sapphire
Sapphire fish, scientific name fire-lipped soft seabream, is a freshwater fish in the order Perch, cichlid family, and soft seabream. Found in the tanzanian waters of Lake Malawi, sapphires are beautifully colored and can be used as ornamental fish. Sapphire fish are 15 to 20 cm long, flattened on the sides of the body in an oval shape, with a triangular head and a slightly thicker snout. The dorsal fin is elongated, and a dozen hard spines in front are arranged horizontally, shorter, and the posterior soft spines are fewer but higher. The fin is one, short, opposite the posterior part of the dorsal fin, with several stiff spines in front of it, and the ventral fin on the thorax.
Physically strong, easy to raise, not strict on water quality requirements, prefer weakly acidic or neutral water. The body is spindle-shaped, slightly flattened on the sides, with a fan-shaped tail fin and a straight posterior margin. The head is long, the body color is light gray blue, the body side is slightly yellow, the abdomen is slightly blue yellow, the juvenile fish has a horizontal stripe pattern, and when mature, the whole body is covered with neat light blue spots, especially its head, which sparkles in the light, which is very beautiful. Males and females are not difficult to distinguish, the male fish dorsal fin, fin is longer, the end is pointed, the female is sexually mature when the abdomen is more inflated.
Sapphire fish is 12 to 15 cm long, like a jewel in the sun. Feeding is relatively easy, and the water temperature and water quality requirements are not high. The difference between the female and male fish is obvious, the male fish has a bright body color, and the female fish has a light body color. The breeding water temperature is 27 ~ 28 °C, and the water quality is neutral. When breeding, the bottom sand should be laid in the breeding box and the tiles should be used as the nest. After the eggs are fertilized, the broodstock are about to be contained in the population. Hatches hatch in 2 to 3 days, the juveniles remain in the mouth of the broodstock, swim out of the broodstock mouth for feeding after about 7 days, reach sexual maturity in 12 months, and can breed multiple times a year.
Sapphire fish are lively and agile, and especially like to follow the sand fish and steal food from others. Suitable water environment pH 7.5-8.5, hardness dH10–20, water temperature 23 °C -26 °C. Feed can be fed live erbium such as worms or artificial feeds with high protein content. Sapphire fish in the breeding period should also pay attention to the nutritional balance of the feed, and cannot feed animal bait alone, which is easy to cause picky eating of sapphire fish. Sapphire fish hatch in 2 to 3 days, and the juveniles remain in the mouth of the broodstock, and swim out of the broodstock mouth for feeding after about 7 days.
The amount of bait for sapphire fish should be determined according to the size and number of fish. Families raise sapphire fish, generally only need to be baited 1-2 times a day, and the amount of bait should be eaten within 5-10 minutes. When raising sapphire fish in large quantities, bait is required 2-3 times a day; breeding fish during breeding periods are usually fed 3 to 4 times a day. Due to the small size of sapphire fish and the limited amount of food, it is advisable to feed 7-8% per bait, and increasing the number of baits to promote the rapid growth of turtles. Most species of sapphire fish, whose bait is mainly turtles and insects. When the bait is mainly insects, the amount of bait is controlled to be eaten within lO-30 minutes.