH between 5 to 5.6.
If you can get your hands on some Indian almond leaves, put them in the tank as they release beneficial tannins.
Maintain water temperatures around 27 degrees Celsius and use simple air-powered sponge filtration to avoid strong currents.
Proper conditioning prepares the adults for spawning while ample vegetation protects any resulting fry.
Preparing Adults for Successful Spawning
While tiny, chili rasboras eagerly accept a variety of foods, including freshly hatched baby brine shrimp.
Feed them high-quality preparations several times daily for at least a week before attempting to breed them.
Groups of 6 to 8 fish with a male-to-female ratio of at least 1:2 work well, allowing dominant males to entice females during their characteristic early morning spawning embrace.
The fish scatter just a few eggs at a time, each no more than a millimeter in diameter, among the moss and leaves.
Watch the tank closely after daybreak when spawning typically occurs to have any chance of detecting these elusive events.
Collecting and Hatching the Rare Eggs
A bit of patience goes a long way to catch female chili rasboras depositing their tiny eggs.
Using a magnifying glass you can effectively spot the nearly transparent pearl-like eggs clinging to aquatic vegetation.
If left with the adults, the eggs rarely survive, so gently remove them by any means. I found turkey basters very useful for collecting eggs.
Move eggs to a mesh breeder box or separate nursery tank, providing moss or floating plants.
The eggs will hatch one by one over a couple of days.
Successful hatchlings wiggle free as tiny comma-shaped larvae no more than 3 millimeters long, vulnerable to even minor water quality issues.
Raising the Sensitive Fry
The microscopic fry initially feeds on infusoria and requires frequent feedings of specially cultured foods like paramecium or crushed high-protein powdered preparations.
Even newly hatched brine shrimp nauplii prove too large for the delicate chili rasbora babies to handle at first.
Growth remains painfully slow, demanding pristine conditions.
Survival rates increase in tanks stuffed full of mosses and floating plants for the fry to hide within.
Despite the difficulty in raising the offsprinn, you can sustain young chili rasbora scho with dedicationols.
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